Feb 22, '11 07:30:00AM • Contributed by: Unsoluble
If, when you're importing the original footage, you enable the "Optimize video" checkbox, you'll get the lightweight version in your event library, but you won't get a copy of the orignal footage as well. It'll still be on your camera (or wherever else you put it before heading to iMovie), but that's not very helpful.
If you're using iMovie '09 (v.8) or '11 (v.9), there's a decent way to do this that isn't terribly obvious.
So here's what I do:
- When importing the original footage, disable the 'Optimize video' checkbox, and select the 'Move files' radio button. This will move the full HD clip into /[selected volume]/iMovie Events/[event title]. (Or you can use 'Copy files' and get the same end result.)
- Select the new event in the Event Library in iMovie, and go to File » Optimize Video » Large -- 960x540 (or 'Full,' which is still going to be more compressed than the original HD, but at the same resolution; I find 'Large' to be just fine for my needs, though).
Now you've got a fully organized directory structure containing all of your original HD footage, sorted by event, plus an Event Library full of nice lightweight versions for quick editing and exporting.
[crarko adds: I haven't tested this one.]
