Using Quicktime Pro for Time Lapse and Slow Motion effects

iMovie 08 unfortunately is lacking a few essential editing functions, like slowing down or speeding up video. However, Quicktime Pro can help with that. I originally found this method here.

The Add to Selection & Scale command will paste the current clipboard contents into the current movie, but will scale the video both spacially and temporally. So in order to slow down or speed up a seqence, you do this:

1. Open the clip you want to work with in Quicktime Pro. Use iMovie 08's Show in Finder command to locate the clip you're interested in.
2. Select the part of the clip that you want to work with, and copy it. If you're only interested in the video, use the Show Movie Properties command and Extract the video track.
3. Create a new movie with the image dimensions and the desired length. You can use any dummy material you'd like for this, including the original clip.
4. Use Add to Selection & Scale command to add the original clip to the new movie. The video will be stretched out or compressed to fill the length of the new movie.
5. Save the movie or export it. When doing time-lapse, exporting is particularly useful, as the the rendering down to the desired number of frames will be done only once.