Film footage consolidated with iMovie file? - Mac-Forums.com

Sexy Patrol · 08-27-2006, 06:07 AM

So, I'm in the midst of working on a very big film project about my trip to Africa. However my PowerBooks hard drive is running low on space and I've only captured about 1/8 of the video. I've already deleted everything that I can afford to erase, but it's not enough. So I'm going to reformat the hard drive, but I wanted to check before I just went gung ho and did it. If I back up my films project file from iMovie will that save with it all of the video clips that have been captured? I don't want to back up the project file then after I've finished everything and reloaded the file back onto my computer, open up iMovie and have all the footage gone. Anybody know the answer? I'm running out of time to finish the project so I could use an answer ASAP, I really appreciate it! Have a nice day.

NanoBite · 08-27-2006, 06:58 AM

Where are the original video files on your HD?

I'm hazarding a guess that when you created your project and imported each video clip in, they were copied, so I'm not sure if you could export the individual video files back out of the iMovie project backup....

While you would have the project, incomplete as it is, that may be all you'd have...

It's not worth the risk of losing your valuable video footage so I would back the project and the individual video clips...say to a Dual -Layer DVD or 2, or 3.....

PowerBookG4 · 08-27-2006, 10:34 AM

If you are going to capture all of the footage then erasing your hard drive and installing osx back on it is not going to save enough space for you to capture all of it. You will need an external hard drive. You can however, edit some of the video, export to a fully quality dv movie file, burned it onto a dvd but as a data disc not a video disc. Continue with this process then put all the video files from the dvds back onto the computer, put them in an imovie project, and finish it off.. send it to iDVD and then your project will be done.

Sexy Patrol · 08-28-2006, 12:58 AM

Well, I tested it out by transferring the project file via iPod to my Mac Mini then opened it up in iMovie and everything was still there. Sooo I'm golden, thanks guys!