iMovie Settings

Hi, I am troubleshooting the best way to advise students to create videos. Students will be editing hour long teaching segments to 10-15 minutes. They will not be allowed to use any special effects; just cutting. They will need their videos to be the best possible quality with the smallest possible size. Students are advised not to shoot in HD if possible. So what I need to find out is when they pull their videos into iMovie:

Should they choose standard or widescreen? Does aspect ratio effect file size?

Should they optimize? (This appears to take a long time) If so, which optimization setting will render the best results regarding final quality and file size?

What is the best exporting option for high quality, small size, computer playback?

Thanks!!

Should they choose standard or widescreen?

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I'd choose the same format that the video was filmed in.

Should they optimize?

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All that does is scan the video for stabilization purposes; ie, remove minor camera shake. I never bother and just remove it as required during the editing. It can also scan for the presence of people and mark the clips that contain people. Again, I never bother.

What is the best exporting option for high quality, small size, computer playback?

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I would suggest choosing the "Export Movie" option from iMovie's Share menu. That will give an m4v file using h.264 compression giving good quality for a reasonable file size.

m4v and bad quality

MightyGem said:

I would suggest choosing the "Export Movie" option from iMovie's Share menu. That will give an m4v file using h.264 compression giving good quality for a reasonable file size.

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I sampled with an 8 minute video, the original file was shot web/hd, it was 8 minutes long, MP4. size:890 MB. After rendering it in iMovie as an m4v it became significantly smaller, size: 99.3 MB but the quality was terrible. I tried standard and widescreen, optimized and non-optimized. all turned out as smaller files but too low of quality. Any middle of the road suggestions?

In that case choose the Export to Quicktime option and experiment to find your best setting.