How to Make Highlight Videos Using the Sports Editor in IMovie

As a coach of a high school team, I like to make the experience more special for the student athletes by creating highlight videos of each game that also include player interviews. These videos are roughly 1-2 minutes in length, and use iMovie in conjunction with Google Forms and Text Edit to input your entire team's information into the iMovie's Sports Editor. Let's get started!

Here is a link to our webpage which has all our highlight videos.

*Note: This was done using Apple products. That's what is available to us, so that's what we used*

Step 1: Collect Player Information

There are many ways to do this, but for me the easiest method is to create a Google Form. In the form collect the Players Number, Player's Name, Position, Age or Year in school, Height, and Weight. Do this by selecting the 'Text' option for each form field. Be sure to click the checkbox requiring the question be answered. You do not want blank fields. Add fields for Players Number, Player's Name, Position, Age or Year in school, Height, and Weight. When your form is complete, click send and then copy the link in the popup box. Send the link to your players so they can access the form.

Step 2: Create IMovie Readable File From Player Info

After each player fills out the form, the information will be gathered in a Google Spreadsheet. Open the spreadsheet, it will have the same title as your form with the word 'Responses' added, and select/highlight all the boxes with text. While the boxes are highlighted, use Command C to copy the information. Next, on open TextEdit, select New Document, and use Command V to paste the info into the document. Save the document to your computer.

Step 3: Player Photos

Additionally, you want to have a player photo of each player. We have a photo studio at school with a white background, which gives a nice professional look. Players wore their jerseys in the photo for continuity. The photos, taken with a digital camera, were then transferred to iPhoto. You can do this by inserting the memory card from the camera into your computer and save the images. Next, open iPhoto, select Import, and choose all the player photos on your desktop. You can also create a special folder in iPhoto for your images.

Step 4: Add Player Info to IMovie

Open iMovie. Choose the Window dropdown menu at the top and select Sports Team Editor. You will need to create a team. Click on the '+' sign under Teams and fill in the information about your team (Season, Team Name, and type of sport). You can also add a team logo by selecting the '+' to the right of the Team area.

Once you have the team in the editor you can now add players. Highlight your team name and then click on 'Import Player List...' at the bottom of the Player area. Select the file you created in TextEdit and click 'Open'. Your players with their appropriate info should be displayed in the player area. Next, you can add a photo of each. Highlight a player and then click on the '+' sign in the photo box next to the Player area. Select the photo of that player from iPhoto. Do this for each player.

Congrats! You have now successfully added all the information for your players, including a photo, into the Team Editor. This will make creating great looking videos very easy.

Step 5: Importing Video

You will need somebody to take video of your games so that the footage can be imported to iMovie. Our team used a digital SLR camera with a 32G memory card. It was able to cover 1.5 hours of game time, which was plenty for needs.

To import the footage into iMovie, simply open iMovie and then insert your memory card into your computer. iMovie will prompt you to import all the clips on the memory card. Select the clips you want to import, and hit import. Depending on how much film you have, this could take a little while. Be patient. You will be notified when the import is finished and you can remove your memory card.

Step 6: Interviews

In addition to game highlights, we also use player postgame interviews in our videos. In order to make them look as professional as possible, we created a backdrop for our players, but this is not necessary. We simply recorded the player interviews using our phones cameras. Use whatever method your device requires to get the video off and onto your computer. We used an iPhone 5S, and simply plugged it into our computer to download the video to iPhoto. iMovie has an iPhoto tab so you can access photos are videos stored there. Our player interviews lasted between 20-30 seconds.

Step 7: Creating a Sports Theme

You are now ready to make your movie. Open iMovie and select New, then Movie. A popup screen will appear with various themes. Choose the Sports Theme.

Now you can begin dragging footage into your movie. You can select part of clip by highlighting it and then clicking the '+' sign to drop it into the editor. The first clip you drop into the editor will automatically take on some Sports Theme content such as Transitions or Titles. Delete them. You will be prompted when attempting to delete them if you'd like to 'Turn Off Automatic Content', select that option. You will add your own content.

Get all of your footage in the editor, including player interviews.

We tended to overlay highlights on top of player interviews, this allows a highlight to be played on the screen, but you can still here the player interview. You can do this by dragging a clip on top of a player interview clip.

Next, add you can add Titles. Titles popup over your video, and include scorelines, player info, and other information. For each player interview, drag a 'Player Stats' title on top of the clip. You may have to double click on the bar that appears, and then select the appropriate player in the dropdown menu on the View Screen.

During the highlight film, drag a 'Score' title on top. There you can add the score of the game. If you create your opponents in the Sports Team Editor with an image of their logo, it will also appear in the Score title (You do not need to add players for your opponents teams).

Play around the the different Titles and Transitions. We usually end with a title, which is basically a black screen that gives information about future games.

Step 8: Share

Now it's time to share your work. On the top right of iMovie is a box with an arrow that represents the 'Share' button. Click on it. You are provided with various ways to share your video. We use Vimeo, mostly because we have a Pro account, which allows us to export a lot of high quality video quickly. If you use something like Vimeo of Facebook, you will be prompted to enter you account information. You will only have to do this once. Click publish and sit back until iMovie informs you that your movie has been shared.

We want the experience of high school athletics to be very special for our students, which is why we take the time to create highlight videos after each game. Thanks for reading this instructable, and please feel free to ask questions in the comments.