How to Rotate Videos in iMovie: Flip, Turn, and Mirror Easily

Few things are more frustrating as a video viewer than a film that’s playing in the wrong orientation. If you’ve ever found yourself turning your phone round, wondering why the clip you’re watching keeps rotating away from you, then you know the pain.

Avoiding this is crucial. Fortunately, turning, flipping, and mirroring videos in iMovie is straightforward. Anyone can do it, even a beginner. All you need is your clip or video footage, an iPhone or Mac with iMovie installed, and a few minutes. 

• Ensuring your video clips are properly oriented is crucial for a good viewing experience.

• Make sure your videos are oriented based on how they will be viewed. Vertical video, for example, is ideal for being viewed on mobile social media.

• Flipping and mirroring can be used to add special effects, fix errors, and more.

For those of you with a Mac, you might find iMovie already installed. To look for it, navigate to the Applications folder in Finder. Or press Command + Spacebar to bring up the search function and type in iMovie.

If you don’t find it, or have a mobile device, don’t worry. Installing iMovie is quick, simple, and free.

Here are the steps to follow:

1. Go to the App Store and search for iMovie.

2. Download and install the app.

3. Open your iMovie app and create a new iMovie project.

4. Import the video clip(s) you want to edit.

Now you’re ready to get flipping, turning, and mirroring!

So, you have iMovie installed and a project set up. Your video clips are ready to be turned around. 

You might be worried about messing up your movie. But don’t worry, you can rotate a video in iMovie while preserving the aspect ratio. The video shouldn’t be changed in any way, beyond being rotated.

Here’s how:

1. Follow the steps above to launch iMovie and start a new project.

2. Import your footage. You can drag and drop files from Finder or open the Import window.

3. Drag the clip you want to rotate onto your timeline. Click it to make it ready for editing.

4. Click the Crop button to activate the crop tool. This button looks like a square with intersecting corners. It’s the same appearance as the Crop button in other editing programs.

5. Rotate your clip by clicking the white circular arrow buttons that appear. Each click should rotate your clip by 90 degrees.

6. Once you’re satisfied, click the checkmark to save your changes.

• You use the Crop tool to rotate video clips in iMovie.

• The aspect ratio of your clips should be preserved.

• Make sure to select a clip before rotating and click the checkmark to save your edit.

If you thought that process was straightforward, hold on to your socks. The mobile versions of iMovie are optimized for touch gestures. Can you guess what that means for rotating?

That’s right. All you need to do is twist your thumb and finger in the direction you want to rotate your clip.

Here’s the breakdown:

1. Open your iMovie app and create a new project.

2. Tap the plus button. Import the clip you want to edit.

3. Once your clip has appeared in your timeline, tap it to select it and ready it for editing.

4. Put two fingers on your mobile device’s screen. Twist them in the direction you wish to rotate your clip. It should rotate 90 degrees in that direction. For example, if you want the clip to rotate to the right, or clockwise, twist your fingers in that direction.

5. This might cause black bars to appear in the newly created empty space. To remove these, use the Crop tool.

6. When you’re satisfied, tap Done.

If black bars appear when you’re previewing your edited clip, that might be a sign your aspect ratio is off. Check whether the aspect ratio of your project, which is defined in the project settings, is the same as the aspect ratio of the clip.

Sometimes rotating just isn’t enough to achieve what you need to. If you’ve rotated your video a full 360 degrees and still aren’t happy, you might actually need to try flipping it. 

You might wonder what the difference is between flipping and rotating 180 degrees. It might be helpful to think of rotating as physically moving the enter frame, while flipping is like viewing the frame in a mirror.

Why is this useful? Well, you might have recorded footage of something in a mirror. The text might be reversed. Flipping the video would make the text readable. 

Here are the steps you need to take:

1. Open iMovie and create a new project.

2. Import your clip, drag it onto the timeline, and click it to select it.

3. Click the Clip Filter & Audio Effects button. The icon is three overlapping circles.

4. You should see a list of clip filter options. Choose Flipped.

5. Check the effect is what you want. Then apply the changes to save your edit.

Remember, flipping a video will mirror the content.

Unfortunately, iMovie doesn’t have a dedicated mirror tool. Fortunately, mirroring is essentially the same as flipping. 

By following the steps above, you can mirror your video clips.

But what if you want to mirror your clip along the vertical axis? There’s a workaround that might help.

To mirror video in iMovie along the vertical axis, you first need to rotate it 90 degrees. Follow the above steps to rotate a video.

After you’ve rotated your video, follow the steps to flip it. Then you can rotate it back to the proper orientation. This will have mirrored the video vertically.

Rotating, flipping, and mirroring are great for fixing problems with your videos. You can make reversed text readable, optimize content for social media, and more, all with these simple, built-in tools.

But what if you want to go beyond mere fixes? Rotating, flipping, and mirroring can all be used in creative ways. With the right application, you could make something truly special.

One classic use of mirroring is to give the impression of a dream or trance. By mirroring certain scenes or clips, you can demonstrate to the audience that your characters aren’t in their usual environment.

Meanwhile, rotation is a great tool for making unique transitions. Spice up the transition between two clips with some carefully applied rotation to each one.

You can also mirror or rotate specific elements within your project. For example, you might mirror some text while leaving the video underneath normal. Or perhaps you want to add text to a shot of a mirror and need to reverse it to match. 

Rotating, flipping and mirroring are fairly simple edits. But that doesn’t mean problems won’t arise. 

Let’s cover several of the most frequently encountered technical issues and what to do about them.

Mastering these three simple edits is straightforward but crucial for any would-be video editor. By learning how to rotate videos in iMovie, you’ll be able to fix orientation problems and let your creativity run wild. And the same goes for flipping videos in iMovie.