Converting/compressing .mov file

Hi there,

I'm a complete newbie to the technical side of video. Sorry for the dumbness of this post - hope someone can help.

Here's what I have:
An uncompressed 5 minute .mov exported from Final Cut Pro. It's about 1gb in size. The aspect ratio is wrong when viewed in Quick Time. It's stretched a bit (vertically).

Want I need to do:
Host it on my friend's server (not YouTube etc) so I can password protect it. This is because I don't have the rights for the content any more (they've run out). I only want potential employers to see it. I can do this part.

So...
Can someone please advise (in simple terms!) how I can
a) get the filesize down to something that will stream without losing too much quality and
b) fix/specify the right aspect ratio

Please note I don't have Final Cut Pro - the editing was done on a machine I don't have access to any more. I can't afford to buy any software, it'll have to be done with freebies!

Thanks in advance
L

open the file in quicktimeX and click file>save as then click on format and change it to 480p or 720p. this should bring the file size down.

here is a guide video showing how to compress video files with little quality loss on YouTube. Tpye "compress video", u will find what u need.

Thanks! Both suggestions really helpful. Nice one.

See my guides iMovie Export Guide, and Preparing Video for YouTube for information to help understand the compression issue.

As for the aspect ratio. It sounds like a mismatch between your project and the export settings. Or perhaps your project was incorrectly set for the imported content. You want to figure this out so that potential employers don't see your mistake. Hopefully someone with the answer will pipe up.