Regit is the author of Edit Like a Pro with iMovie; we got the chance to sit down and find out more about his experience of writing with Packt.
Q: What is the name of your book?
Regit: Edit Like a Pro with iMovie
Q: What are your specialist tech areas?
Regit: Video editing
Q: How did you become an author for Packt? Tell us about your journey. What was your motivation for writing this book?
Regit: I hover around the r/iMovie forum on Reddit to answer people’s iMovie questions. One day I saw a post asking if anyone wanted to write an iMovie book. I didn’t think it was anything official, but I thought it would be useful anyway to write a book that focuses on squeezing the most out of iMovie, beyond basic editing skills. Turns out, of course, it was quite the official invitation!
Q: What kind of research did you do, and how long did you spend researching before beginning the book?
Regit: I subscribe to the wisdom of the ‘vomit draft’: you should start by writing something – however rubbish – so that you don’t fret and procrastinate over having nothing. For that reason, I didn’t do my research beforehand. I wrote first, then complemented the writing with research. If something I’ve written turns out to be inaccurate based on the research I do, it’s no big deal – I can just delete it! In this case, most of the research was trying out the steps I was writing about, in iMovie. For the final chapter I had a list of common problems with iMovie assembled from my personal experiences using the app, and from reading posts on r/iMovie.
Q: Did you face any challenges during the writing process? How did you overcome them?
Regit: There were a few times when things I thought I knew about iMovie turned out not to be true (a useful learning experience), but fortunately that didn’t invalidate the point of any of the chapters. Luckily, it was just a case of re-drafting, adding, and taking away some short sections.
Q: What’s your take on the technologies discussed in the book? Where do you see these technologies heading in the future?
Regit: I imagine iMovie is going to move closer to the ‘automatic’ style of editing discussed in Chapter 2 of the book. The appeal of using AI for quick and easy video creation may well overtake the desire to create something genuinely unique. But making editing easier is also the attitude that brought us non-linear, computer-based editing! So I’ll never begrudge accessibility – I just hope that such features complement, rather than replace, the more hands-on features of iMovie.
Q: Why should readers choose this book over others already on the market? How would you differentiate your book from its competition?
Regit: You shouldn’t, not if you don’t want to. I’m not in the business of telling you what you should buy or should read. As for what makes this book different? It builds up your understanding of the purpose behind editing because technical knowledge is only half the battle.
Q: What are the key takeaways you want readers to come away with from the book?
Regit: You don’t need to pay for editing software to make a good video: you just need to be creative. If you can apply this way of thinking to other walks of life, all the better!
Q. What advice would you give to readers jumping into this technology? Do you have any top tips?
Regit: Try things out. Get yourself a blank canvas, try every tool, and change every setting one by one: see what happens. Not only does it help you learn the software, but you’ve also tuned the preferences to fit your way of working.
Q. Do you have a blog that readers can follow?
Regit: No, don’t encourage me to do that while I manage nary one video a year!
Q: Can you share any blogs, websites, and forums to help readers gain a holistic view of the tech they are learning? What are the key takeaways you want readers to come away with from the book?
Regit: YouTube: there are loads of tutorials on there. For written answers, Apple’s iMovie user guide is regularly updated and explains processes in close detail. If you can’t find a solution, users on r/iMovie and Apple’s iMovie forums offer solid advice. But nothing can beat videos for intuitiveness: I’m putting together a playlist of useful iMovie tutorials from across YouTube – well worth bookmarking when it’s public!
Q. How would you describe your author’s journey with Packt? Would you recommend Packt to aspiring authors?
Regit: Yes, definitely. Apart from having the excellent character to let me write a book based on my belief that I could do a good job (I hope that’s worked out, by the way!), Packt has been very accommodating of all my requests. It’s been an enjoyable and largely stress-free process.
Q. Do you belong to any tech community groups?
Regit: Apart from r/iMovie, not particularly! I think that Apple might have shadow-banned my iMovie forum account.
Q. What are your favorite tech journals? How do you keep yourself up to date on tech?
Regit: I’m not a tech writer by training, so the journal articles I read are actually all about Film and TV. I like to drop in now and then on tech YouTube and the MacPowerUsers podcast. I don’t take a great interest in new tech though; I much prefer making the most of what I have. It’s more sustainable that way!
Q. How did you organize, plan, and prioritize your work and write the book?
Regit: I’ve always considered myself the least productive person I know, so I’m not sure! Luckily, the writing period for this book fit perfectly between finishing an undergraduate and starting a postgraduate course, so I was able to dedicate all my time to writing it. ‘Able to’ is the operative phrase here though – I was often spurred into frenzied writing activity by impending deadlines. This reminds me of something my Media Studies teacher said: people will spread their work to fit whatever deadlines they’re given.
Q. What is that one writing tip that you found most crucial and would like to share with aspiring authors?
Regit: Writing is a confidence game. At whatever level, for whatever audience, your writing must convince your reader that it’s worth reading. If you don’t have confidence in your own writing, there’s no chance of achieving that.
Q. Would you like to share your social handles? If so, please share.
Regit: Thank you very much, all roads lead to @RegitYouTuber on YouTube.
You can find Regit’s book on Amazon by following this link: Please Click Here
