Change the location of videos in the iMovie '08 library
Aug 16, '07 07:30:00AM • Contributed by: ecbtln
Aug 16, '07 07:30:00AM • Contributed by: ecbtln
While playing around with iMovie '08, I noticed a big resemblance to its big brothers: Final Cut Express and Final Cut Pro. However, the biggest difference was the process of importing videos. In iMovie '08, when importing videos, it makes you copy or move the video needed into the iMovie Library. But what happens if I want to keep the original somewhere else?
This is where this hint comes in. All you need to do is open each video in QuickTime and save it as a reference movie. Then in iMovie '08, choose File » Import Movies, and select Move. Now after it is done generating the thumbnails, you will notice that all of the space being taken up is just the video of the thumbnails. Atop that is only about a 50 KB reference movie in the place of your video. Now, be careful, this will work as long as you keep the original around. Once that original is no longer accessible, iMovie will freak out once you try working with the footage. Note -- this can be done with as many videos as you want.
Now, what happens if you not only want the original separated, but you also don't want the thumbnails taking up space in you iMovie Library? This one's a little bit trickier.
Instead of making a reference movie and importing it, you need to first import the original by copying, not moving. Then once iMovie is done generating thumbnails, navigate your way into ~/Movies » iMovie Events » Name_of_event. From there, replace the video you want with an alias to the original video. Now reopen iMovie, and it will begin to generate thumbnails again. Don't worry, this is normal. What it has done is put the thumbnails with the original video.
Now navigate back to ~/Movies » iMovie Events » Name_of_event, and trash the iMovie thumbnails folder and the full-sized video. Now all the videos are where you want, and there is no space being taken up in your iMovie Library. Be careful in this one to not move the location of the original without moving the location of the thumbnails to the same spot. The alias should take the job of redirecting iMovie to where it needs to be. This can be done with as many videos as you want, just be careful and pay attention to what you are doing before you do it.
Although these may seem like great ideas, be extremely careful when you do it and after it is done. One little accident as to deleting the original if it isn't in you iMovie Library and a project you could have been working on with some video may not even exist because of the fact the iMovie does NOT put the original videos in your projects anymore.
[robg adds: I haven't yet used iMovie '08 enough (nor do I plan to, but that's a rant for another day and site) to know if there's an easier way to do this. I checked the preferences, and there's nothing obvious for setting the iMovie library location, though.]
This is where this hint comes in. All you need to do is open each video in QuickTime and save it as a reference movie. Then in iMovie '08, choose File » Import Movies, and select Move. Now after it is done generating the thumbnails, you will notice that all of the space being taken up is just the video of the thumbnails. Atop that is only about a 50 KB reference movie in the place of your video. Now, be careful, this will work as long as you keep the original around. Once that original is no longer accessible, iMovie will freak out once you try working with the footage. Note -- this can be done with as many videos as you want.
Now, what happens if you not only want the original separated, but you also don't want the thumbnails taking up space in you iMovie Library? This one's a little bit trickier.
Instead of making a reference movie and importing it, you need to first import the original by copying, not moving. Then once iMovie is done generating thumbnails, navigate your way into ~/Movies » iMovie Events » Name_of_event. From there, replace the video you want with an alias to the original video. Now reopen iMovie, and it will begin to generate thumbnails again. Don't worry, this is normal. What it has done is put the thumbnails with the original video.
Now navigate back to ~/Movies » iMovie Events » Name_of_event, and trash the iMovie thumbnails folder and the full-sized video. Now all the videos are where you want, and there is no space being taken up in your iMovie Library. Be careful in this one to not move the location of the original without moving the location of the thumbnails to the same spot. The alias should take the job of redirecting iMovie to where it needs to be. This can be done with as many videos as you want, just be careful and pay attention to what you are doing before you do it.
Although these may seem like great ideas, be extremely careful when you do it and after it is done. One little accident as to deleting the original if it isn't in you iMovie Library and a project you could have been working on with some video may not even exist because of the fact the iMovie does NOT put the original videos in your projects anymore.
[robg adds: I haven't yet used iMovie '08 enough (nor do I plan to, but that's a rant for another day and site) to know if there's an easier way to do this. I checked the preferences, and there's nothing obvious for setting the iMovie library location, though.]
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