editing clips in iMovie - does it free hard drive space?

[memphismac]

I consider myself a savvy Mac user, but this one has me flummoxed.

We've taken all kinds of video of my now 7-month old son. And it's all found it's way on to my hard drive to be messed with in iMovie.

When I delete a clip, I can see the multiple MB (or GB) that are cleared off the hard drive. But when I trim/cut/crop a clip, I don't see that same space savings. I'm down to 8GB, so I need a bit more space.

Is there a way to trim off unwanted footage without dumping the whole clip? Or do I need to start burning these clips to DVDs?

[Lacero]

You should invest in an external Firewire HD to handle all the video data. You'll be accumulating tons of GBs of it anyway, so save yourself the headache of trimming or otherwise backing up on DVDs.

As to the original question, I don't think trimming will save you HD space. You may need to trim and export out as a self-contained clip.

Here's to the Crazy Ones

[LethalWolfe]

As Lacero said you should get a FW HDD. Using your system drive for media storage is just asking for problem.

iMovie, like most NLE's, is non-destructive. This means that the source clips are never changed. When you edit you are basically manipulating references files that point back to the source clips.


Lethal

[Applespider]

iMove saves the whole clip even if you're only using a small fraction of it.

There is a way around it. You can export the clip to your desktop as dv, trim it in QT Pro and then reimport it to your iMovie, then delete the original from iMovie. Voila, you'll have some space back.

But in the long term, I agree that an external drive would be the better way to go.

[BakedBeans]

if you dont have FW 800 why dont you just get a usb2.0 external HD - it would be faster wouldnt it.

[LethalWolfe]

Originally Posted by BakedBeans

if you dont have FW 800 why dont you just get a usb2.0 external HD - it would be faster wouldnt it.

USB 2 is only faster than FW400 on paper.


Lethal

[sk3pt1c]

trim your clip,make your video,save it as a whole and then delete the video you took the trim out of
easy as that

[BakedBeans]

Originally Posted by LethalWolfe

USB 2 is only faster than FW400 on paper.


Lethal

and at least the same in real life though right?

[Le Big Mac]

Originally Posted by BakedBeans

and at least the same in real life though right?

I'm sure you can find at least one other thread on this board discussing that question.

As for clips, what happens when one empties the trash in iMovie? I thought that doing that would alter the clips and save some space.

That said, get another hard drive if you're serious. Delete all but the movie once you're done. Save the miniDV tape just in case you want to reimport the full amount of footage. Tapes aren't that expensive--what, $3 each? Since an hour of footage is 12GB (or is it 22GB?), your price is less than 25c/GB, which is cheaper than most hard drives, which run 75c-$1/GB.

[Applespider]

Originally Posted by Le Big Mac

As for clips, what happens when one empties the trash in iMovie? I thought that doing that would alter the clips and save some space.

I think that was the case until the current version of iMovie. iMovie HD now doesn't delete anything in the trash if any part of it is being used in the project, be that extracted audio or a small video clip. It's good that it means you can change your mind towards the end of your project and add another bit back in, even if you've deleted. It's bad in that your project can stay an inordinately large size.

Saving now eliminates your ability to use the 'undo' key which otherwise can go back an inordinately large number of 'undos'

[LethalWolfe]

Originally Posted by BakedBeans

and at least the same in real life though right?

Nope. FW400 is faster. USB 2's overhead is what bogs it down.


Lethal

[Le Big Mac]

Originally Posted by Applespider

I think that was the case until the current version of iMovie.

Okay. I'm on iMovie 4 still.