Cut and pasting clips to a new movie causes 15x file size increase!!

Question

I'm using 6.04 iMovie. I'm converting 8mm analog video via Canopus 300 into imovie. These movies were of an action sport and very few clips are over ten minutes when imported.
I have 4 files(sourced from 4 tapes) from 22-28GB in imovie. I have edited these files, removing bad video, unwanted scenes and have added transitions and titles. The resulting files are each from 22-28Gb's in size.
I then went to make a highlight video by copying and pasting clips from two of the movies. The resulting highlight movie exceeds 160Gb's I have two more movies to past clips from!
I am aware of the "non-destructive" editing feature of Imovie. In the process of editing the individual movies and putting together the highlight movie I emptied trash frequently.
My questions:
1.) What is the best procedure to cut and paste clips from movies to make a highlight movie?
2.) What can i do with my highlight video to get the size back down to around 15 Gb's? (I've only used about 25% of each of the two first tapes in the highlight video)
Thanks

Answer 1

Hello, Scott,
iMovie moves clips to the trash that you have deleted.....if you are not using any part of that clip. If you are using any part of it, the parts you crop out, 'delete,' will be removed from your movie, but not put into trash and not removed from iMovie's project file. If you use 10 seconds of a 30 second clip, for example, but later decide that you really need to have more than the 10 seconds, say you need 15 seconds, all you have to do is go click on that 10 second clip in your movie and then go to 'Advanced' and select 'Revert clip to original' and iMovie will put back the entire clip for you to re-crop.
It is not exactly the same for still photos. If you are using still photos with the Ken Burns effect, emptying the trash will remove the photo's 'clip' and you will not be able to redo the KB effect if you decide to change it. Leaving the trash alone will permit iMovie to retrieve the photo so that you can make those edits. Some of us never empty the trash in iMovie.
When you export as Full quality Quick Time, you are getting just that.....Full Quality, no changes from the original. Your movie is not being compressed, it is shortened because you are saving only the clips that are actually used in the movie, not all the rest. Nothing is lost in quality and you can edit as usual, except for the ability to retrieve any clips that are not in the movie. You will not be able to use the 'Revert clip to original,' now because you have a new set of 'originals.'
So, when you export to quicktime, be sure that you are completely finished with the cropping of your clips and that you will not need to add anything that you previously deleted. I export to quicktime and then open a new iMovie and import the new qt movie into that. Once you see that it plays properly, you can delete the first iMovie and just work with this one. However, it will come in as one large clip, with audio and video incorporated into one track. You will not be able to re-edit titles and effects. (Well, you CAN do it a bit, but it is tricky and you will lose some footage).
I actually make a quicktime version of almost all of my iMovies. I find that this process eliminates any jerkiness or stuttering of my longer movies. I edit the original iMovie by cropping clips, adding photos, putting in titles and transitions. I then add audio last, usually first some short audio clips to go with some of the photos, and then I add background music last. I usually export to quicktime during the adding music part, whenever iMovie starts playing back in a stuttering way. The new quicktime movie is smooth and I can finish my music additions easily.
Apparently, the latest version of quicktime is much better for the jerkiness problem, but I have been hesitant to upgrade since I am in the midst of doing about 4 iMovies.
Good luck with your project!