Any Apple iMovie experts out there?

[Goldie Munro]

I need help with a major iMovie problem - anyone who knows anything about Macs will probably know a hell of a lot more than me!

 

[3113]

I need help with a major iMovie problem - anyone who knows anything about Macs will probably know a hell of a lot more than me!

You need to go here--the iMovie section of the Apple Discussions site. There might be an iMovie expert here, but you're much more likely to find several there who can give you different ways to solve your problem.

Let us know how it goes!

 

[Goldie Munro]

You need to go here--the iMovie section of the Apple Discussions site. There might be an iMovie expert here, but you're much more likely to find several there who can give you different ways to solve your problem.

Let us know how it goes!

Thanks - I am already there but had no replies yet - I'm covering all bases!

 

[neonlyte]

What is the problem?

I've edited a few iMovie 'movies'.

 

[Goldie Munro]

What is the problem?

I've edited a few iMovie 'movies'.

Well the problem is that I deleted all the files in the trash and all the iMovie files disappeared as well. I have recently installed Pro Cut Express and have been having disk space problems and gliches ever since.

I need to get the files back and i need to know what has happened to ensure it doesn't happen again!

 

[neonlyte]

Well the problem is that I deleted all the files in the trash and all the iMovie files disappeared as well. I have recently installed Pro Cut Express and have been having disk space problems and gliches ever since.

I need to get the files back and i need to know what has happened to ensure it doesn't happen again!

The iMovie trash files cannot be recovered once deleted. Sorry but that is how it is. You should still have the original media files and will need to re-edit.

If you can, use a seperate hard drive for your movie files, particularly with Final Cut Express, it needs to keep all the files in once place. If you move files, you need to find them effectively 'by hand' to enable the edited movie to work. This happens because despite appearances, Final Cut does not actually save your edit, it saves markers to tell it which bits of files to play, thus if you move a file, it loses the track to that file. This also explains disk space problems, the edited movie you think you are saving is actually much much bigger than you think. You need to edit the length of movie files to reduce their file size before importing them to Final Cut Express, editing in Final Cut Express does not always reduce the file size unless you actually 'cut and discard' the unwanted portion.

Although it is possible to use iMovie edits in Final Cut Express, many compatability problems arise. Solving the problems often takes longer than re-editing direct to Final Cut Express.

I've found the most economic way of working is to either rough edit in something like Quicktime Pro and import the rough edit to Final Cut Express or rough edit direct from camera. Doing what Final Cut tell you, ie: run the video and set markers where you want edits, uses massive amounts of memory.

Hope that helps.

ETA: www.gust.tv/tutorials/finalcutexpress/ - might be useful, certainly easier than wading through the FCExp manual

 

[Goldie Munro]

The iMovie trash files cannot be recovered once deleted. Sorry but that is how it is. You should still have the original media files and will need to re-edit.

If you can, use a seperate hard drive for your movie files, particularly with Final Cut Express, it needs to keep all the files in once place. If you move files, you need to find them effectively 'by hand' to enable the edited movie to work. This happens because despite appearances, Final Cut does not actually save your edit, it saves markers to tell it which bits of files to play, thus if you move a file, it loses the track to that file. This also explains disk space problems, the edited movie you think you are saving is actually much much bigger than you think. You need to edit the length of movie files to reduce their file size before importing them to Final Cut Express, editing in Final Cut Express does not always reduce the file size unless you actually 'cut and discard' the unwanted portion.

Although it is possible to use iMovie edits in Final Cut Express, many compatability problems arise. Solving the problems often takes longer than re-editing direct to Final Cut Express.

I've found the most economic way of working is to either rough edit in something like Quicktime Pro and import the rough edit to Final Cut Express or rough edit direct from camera. Doing what Final Cut tell you, ie: run the video and set markers where you want edits, uses massive amounts of memory.

Hope that helps.

ETA: www.gust.tv/tutorials/finalcutexpress/ - might be useful, certainly easier than wading through the FCExp manual

Thanks for the info - but I wasn't using Final Cut - I had just installed it and was trying to create disk space by deleting the trash - my main concern is that while deleting the trash it deleted files from another application - iMovie. Is this possible?

 

[neonlyte]

Thanks for the info - but I wasn't using Final Cut - I had just installed it and was trying to create disk space by deleting the trash - my main concern is that while deleting the trash it deleted files from another application - iMovie. Is this possible?

Presumably you were emptying trash through Finder? I just tried this, stuck a old movie file in iMovie trash and emptied trash through Finder. The iMovie trash stayed. Don't know why you lost your files and can only commiserate; I know just how frustrating that can be.

Just on FC Exp - you need massive amounts of hard disk space, particularly if working with audio, allow three times the disc space you might need for a similar iMovie edit.