virtualreason Posted October 1, 2009 Share Posted October 1, 2009 I'm in the process of editing my demo tape for broadcasting and can't quite get the hang of using iMovie. There's no shot at getting Final Cut or anything like that, so iMovie is my only option. Here's where I'm at now: - All of my raw footage is loaded on the computer as .mov files (all the clips are between 30 and 50 minutes)- When I try loading all of the clips into iMovie, it promptly crashes (since that's a TON of video to throw at it)- My plan was to load each clip individually into iMovie and take what I want off of it and export that as a new, smaller .mov - this option appears, on the first two tries, to take upwards of 4 hours for a 7 minute clip I am a total newb at video editing and would be open to any options people would have. And please be kind...my nerves are frayed after doing this for two days--using web tutorials, advice from friends, and my own intuition--and getting nowhere. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
OOO Posted October 1, 2009 Share Posted October 1, 2009 I'm in the process of editing my demo tape for broadcasting and can't quite get the hang of using iMovie. There's no shot at getting Final Cut or anything like that, so iMovie is my only option. Here's where I'm at now: - All of my raw footage is loaded on the computer as .mov files (all the clips are between 30 and 50 minutes)- When I try loading all of the clips into iMovie, it promptly crashes (since that's a TON of video to throw at it)- My plan was to load each clip individually into iMovie and take what I want off of it and export that as a new, smaller .mov - this option appears, on the first two tries, to take upwards of 4 hours for a 7 minute clip I am a total newb at video editing and would be open to any options people would have. And please be kind...my nerves are frayed after doing this for two days--using web tutorials, advice from friends, and my own intuition--and getting nowhere. Do you have Snow Leopard? If so you can open up any of the clips in Quicktime and trim them down to the short clips you want very easily. I often do this to larger clips before I import them into iMovie just so I don't have to wait for iMovie to transcode them into the format it wants. You can do the same thing with Quicktime Pro in earlier versions of OSX, but yeah, if you have Snow Leopard you're good to go. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
virtualreason Posted October 1, 2009 Author Share Posted October 1, 2009 I don't have Snow Leopard (even though, as a student, I can purchase it for $29). Can I assume that Quicktime Pro is not standard on Macs? Obviously there's QT on here, but I'm not sure about QT Pro. And, for full disclosure, I'm using my boyfriend's computer to do this and I'm nearly 100% Mac illiterate--you're totally leading the blind here. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
m_to_the_c Posted October 1, 2009 Share Posted October 1, 2009 Are you using a desktop computer or a laptop? If it is possible, use a desktop with a souped up processor and TONS of memory. I spent part of September trying to edit a project with Adobe Premiere Pro on a MacBook (I was on the road) that I had to scrap and reassemble because the machine couldn't keep up and kept giving me error messages that went away once I was back at my desk on the big machine. If you are using iMovie 08 or 09, consider backstepping to iMovie HD (which is 06) as it's somewhat more stable. Your instinct to trim down each clip individually before bringing the sum of the parts together is right on. Just make sure you use the same settings. Good luck! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Speed Racer Posted October 1, 2009 Share Posted October 1, 2009 I don't have Snow Leopard (even though, as a student, I can purchase it for $29). Can I assume that Quicktime Pro is not standard on Macs? Obviously there's QT on here, but I'm not sure about QT Pro. And, for full disclosure, I'm using my boyfriend's computer to do this and I'm nearly 100% Mac illiterate--you're totally leading the blind here. You say you're a student. Your school should have at least one computer lab with a few tricked out Macs - the kind that m_to_the_c describes. At the very least, you can use a school computer to shorten the clips, reload them on to a hard drive and use your boyfriend's computer for more managable editing. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
virtualreason Posted October 2, 2009 Author Share Posted October 2, 2009 Thank you everyone for your suggestions. I did find one of those badass Macs at the library and made the files much more manageable. The video is up on youtube now and being sent to perspective employers. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Shakespeare In The Alley Posted October 2, 2009 Share Posted October 2, 2009 It was probably already said, but I'll echo it. Use iMovie HD, not whatever comes on Macs these days. HD is such an easier program to use. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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