Managing Large iMovie Projects

I am working on a project that will be about 45 min. I am currently at 12.5 minutes and already have TONS of media - hundreds of pictures, multiple short video clips, music and sound clips. I don't want to lose it in the making. Here are my questions:
1. I am backing up on iCloud, so I don't think saving the work is an issue. But I am concerned about messing up what has already been done by continuing to add on to the project. I created an iTunes video, and am thinking I will start a new project. I will then create about 4 iTunes videos, then string them together in iMovie when I am finished. Is this a viable way to approach a long project?
2. Alternatively, if I create 4 separate projects in iMovie, will I be able to connect them all at the end in iMovie?
3. Is there a way to "render" a project as I go along as you can do in Final Cut? I have long since abandoned Final Cut because it is too difficult, but I miss the rendering option.
Thanks! Woglinda

For what its worth what I do is to split a long movie project into sub-projects each not longer than 5 - 10 minutes. I export (=share in the new terminology) each one separately. When (and only when) I am happy with all the (shared) pieces I join them together using Quicktime 7 Pro.
You cannot "render as you go along" in iMovie. You could join the subprojects in iMovie and re-share the combined project but this takes much longer than the few minutes it takes to stitch together in Quicktime 7.
There are a number of advantages to this approach:
1: Sharing takes a long time. As soon as I share a projects and view them (in high definition) I find things that need correcting/improving - but at least one only has to re-share the affected sub-project(s) at not the whole lot.
2: iMovie 9 seemed to get more sluggish if there was a lot in the timeline - I don't know yet whether this is also the case with iMovie 10
3: If something goes seriously wrong you have only lost part of your work.
4: I find it easier to keep track of what I am doing on a timeline which is not too long.
You are going to need a lot of GB storage on iCloud!
Best of luck with the project!

Similar Messages

What is the easiest way to transfer a large imovie project from one computer to another in a different location.

What is the easiest way to transfer an faairly large HD imovie project from one computer to another in a different location. Can you export to drop box? Will the other computer need the exact imovie version?

OK it depends.
If you have a finished movie, you can SHARE/EXPORT MOVIE and create your final movie. Then, depending on the size of the finished movie, you can transfer via dropbox or similar service. Ninety minutes is a very long movie for iMovie, but it may work for you. I would suggest 720P to keep the size down.
If you need to transfer the entire iMovie Project so it can be edited in iMovie at the other end, then you need to transfer the project and event assets to an external hard drive and get the hard drive to the other location.
Directions are here. Follow the directions for 1) Moving or copying Project to external drive. Then 2) Consolidate Media.
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-4141

Incorporate existing iMovie project into new, longer one

I have an 8-minute iMovie project, with lost of careful editing (multiple sounds tracks, transitions, etc.)
I need to incorporate it as one section in a longer iMovie project I'm now working on. But when it becomes the one section of a larger project, I have to shorten it in half, to be only 4 minutes.
Two questions:
1) How do you insert an existing iMovie project into a new one -- bring over all the pieces at once, with everything in tact (music, transitions, etc.)?
2) This is a little more complicated. Since I have to boil down the 8 minute piece to 4 minutes, I'd rather not have to go back into the original and do painstaking editing -- which would involve rejiggering transitions, music fades, and all kinds of things. I'd rather export it to Quicktime, bring that into the new, larger iMovie project, where I can crop out parts I don't want and tie togehter the remaining pieces with transitions.
My concern: when I export original 8 minute project to Quicktime, doesn't that compress it? If so, and I bring that already-compressed Quicktime into new, longer iMovie project, when the new one is finished and I export it out to a DVD (end product) -- won't that be re-compressing the already compressed portion?
Thanks for any insights.
imac 20 inch Intel Mac OS X (10.4.8)
Mac OS X (10.4.7)
imac 20 inch Intel Mac OS X (10.4.8)

... or export as Quicktime/Full Quality file, which is a bit identical copy of your project => no quality loss ...

Final Cut Pro X crashes when I try to import iMovie project?

I have a large iMovie project that I am trying to import into FCP. Every time I do (FILE -> IMPORT -> IMOVIE PROJECT) it starts to import, then crashes without warning, giving me a crash log report.
I am able to import another smaller iMovie project just fine, but the one I actually need to import doesn't work.
Both projects use video clips from the same event library.
Any ideas? Or in a backwards way, any ideas on how to recreate it in a fresh iMovie project to import into FCP? (I've tried duplicating it in iMovie and it crashed on import too).
(...I understand why there have been so many complaints about FCP now.)

Figured it out! After almost 24 hours, I cracked it
Let me give you a bit of back story...
I had an iMovie project that I had built on my Macbook. I just got a new iMac and installed FCPX on it. Was hoping to do some more professional alterations to the project.
So I consolidated the project in iMovie, copied it along with the files to an external hard drive, then transferred it over to my new machine.
Every time that I would try to import the newly copied project, it would get a few seconds in, then crash with no error message... just a crash report.
I was able to import a smaller project that used some of the same videos, so I knew that it wasn't a codec issue or something like that.
Then, through the process of trial and error, I figured out that when I had consolidated the project on my old machine, it didn't truly consolidate the files that I had used. There were a handful of still images that I had used in a different folder on my computer. So I copied that folder to the same path on my new computer, tried to import, and just like that, problem solved.
I guess FCPX doesn't know what to do when something isn't exactly where it's supposed to be. Hopefully in the next software update, they'll alert the user what the error causing it to crash is so that others don't have to waste nearly a day troubleshooting for one obvious (oops) mistake.

Trouble with imovie projects

Hi,
I have a large imovie project, but want to finish it in FCE. How do I import it so A) it will play? B) not have a tone opf space inserted between clips?
What am I doing wrong? HELP.

If you can live with one long clip (that you can cut up as needed in FCE) you can make a dv stream out of your iMovie project and import that. You will have to render the audio and may run into the problem I did of "Out of Memory" when rendering the audio. But you can probably fix the memory problem by erasing unneeded render files.

IMovie Projects

How do I split a large iMovie project file into a number of smaller projects

When you have your project open and selected, try clicking on the Adjust button in the topmost window bar. Then click on the crop button. You have three styles: Fit, Crop, Ken Burns. Fiddle around with the Crop button
I had the opposite problem. I had old digitized movie film that was being formated as HD and was cutting off the top and bottom of the image. For my problem I clicked the Fit button which put black bands on the left and right sides but now I see the whole image. In your instance, clicking on the Crop button may help. Or maybe the Fit button will work. The old iMovie was much clearer about this issue.

In making a "highlights" movie, using clips from different imported iMovie events, can I delete the larger iMovie event file from the Events browser and still work w the smaller clips in the Projects browser w/o having the larger files still loaded?

I have sucessfully imported 150 Sony digital 8mm movies (each one hour in length) into iMovie as 150 iMovie events. I have since successfully converted them from their original 13 Gb (.dv) file to an exported smaller 1.3 Gb (.4mv "large file") movie that I am happy with, using the iMovie projects browser. So now I have 150 " .4mv" movies on my internal HD as well as about half of my original raw data " .dv " movies on my internal hard drive.
Due to their large size (over 2 Tb), I do not have all the larger raw data (.dv) files on my 2Tb internal drive, just about half of them. What I want to do now is to create a new project in the Projects browser for each of my kids, and reload, starting with Tape #1, each of these larger files and do a highlights movie for each of my kids, wherein I pick out smaller clips from each 1 hour .dv iMovie event and paste them into the appropriate kid's Highlights project in the Projects browser.
Here's my question: If I load the first 5 large files back onto my internal HD, and paste in various shorter clips into each of my kids' Highlights project, and then if I delete those first 5 large files (they are backed up on 2 other 3Tb external HDs), can I keep doing this (reloading the next 5 large .dv files to work with), and ultimately take each of my kid's Highlights project and export as a .4mv movie EVEN THOUGH the earlier large .dv files are no longer on my internal HD, OR does my iMac need to have all these larger files loaded on my internal HD for me to eventually export each of my kid's Highlights project to a .4mv movie?
I have a 2011 era 27" iMac desktop w 2Tb HD internal and 250 Gb flash drive, and Lion OSX and iMovie 11.

Thanks. I tested it out and you were correct. I loaded 2 .dv movies from my external HD back onto my internal HD, and got them re-imported into iMovie, took a few short clips from each of the 2 iMovie events and pasted them into a new project in the Project Browser. Then I deleted these 2 "source clips" from my internal HD, closed iMovie and then re-opened it and found that iMovie would NOT export the smaller clips for a "highlights" .4mv movie without the "source clips" being available.
I read your link on Quicktime. It talks about mostly trimming, which is what I did with each iMovie event before I took each one as a project to export as a smaller .4mv file. But if I use Quicktime (do I need QT Pro or basic), what advantage is it to me to use QT over iMovie (I must admit I am a novice at iMovie and have never used QT or QT Pro as a tool)? Will it then convert any edits I make to a .m4v movie or do I need iMovie to do that?
Does QT allow trimming multiple segments out of a movie during one edit session, or can you only do 1 at a time? By that I mean that, for example, when I use Sonys Picture Motion Browser for my .mts movies, you can only set one Start and one End point for each edit/trim you do: it does not allow you to set multiple Start Stop points like iMovie allows in its Event or Project browser. You can only do one "trim" at a time, save it and then reopen to do another trim. not very useful.

Large iDVD Project (help with iMovie formats, time totals, quality)

Hi,
I am in the process of finishing up a large DVD project. I went on a six month backpacking trip, and have lots of photos/small clips to make a DVD from. I will have a main menu in iDVD with submenus for each country (Mexico, Cook Islands, NZ, Australia, Vietnam, Thailand, India)
On each submenu will be around 4-5 movies of around 2-5 minutes each.
I created movies using iMovie (imported sound-less iPhoto slideshows 640x480 expored as MOV file) and added captions, music etc in iMovie. Each 'movie' is about 1-5 minutes long.
First question:
What is the best format to export these movies in? I will be adding them to iDVD. But when I export them, they are around 100-700Mb each depending on time of the movie. I used the expert settings (to Quicktime Mov) using the following settings:
Video:
Compression: Mpeg-4 Video
Quality: Best
Frame Rate: 60
key frame rate: 24
Dimensions: 720x526 4:3
audio:
format: AAC
Sample rate: 48.000Khz
Bit Rate 128
Stereo
In my iDVD project - the menu loops are maximum 30 seconds each, with the audio cut to the same length (ie. not trimmed in the menu - the actual mp3 added is 30seconds etc)
Now, big question is:
Do I have a total of 2 hours for everything? All menus,and all movies ? Is there ANY way of calculating this in iDVD or do I have to do it manually (estimate) ???
I notice with iDVD 8.0 it has a indicator of the space available etc. I have iDVD 6.0 so that doesn't help me now I guess?
What I need to ask is that - maybe using expert settings to mov files is unnecessary? What would you recommend as the export settings?
I have been working on the iMovie projects for months and can re-export them all in different format if need be, and can simply re-add the movies to iDVD. I have set up the shell of the DVD in iDVD but not added the movies yet (I have the placeholders there for them).
Anyway - hopefully I haven't blabbed on too much that someone out there can offer some advice?
Cheers and THANK YOU!
Alessandro

Best Performance: For projects up to one hour
Best Quality: For projects up to two hours
If your project is longer than one hour, you have to use Best Quality. Generally, the quality will be fine but the closer your get to that two hour limit, the more possibility you have of seeing some quality hits.
I deal with lots of long projects and generally if a project is longer than 90 minutes (specially since my projects have lots of fast motion, low light, etc) I split them up over two DVDs, keeping each under the one hour limit. That does give you your best quality option

How to backup an iMovie project that is too large for the dvd?

This may be obvious, and it was probably answered elsewhere, but I'm trying to clean off my hard drive by saving my iMovie projects to two sets of dvds (one for home and one set for safekeeping at work). When saving one project as an archive, it just says this project is too large for a disc. Is it possible to stuff it as a .sitx file and then save that onto dvd? Is there a better solution than an external hard drive (which I've had a couple of fail on me).

DVD's can only hold about 4.7 GB's of DV Stream format (the format used by iMovie).
DV Stream is 13 GB's per hour of recording so it would take 3 DVD's to "store" your data for a one hour capture.
"Export" (back to tape) or use iDVD to "burn" an MPEG-2 version of your file.
Only the "tape" version would not require some type of conversion on import.

Managing a large Flash project

I work for a game development studio in London. We are prototyping using Autodesk Scaleform and building our game UI using Flash. We will need to be able to run a large project with a team of 3-4 artists and 10+ programmers. We use Perforce source control system for storage of all code and assets. We need to be able to manage a project with multiple shared resources and multiple people (artists & programmers) working on screens and controls.
Our problem is as follows:
We want to be able to create skinned graphical custom components, such as buttons, sliders, checkboxes as well as more complex controls such as tables and game specific elements.
We want to be able to share graphics assets in a single location and allow multiple artists and coders to work on shared components simultaneously. We need all of this to be stored in a Perforce source control repository.
For AS3 code this is all fairly straight forward. It works like any other codebase and we have set up FlashBuilder and FlashDevelop projects.
Now, the options seem to be as follows:
- Create a flash project or projects. The problem here is that all of the assets are copied into AuthortimeSharedAssts.fla. This means that, because FLA is a binary format, our source control cannot allow more than one person to edit any shared resource at the same time.
- Set up manual authortime sharing. This will allow work on multiple shared components because individuals can update a small discrete FLA file and this will automatically update a larger shared librar. The problem is that this does not allow sharing of graphics assets, which means that, if an artist updates a graphic, this does not filter down to individual flash files.
- Use the XFL format. This would allow us to merge files when checking in to source control as they are plain text and it saves out individual assets as separate files, which looks perfect. The problem is that I can't see how to make a project, which entirely uses XFL files (i.e. makes something like AuthortimeSharedAssets.xfl).
At the moment I can't see any obvious, sensible way of running a large project in Flash. We cannot be the first to do this sort of thing though.
Can anyone help or explain how we should do it?

Just an $0.02 that is probably the hardest solution to implement, you really need a good project manager. You can't expect great results from tossing a bunch of autonomous bodies in motion on shared resources with no human control mechanism. Software can help but your format is ultimately binary, so outside Smart Objects (which haven't worked well in a networked multi-OS environment for me), you're not going to gain the benefits of traditional diff for source code.
Consider implementing either a project manager or even better, a project manager with decent project management software. It can be as cheap as Copper Project. You're given a hud with tasks and it's up to the Project Manager to assign the tasks so nothing overlaps and collisions are avoided from the start. It's even a large challenge in the binary world for a high quality Project Manager.
If you really need a garage level setup, you may simply have to employ locking network files that are in use. Anyone trying to use something won't be able to, it will stifle progress but you won't run into overlaps or impossible merges. It's just brute force and inefficient.

Newbie Question: Why can't I open my iMovie project in FCP?

Hello all--
I'm sure some variation of this question has been posted a bajillion times but I can't seem to find the answer. At this point I feel like a damsel in distress. Rescue me?
I've been working with iMovie for about two years now and I've recently been learning Final Cut Pro to up the ante on my videos. However, when I tried to import an iMovie project into FCP yesterday, it didn't quite work. Let me explain what I did and what happened:
1) I exported my (edited but previously unpublished) iMovie project by clicking Share>Export Final Cut XML
2) I opened FCP and clicked File>Import>XML and then selected the XML, leaving all the boxes checked
3) FCP imported the project as a sequence; however, the entire sequence reads "Media Offline" in the Canvas.
4) I clicked File>Reconnect Media and the list of offline files is overwhelming. I tried my luck by clicking "locate" and going to my imovie folders to find the clips, but even when the browser allowed me to select a clip, when I double clicked it, nothing in the sequence changed - it's all still "offline."
I really don't know much about media management, I'll admit - I'm wondering if maybe iMovie saves edited clips in a folder other than the events or originals folder - maybe the edited clips become "temporary items"? I know I have a ridiculous amount of imovie cache and temporary items and I never touch them because there are just so many of them and I don't want to mess anything up. But could the files that FCP claims to be "offline" in fact be located in these "temporary" folders? I mean, I've looked everywhere else on my hard drive and nothing is working! Sorry, I am probably just confusing myself MORE (and you), but maybe SOMEONE will know what in the world I should do
Thanks in advance.

Welcome to the family. I don't think many of us have ever used iMovie so your post might be more quickly answered in that forum.
My suggestion is to forget trying to move the project. Rebuild it in FCP. The exercise will teach you much more about your new software than fighting XML.
If you don't feel like doing that, try a smaller iMovie project, something with only two or three clips and one dissolve.
The larger issue is probably how iMovie stores its captured media which is completely different from how FCP does it. And the format is different. FCP does not, IIRC, view iMovie's default dvstream codec. You will want to export your movie clips as DV.
bogiesan
Message was edited by: David Bogie Chq-1 correct fifth grade typos

Front Row can't find the latest version of my iMovie project

I need some help figuring out just where my iMovie project really is.
I have been creating a project in order to learn how to manage all of the features of iMovie '09. I have revised many times and if I follow the path MacHD>Movies>iMovie Projects>first project and click to open, I see the most recent version.
I have also shared using Media Browser and created an iDVD. Then I created a disc image of that and burned it using disc utility - just to see how all of that works. When I use DVD player to play it, I see the most recent version of my 'movie'.
Next I tried to watch it using Front Row. When I open Front Row, then click through Movies to Movies Folder to iMovie Projects the computer tells me that there is no content. What I do have beneath the word Movies is the word Large. If I click on that, I get a much older version of the iMovie project that I thought had been discarded days ago.
This is not a big deal. But I would like to know why Front Row can't find the most recent version of the project. I also would like to know why the old version is still there and reassurance that my latest version really has been saved and that it is 'safe'.

I think that the movies that you see in Front Row are the ones that you shared to iTunes. However, if you click on the movies folder, you should see movies in your Media Browser. These are stored inside your RCProject file in the Movies/imovie Projects/<Project Name> container. If you right-click/Show Package Contents, you should see a Movies folder that has your movie.
Also, there is a quirk in the Media Browser. If you have shared a movie to the Media Browser, and later change the movie, the Media Browser copy is deleted right then. You will see a warning message that says "This movie has already been shared. If you change it you will need to republish" (I am paraphrasing). So you have to re-share the movie for it to be in the Media Browser. However, copies you have shared to iTunes are not affected until you re-share.

Importing clips from iMovie project (they keep ending up in the trash)

I have never tried to import other clips from another iMovie project before and I just tried it yesterday. This is what I did:
-I went into the other project and clicked on each individual clip from that project that I wanted (one at a time).
-I copied that clip and then saved it to the desktop
-From there I copied those clips to my external drive (which holds the new project that I am working on
-I then opened up the new project in iMovie
-I went to File<Import
-I selected the clips that I had copied over to the external drive
-I imported them
-They all showed up fine, they played fine and I was able to edit them and put them into the time line as well
The problem I face though is after I save the project and exit, the next time I open the project, each of those clips are missing and have been placed in the trash
What am I doing wrong?
Thanks ahead of time for your help!

It sounds like something may be preventing iMovie from properly saving the project on the external drive. The drive format may be wrong, or third-party software might be causing conflicts. More here:
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=1852869#1852869
Another possibility is that you are opening the wrong project file saved inside the iMovie 5 project. If your project was originally an iMovie 4 project converted to iMovie 5 that's an easy mistake to make. More here:
http://discussions.apple.com/click.jspa?searchID=-1&messageID=1971832
Note that the copy/export/import routine you used can be simplified enormously. iMovie 5 lets us Copy and Paste clips much more simply. To copy clips from Project A to Project B, open Project A, select all the clips you want copied to Project B, choose Edit > Copy, open Project B, move the playhead where you want to place the clips, and Paste. iMovie will import all the files that support those clips from Project A to Project B. Note that it imports the entire file for the clip, not just the clip itself. That's so the clip inherits all the non-destructive editing features it had in Project A.
To avoid Project B becoming unnecessarily large, it's important to Copy and Paste all the clips you want together. If you copy two clips at the same time that share the same file iMovie imports their source file just one time. But if you Copy and Paste two clips that share the same source file separately, iMovie imports the same file twice.
Karl

Imovie won't open my imovie project

Hello,
I was working on an imovie project when imovie kept crashing. So i backed up deleted imovie and reinstalled. Now it won't open up my .rcproject file. Nothing happens. is all my work lost? Also, when it was crashing some of my viedo clips were grayed out. Now in my event library some of the clips are grayed out. Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks

Update - I've managed to restore the file from my backup but now imovie crashes everytime i try to play it, just like before.
Thanks

I have produced several short iMovie projects and want to link them into a continuous stream on a DVD. Can it be done? All of the projects are in my Moblie Me Gallery

I have produced several short (2 to 3 minute) iMovie projects and want to link them in a continuous stream on a DVD. The clips are in my Mobile Me gallery. How can it be done?

You can do that too, it's all in the iDVD program.
But first you want to assemble the separate clips into one big long clip. For that you would use iMovie. Share to the Media Browser (choose the Large size). Let it export then quit iMovie.
Open iDVD, click on the Media button and then the Movies button. Under the iMovie star icon you will see your final assembled clips movie. In the iDVD project window turn on the map view (it's little boxes that look like a flowchart) then drag the iMovie project into the first box:
You can set the project to startup without a Menu, and then loop continuously as well. Go up to the Advanced Menu then click on the Loop movie option to turn it on.
Once checked the Loop movie status will appear as curved arrow icon in the Project Window:
In the lower right corner is the icon indicating this video clip will loop while being played.

Managing Large iMovie Projects

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