Best approach to making Documentary in iM 6

Question

I am making a Documentary of my Parents life. I have around 5 hours of DV tape of them sitting on a couch and talking. Not terribly exciting to watch, so I want to import scanned photos (stills) using the audio as a bed for the still. It seems to be very cumbersome and slow to extract audio, then dump the video, import the still, apply Ken Burns, get the audio and still in sincronization . . . .
And then the audio gets out of sinc with each subsequent edit.
My question is, what is the best process? Should I extract all the audio first, then splice in the photos? I am sure this can be done better with FCx or FCp, but I don't have these programs and want to stay with iM6.
Jerry

Answer 1

Extract all the audio first.
It may take quite a while (..the latest iMovie does the job differently from earlier versions..) so go and have a few cups of coffee while it's all extracting ..or a meal, or watch a film!
When it's all extracted, you'll have your "audio bed" below the video, and in sync with it.
[NOTE: 'Extracting' simply silences the original clip(s), and copies the audio onto the track below. So you can always "re-instate" the original audio, back into the video clip(s), just by raising the audio level of the relevant clip(s) from zero to 100%.]
When you use transitions, though, to dissolve the "talking heads" into a still photo, or something else, the entire video is shortened by the same duration as the transition you're using (except for the 'Overlap' transition).
This means that whenever you use a transition - instead of a straight cut - to change between the "talking heads" and a still photo, the video will become OUT OF SYNC with the separate audio track.
So just before and after any transition, you may want to split the relevant audio clip(s), so that after adding your transition you can jiggle the audio along the audio track to reposition it in sync with the video.
Here's a simple diagram:
..and you can see it in more detail if you choose 'Start Slideshow' after clicking on this link.
Note that there's an easy method in iMovie to paste a still over (..and remove..) unwanted video: click on iMovie HD and Preferences, and tick the box marked 'Extract audio when using "Paste Over At Playhead"'. Then import your photo from iPhoto (..using Ken Burns or not ..whatever you prefer). The photo will appear at your playhead position, or at the end of the movie.
If it's at the end of the movie, select it and use Apple+'X' to copy-&-cut it, then put your playhead where you want the pic to be and on the top-line menu use 'Advanced' and 'Paste Over at Playhead' ..or just the shortcut ShiftApple'V' to Insert at that point.
That substitutes your photo for the original video, but leaves the audio intact, instead of your rather long-winded "..extract audio, then dump the video, import the still, apply Ken Burns, get the audio and still in sincronization.."
Do your video in small chunks, so that you're not ceaselessly jumping through huge lengths of video ..but note especially that marking places in your video with 'Bookmarks' will let you jump instantly forward and backward to them, instead of having to scroll through all that material.
Edit your video in chunks of, say, 20 mins at a time. That makes it easier on your Mac, and lets you keep track more easily of what you're doing.
When you're satisfied with your 1st twenty mins, start a new project and work on the next 20 mins. You'll pick up speed and start to work far faster. Then you may want to finally go back to the first two segments and "tweak' them a bit, when you've learned, by experience, a few more shortcuts!