HD space problem in iMovie projects

I'm having hd space problems with one of almost two identical iMovie projects. I'm looking for a way to reduce size (or free up space with in the overly large project.)
Both projects were imported same...firewire from camera.
Both are about same length...approximately 1.25 hours.
Both have approximately same number of clips and are at the same stage in the process...some minor editing...no titles or transitions in either.
However, one project is 14gb in size, the other is 54gb. This is obviously causing space issues with my 160gb hd. (I rarely have a project over 25gb...even with lengthier projects with titles and transitions,)
When I view trash info for larger project in iMovie, it shows 12gb, but when I delete, space is not cleared from hd. Project size remains at 54gb.
The only difference in projects...with larger project I copied some files from a third iMovie project that I've since deleted.
Any thoughts on how I go free up space or reduce file size?
I've restarted computer, deleted iMovie pref file, ran disc utility.
I'm running latest version of Tiger (10.4.11) on eMac. iMovieHD version is 6.0.3

I suspect that when you copied those files from the third iMovie project you brought over portions of the clips that had been edited out. For example, if you have a 20 minute clip in iMovie that you trim down to 5 minutes, the project still retains the entire 20 minutes, even though you are using only 5 minutes of it in the project. This is true even if you empty the trash. As long as any part of the clip remains in the project, the entire clip remains in storage. This is due to iMovie's nondestructive editing feature. You never lose any part of a clip that you trim off. Some or all of the clips that you copied over from the old project may have been edited that way such that you thought, for example, that you were bringing over a 5 minute clip, but actually brought over 20 minutes of material. Thus your project size is larger than needed.
One way to get rid of the space caused by the extra 15 minutes would be to export the clip to Full Quality quicktime movie, and then substitute the Quicktime movie clip for the original clip in your project. The quicktime movie will contain only the 5 minutes used in the project and not the extra 15 minutes that the original clip carried with it. This would limit some of your ability to re-edit the new Quicktime movie clip, because you will not be able to modify or eliminate any special effects or titles that that are contained in it. Likewise, the 15 minutes that you eliminated will be lost. So keep that in mind if and when you delete the old clips. Before you export the old clips to a Quicktime movie, you want to eliminate any unwanted editing that they may contain. If these old clips contain a lot of special effects that might account for their larger size as well.
Keep a copy of the old edited clips until you are certain that your new project is exactly the way you want it.
Hope this helps. If your problem is not the above, hopefully others will be able to offer some helpful comments.

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