File Formats

I'm very new to this site and may be in the wrong place completely.

I have a new Mac and recently learned how to use iMovies.

I am trying to understand video file formats in order to figure out how to get my Super-8 movies into a format (.mov or .m4v) my Mac can understand.

I know I can get my movies converted to DVDs but am not clear whether this is the correct first step. Maybe I should get the movies converted to .mov or .m4v files instead. I don't know if this is even technically possible.

The long-run goal is to get the movies into my Mac, edit the videos, and then create DVDs (or something else if that is better) so our kids can have copies of their own to view.

Thanks.