Perhaps I am misunderstanding your goal, but this seems pretty much
like the basic default, in more recent versions of iMovie and iDVD.

In iMovie, after all you editing is complete, place chapter markers at
the beginning of Location 1, Location 2 and Location 3. If Location 1
is also the start of the movie, then it doesn't need a separate chapter
marker, since iDVD creates a beginning marker automatically. However,
I usually have opening credits and other things that I want to play
when the user picks "Play Movie," but I want to skip when the user
picks "Scene 1." Note that chapter markers are not tied to clips, so
if you do further editing after placing the chapter markers, they may
become misaligned from your original placement. Move them, or delete
and recreate them.

When you send your movie to iDVD, the chapter markers will become
submenu buttons, at least with most themes. You can edit the text in
the buttons, to change them from "Scene 1" to whatever text you like.

This seems to be what you are asking for. If you click on "Play Movie"
(you can also edit the text of that button), you will see the whole
movie. If you go to the submenu, and click on Location 2, you will see
the movie starting with the Location 2 chapter marker. The movie will
play until it reaches the end of the whole movie. The same for
Location 3 (and Location 1, if it is different than the start of the
movie).

What if I want "Play Movie" to play the entire movie, but I want to
click on Scene 2, and have it stop after Scene 2, and not play through
scenes 3, 4, 5, etc. to the end of the entire movie. This is not well
supported in the DVD format. The only way I know to do it in
iMovie/iDVD is to import each scene twice- once as part of the complete
movie, and once as a separate movie, which just happens to have the
same content as part of the main movie. This doubles the size of the
video on the DVD, but for some projects, it is worth doing.

If I have missed the point of what you are trying to do, please send
further clarification. It would help to know the versions of iMovie
and iDVD that you are using.

Derek


> I have music video shot in three different locations. I'd like to have
> it all be one continuous movie from iMovie. However, I'd also like to
> have my main menu buttons be something like: Play Movie; Location 1;
> Location 2; Location 3; Slideshows and other stuff.
>
> Can I do this? What I intuit I want to do is have each of the Location
> beginnings marked as chapters (I have each song and some interspersed
> interviews all marked at the moment). How do I make a submenu link to
> a particular starting point (#1) and, #2, How do I connect the chapter
> markers under the particular Location in which they were shot, rather
> than numbered sequentially from 1 to the end of the movie?
>



Derek Roff
Language Learning Center
Ortega Hall 129, MSC03-2100
University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM 87131-0001
505/277-7368, fax 505/277-3885
Internet: derek@...