Loss of hard disc space; can you easily manually defrag HD

As I was moving some video clips in iMovie files, I noticed that I lost a considerable amount of hard disc space...probably about 20gb. Files were not added...only clipped, edited and moved. When I cut a small amount of video, iMovie says there is about 20gb in trash. But when I empty trash, the 20gb does not get added back into available hard disc space. Can't explain. The only cause I can guess is defragmentation.
I've rebooted computer. No change. I've run disc utility. No change
I understand OSX defrags on its own, but is there a way to manually free up space?
I'd prefer to not run a third-party utility, unless it's absolutely reliable.
Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.

1. Insert the Mac OS X Tiger Install disc, then restart the computer while holding the C key.
2. When your computer finishes starting up from the disc, choose Disk Utility from the Installer menu. (In Mac OS X 10.4 or later, you must select your language first.)
*Important: Do not click Continue in the first screen of the Installer. If you do, you must restart from the disc again to access Disk Utility.*
3. Click the First Aid tab.
4. Select your Mac OS X volume.
5. Click Repair. Disk Utility checks and repairs the disk."
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214

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