How to Rotate a Video in iMovie (Step by Step)

Pragadeesh N - February 20, 2021 - Leave your thoughts. 6 min read

Looking to rotate a video in iMovie?

We’ll show you how to rotate a video using the iMovie app on your iPhone and the iMovie desktop software on your Mac computer.

Also, as a bonus, we’ll show you a much easier way to rotate videos on your Mac computer.

Here’s everything we’ll cover, feel free to jump around:

How to rotate a video in the iMovie app on iPhone and iPad

How to rotate a video in iMovie on your Mac computer

How to rotate a video on Mac the easy way

How to Rotate a Video using the iMovie App on iPhone and iPad

You can use the iMovie app to rotate your videos on your iPhone. If you don’t have the iMovie app on your iPhone, you can download and install iMovie for iOS. 

Once you’ve installed iMovie on your iPhone or iPad, follow these steps:

1. Open the iMovie app and tap on the Create Project button.
   
   
2. Now from the New Project popup window, select Movie.
   
   
3. Then tap on the Create Movie text button at the bottom of the app window.
   
   
4. Next, to select the video you want to rotate, tap on the area that says Tap + to add videos, photos, or audio.
   
   
5. Now under the VIDEOS & PHOTOS category, tap Video.
   
   
6. Then tap All, and finally tap on the video you want to rotate.
   
   
7. Now tap the plus symbol as shown in the image below.
   
   
8. Now use your thumb and index fingers to tap and twist the video to the right or left so you rotate the video clockwise or counterclockwise. When you do this, a white circular arrow will appear indicating the direction in which you’re rotating the video.
   
   
9. Once you’re done rotating your video to the desired orientation, tap on the Done text button in the top left corner.
   
   

How to Rotate a Video in iMovie on Mac

iMovie is a freeware that comes preinstalled on Mac OS. Follow the steps below to rotate a video using iMovie desktop software on Mac:

1. Open iMovie and click on the Create New button.
   
   
2. Now select Movie from the dropdown menu.
   
   
3. Click on the Import Media button and select the video you want to rotate.
   
   
4. Once the video’s been imported, click on it to select the video—the video will be highlighted in yellow to indicate that it’s been selected.
   
   
5. Click on the Cropping button in the toolbar right above the video player. This will reveal the Rotate the clip clockwise and Rotate the clip counterclockwise buttons.
   
   
6. Note that you can only save your video in the 16:9 aspect ratio (or horizontal dimensions) using iMovie. There isn’t a way to save your video in the vertical dimensions (or 9:16 aspect ratio). Once you rotate your landscape video to be vertical in iMovie, two black bars will appear on either side of the video. And you’re going to have to save the video with those black bars.Optionally, you can also flip your video using iMovie. simply clicking Rotate the clip clockwise button twice will flip the video vertically. To flip the video horizontally, however, you’re going to have to apply a filter. First, click on the Clip filter and audio effects button, then click on the Clip Filter field, and finally, pick the Flipped filter to flip your video horizontally.
   
   

How to Rotate a Video On Your Mac The Easy Way

As you can see above, iMovie slaps your video with two black bars on either side to preserve the 16:9 aspect ratio, even after you rotate your video to vertical dimensions. If you want to rotate and download your video in vertical dimensions (9:16) with no black bars, you can use Animaker’s rotate video tool. 

For those who are unaware of Animaker, it is an all-in-one DIY video-making app designed to help non-designers make professional-quality videos from the comfort of their browser.

It’s a simple online tool that lets you easily rotate your videos 90, 180, or 270 degrees for free! All it takes is 3 simple steps to rotate and download your videos using our super-simple video rotator. 

It works on Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer, etc., and if you use one of these browsers, you can easily rotate your videos on your Windows or Mac computer.

If you’re looking to easily rotate your videos for Instagram, YouTube, or Facebook, then Animaker’s video rotator is just what you need. Also, you can rotate videos in many formats such as MP4, MPG, WebM, MOV, and more. Follow the steps below to rotate a video using Animaker:

Step 1: Sign Up/Login and Pick the Dimensions

Sign in to your account or create a free one. Now let’s choose the dimensions for your video. Want to convert your vertical video to horizontal? Then pick Horizontal from the Create a video section in your dashboard. Want to convert your horizontal video to vertical? Then pick Vertical from the same section.

Step 2: Upload the Video and Rotate It

Upload your video now. Animaker lets you upload videos up to 20 GB in size. Head to the Upload tab in the navigation bar and click on the Upload button at the bottom.

Once the video is uploaded, click on the video to add it to your current project.

Time to rotate the video. Click on the Rotate button in the top right corner of the canvas to start rotating your video. Animaker lets you rotate your video in the anti-clockwise direction. To rotate your video to 90 degrees, click on the Rotate button three times. The first time you click on the rotate button, your video will be rotated to an angle of 270 degrees, then to 180 degrees the second time, and to 90 degrees the third time.

Your video will be set to fill the entire space of the canvas. However, you get the ability to customize how your video should fit these dimensions with our video resizing tool. Simply adjust how your video should fit the dimensions by clicking on the Resize button.

Also, you get the ability to flip your videos using our video flipping software. Click on the Flip button to flip your video horizontally and/or vertically.

Step 3: Preview and Download the Video

You can preview the video using the play button beside the Publish button. You can then download the video to your computer. Simply click on the Publish button and then select Download Video from the dropdown menu. Or you can also share it directly to various social media platforms from within the app.

Apart from letting you quickly rotate your videos, Animaker’s video editing suite offers various other video editing tools.  

You can use Animaker’s video editor to:

• Trim videos
• Rotate videos
• Flip videos
• Remove audio from videos
• Adjust video brightness, contrast, etc.
• Add filters to videos
• Merge or combine videos

And the list goes on… feel free to check out these tools and learn why it’s the go-to video editor for marketers and content creators.

Got any questions about rotating your videos on Premiere Pro or your Windows Computer? Any interesting tips or tools to rotate videos that we haven’t covered? Please let us know about them in the comment section below.