I learned something new!
By Jennifer Stoeckl, MAT - Dire Wolf Project CEO, June 30, 2025
SCHWOOOP.
That’s the sound a green screen makes when you finally figure out how to bend time, space, and basic iMovie settings…
…and teleport yourself straight into the Ice Age.
Yes me. Jennifer.
Your campfire-loving, dire wolf-obsessed pack leader...
Suddenly on camera, bathed in the blue glow of a full Ice Age moon, firelight flickering softly in the background, a dire wolf-shaped cave painting dancing on the cave walls behind me...
And it all started because I got annoyed.
See, I’d been filming a perfectly normal video for today’s movie.
There I sat, talking about the usual things.
Puppies, trust-based training, and trying not to cry every time iMovie crashes.
But, as usual, something was missing.
The video looked too... modern.
Too flat. Too safe.
Like a boring PowerPoint in a world that needs storytelling firelight.
Then, I found it!
- The green screen.
Now, if you’ve ever tried using a green screen in iMovie, you’ll know it’s kind of like training a stubborn pup:
You try to make it do what you want...
But It flops down and won’t move in your timeline...
You poke at it, and it just stays there staring at you.
But then…
I had a BREAKTHROUGH.
I discovered a sneaky hack to resize the green screen images using... wait for it...
- Keynote.
Yes, the Mac app no one ever opens on purpose.
Turns out, you can drop a green screen video into Keynote, shrink it down like a sabertooth’s attention span, make it move around the screen however you want, and export it as a beautiful transparent moving overlay...
Then drop it into iMovie and BAM!
Prehistoric magic.
Suddenly my video came ALIVE.
It looks just like we are all sitting around the fire together—you, me, the moon, a few dire wolves, telling stories and pondering the mysteries of life...
Like:
- Why does grooming Hercules take 2 full days and 3 brushes?
- What really happened to Grave-Tusk on the ridge?
- And why do I feel like I just invented fire every time a video export actually works??
Since you're in the Inner Circle, you're not just watching from the outside.
You're in the den.
Behind the scenes.
Howling with me as we figure this all out together, one glowing ember at a time.
So, this week’s Movie Monday is my most epic attempt at movie editing yet!
Check out the new green screen magic at the link below:
Jennifer Stoeckl is the co-founder of the Dire Wolf Project, founder of the DireWolf Guardians American Dirus Dog Training Program, and owner/operator of DireWolf Dogs of Vallecito. She lives in the beautiful inland northwest among the Ponderosa pine forests with her pack of American Dirus dogs.