Adjust Cinematic mode video clips in iMovie on Mac
When you record video in Cinematic mode on your iPhone, the Camera app creates automatic focus points for faces, animals, and objects that it recognizes. You can also tap objects while recording to create your own focus points. In iMovie, focus points created automatically by the Camera app appear as white dots; those you add manually appear as yellow dots with a ring around them. For information on recording in Cinematic mode, see Take videos with your iPhone camera in the iPhone User Guide.
If you’re using macOS Monterey 12 or later and you import a Cinematic mode video clip from your Photos library or the Import window, you can use iMovie to adjust the depth of field of the clip, add or remove focus points, and change the object or area in focus.
Enable Cinematic mode adjustments
Adjust depth of field in Cinematic mode video clips
In the iMovie app
on your Mac, select the Depth of Field checkbox.
If the Depth of Field checkbox doesn’t appear, click the Cinematic button
above the viewer.Drag the slider to adjust the depth of field of the Cinematic effect.
A shallower depth of field increases the Cinematic effect, and a deeper depth of field reduces the effect.
Add a focus point in the Cinematic Editor
In the iMovie app
on your Mac, Control-click a Cinematic clip in the timeline and choose Show Cinematic Editor from the shortcut menu (or press Option-Command-F).Scroll the timeline so that the playhead appears where you want to add a focus point.
In the viewer, yellow brackets show the tracked object currently in focus. White rectangles indicate additional recognized objects that aren’t currently in focus.
Click a tracked object (such as a face, person, or animal) in the viewer.
A manual (yellow) focus point is added to the Cinematic Editor at the point where you clicked, with the focus on the clicked object.
Lock the focus on a tracked object
When you record in Cinematic mode on iPhone, the Camera app automatically focuses on the object you’re most likely to want in focus. However, you can lock the focus on any tracked object, so that as the objects in the clip move, the focus remains on your selected object. You do this by using AF Tracking Lock.
In the iMovie app
on your Mac, Control-click a Cinematic clip in the timeline and choose Show Cinematic Editor from the shortcut menu (or press Option-Command-F).Do one of the following:
Lock the focus on the object currently in focus: Click the object in the viewer with yellow brackets around it.
Lock the focus on an object not currently in focus: Click the object in the viewer so that yellow brackets surround the object, then click the object again.
The yellow brackets surrounding the focused object change to a solid yellow box, indicating that AF Tracking Lock is on. The focus will remain on the object until the next manual focus point or the end of the clip.
Lock the focus on any point in your video
You can lock the focus on any point in your video, not just a tracked object. This is called AF Lock. For example, you may want to lock the focus on a specific area in your video that is in the middle distance (called the middle ground), so that a blurred subject in the background comes into focus as it moves into the middle ground, and then becomes blurry again as it moves toward the camera (called the foreground).
In the iMovie app
on your Mac, Control-click a Cinematic clip in the timeline and choose Show Cinematic Editor from the shortcut menu (or press Option-Command-F).In the viewer, click any object or area not being tracked.
In the viewer, a small yellow square with tick marks indicates that AF Lock is on, and a manual (yellow) focus point is created in the Cinematic Editor. The focus remains on the object or area you selected until the next manual focus point or the end of the clip.
Remove a manual (yellow) focus point
In the iMovie app
on your Mac, Control-click a Cinematic clip in the timeline and choose Show Cinematic Editor from the shortcut menu (or press Option-Command-F).Click a yellow focus point in the Cinematic Editor, and then click Delete Focus Point.
Note: If you change the clip speed of a Cinematic clip, you can no longer edit its focus points. However, you can still change its depth of field.