How can I reuse clips in iMovie?

April 4, 2007 4:03 AM

How can I re-use the same DV Clips in multiple projects in iMovie without creating duplicates which would take massive amounts of disk space?

I'm editing a friends wedding video on my mac using iMovie. I need to provide a short version and a long version. Since iMovie groups all the media clips into a package I don't know really want to duplicate the clips in 2 seperate packages.

Previously I've worked with Adobe Premiere on a PC so I know a little about editing video, and consequently I'm loving the simplicity of iMovie. In premiere the project just worked with references to clips so what I want to achieve was easy, but how can I do that in iMovie (HD)

Thanks.

posted by sdevans to computers & internet (2 comments total)

I'm not entirely sure this would work across projects, but I know that if you export a clip from one of your iMovie projects to a QuickTime file, it will (by default) create a small file (in the neighborhood of 12KB) that actually points to the DV data somewhere else on the hard drive. You could try importing that file into your second project. I'm willing to bet that iMovie will go bonkers with the first project if you make changes to that clip in the second project, so maybe try this on a backed up or simple, one-clip test.
posted by yellowbkpk at 5:35 AM on April 4, 2007

(not a heavy imovie user, so forgive me here a bit.)

iMovie removes the use of the clip when you place it on the timeline...but you can cmd-d duplicate a clip, and it won't take up any extra space. So now you have two instances of the same clip.

I'd edit the 'long form' version of the movie.

When you're finished "Share" the movie - and export in "Full Quality" the full, long timeline. This will create a QT movie, approx 1GB per five minutes. But the point is, you have a finished piece.

Now, recut the iMovie timeline for the short movie. Export that too.

You can now open iDVD and import both movies, having a DVD that has both a long form and short of the wedding.

If you want two projects though, you'll need to have duplicates of the clips. iMovie makes it 'easy' for the home user, by containing eveyrthing, and therefore no real media management is necessary.
posted by filmgeek at 5:48 AM on April 4, 2007