Why does it not get smaller?

Question

Hi guys, new on here so I'll just pop up my question sooner rather than later:
I've got iMovie HD 6.0.1 and editing a LONG movie from my around-the-world-trip. After doing a seriously too-long job on importing around 1,500 separate clips (from a HDDV-camera that was not looking to co-operate) I had around 5 hours of material.
This file made about 48 GB on my 95 GB hard-disc.
I didn't have much space left when I started editing but was sure the file would get smaller as I "clipped away" more and more from the film.
I have finished editing for now, and reduced the film with almost one hour, now at 4 hours and 10 mins. The file, however, has gone almost 10 GB bigger, and I only have about 4 GB of free space left.
Why on eart has the file got bigger rather than smaller after cutting down the film? I have not made much of "special effects" on it, and I have emptied the trash-can all the time.
As it doesn't seem to be arranged that iDVD manages to split the film up, I will have to export it out on DV-tapes, then delete the whole project - and then import it back in one hour at a time, to burn DVD's of Part I, Part II, etc.
Any explanations, and hopefully solutions on why the file size has not got smaller are welcomed!
MacBook Mac OS X (10.4.8) Norwegian letters

Answer 1

welcome svend to the  boards of discussions ...
'non distructiveness' is the keyword, using it in the searchfield, upper right on this website, will spit out a few dozend threads...
in basic:
you import 1 Gig of video...
you haven't set in iM's prefs, to 'segment' the import...
you crop a 30sec piece out of this beast of film...
30sec dv = 100MB...
< noise of a BUZZER! >
wrong..
that clip has still a 'connection' to its import.. the 1Gigger mentioned above..
if you copy/paste that 30secs into another project, you would copy 1GB of data...
no workaround for that.
* import wisely, just what you need
* set iM's import prefs to some smaller size... e.g. 3min... larger imports get split, but you wouldn't notice while playback...
* iM is a consumer product.. 5h? ... phphewww... how to you keep 1500 clips in mind?? and: 5h/1500 clips = 10sec each clip..? that's no movie, it's a slideshow ;-))
* iDVD need 10 - 15GB free to work smoothly... use an ext. drive for your iM projects..
* a dvd-r fits max. 120min... why not producing 'segements'/episodes, and not an 'opus magnum'?
what I would do....:
do paper-editing first.. select your imports while watching the tapes on a TV... write down a script ... segment your project into at last 5 parts... create an iM project for a part.. import just for that part.. export final part back to tape... import parts into new iM project/iDVD... be a happy film editor..