How to get iMovie HD 6 to save automatically to external hard drive?

Question

And now: With regard to iMovie:
To get it to save automatically to my external hard drive, do I do it the same way that I would do it for iPhoto, by finding MOVIES in that left-hand vertical panel under "Computer"?
Is it that I take that little icon of the movie board and drag and drop it into my external hard drive? And the same with the Pictures folder? Drag both the icons of Picture and Movies to the External Hard Drive? Or what? I am assuming that I have to take it away from the Internal Hard drive or iPhoto and iMovie will find it there and place files there.
The thing is, can iPhoto and iMovie find the Pictures and the Movies folders in my External Hard Drive without being given a map in the form of a toggled set of instructions, like for iTunes? Are the programs like bloodhounds in that they can just smell where those folders are even if they (the bloodhounds) are blindfolded?
I have ideas for the little videos that I want to shoot, and I need iMovie to automatically put those files in my Big Dog 500 gig external hard drive.
— Lorna in Southern California

Answer 1

When you first create a new iMovie Project you're
asked where to save it.
Choose the external drive to store the Project and
all the files will be stored there.
Thank you, QuickTime Kirk. Now I understand why there is no generic "Save Files To" in the Preferences.
This brings up another question now but I have not experimented with it in my iMac: I had old video clips from 2001 in my hard drive and yesterday I moved all my Photo and Audio files from Small Dog Ext. HD to Big Dog 500 gig Ext. HD. Since in 2001 I, of course, must have designated my old INternal hard drive as the place to save my work, does this mean that those clips are now "invisible" unless I manually go into Big Dog Ext. HD to see it?
In other words, by moving those 2001 video clips from my old iMac internal hard drive to my Small Dog 125 gig Ext. HD and now, last night, to my Big Dog 500 gig Ext. HD, is there no pathway from the iMovie application to the clips where they now are stored?
I didn't realize that such questions would ensue if I shift files from the internal hd to one external hd to another ext. hd.
— Lorna in Southern California
Edit to say:
Well, now I know the answer. I clicked onto iMovie and clicked onto "Find An Old Project" (or whatever), and rather than finding my old 2001 video clips, I was given a window in which to identify where those clips are now stored. I clicked "Big Dog 500 gig" and was taken there, and from inside there I found my old 2001 clips.
So the answer is: The old clips that were moved from Site A to Site B were invisible at first request, but the option of defining the road map was presented. This presupposes that the person knows where they actually are, and since I do, there is no problem.
But of course in the future when I Save To Big Dog 500 gig, I can immediately access my new clips when clicking "Find Old Project."
— Lorna in Southern California