How can I delete unused parts of the video footage

After trimming your clips you can 'delete' the unused portions by selecting them and hitting the backspace key. Whole clips can be dealt with in a similar way and it does not matter if you 'delete' from the timeline or the clip pane.

Command+T is the keyboard shortcut to use to trim selected footage or a selected sound track. iMovie HELP will explain that.

That does not reduce your iMovie file size though because the rejected footage ends up in the iMovie Trash. But you can permanently delete it from there by clicking on the Trash icon at the bottom right of the iMovie window. You will be offered a Save Movie and Delete Clips option which is usually what you need.

There is a problem that can arise from emptying the iMovie trash, before the project is finished. It has happened to me. Somehow, on occasion, after working the project, saving, closing and then re-opening the project, I have had things end up in the trash mysteriously and iMovie will show an alert that "some files are in the trash - do you want to view them?" I choose no and find that my movie is still intact.

If you empty the trash before you finish the project however, you MAY lose portions of your movie because those files in the trash are still somehow playing a role in your movie production. I think a rule of thumb mentioned here before is to leave the trash alone until you are sure you have completed your project.

Forest

you can permanently delete it from there by clicking on the Trash icon at the bottom right of the iMovie window.

Hi Alan - no, actually even doing that will not remove the clips from the project's Media folder, unless no portion of that clip is being used in the movie. Remember, iMovie HD is a 'non-destructive' video editor.

Message was edited by: catspaw

Hi attila - if no part of a clip is used in your final movie, then it can be trashed and it will disappear when you save your project. But if any part of a clip is used then you cannot delete the unused portion, even although you have 'trashed' it - the entire clip still remains in the Media folder of your project. This is a function of iMovie's 'non-destructive' editing method.
One way of saving space is to share your movie to Full Quality Quicktime, then if needed that file can be imported into a new project. Note however, that it will come in as one clip, so transitions etc will now be embedded. Some editing can still be done, of course.

Well I agree iMovie (just like Aperture) is a non-destructive editor. But that does NOT mean you cannot permanently delete unused footage in iMovie. Just think about what having a 'no-delete possible under any circumstances' kind of application would mean; folks would be bombarding the Discussions pages complaining that their hard drives were full of junk they could not get rid of.

The iMovie HD interface displays the hard disc capacity remaining. When you delete the iMovie Trash that remaining disc capacity increases by the volume of the Trash deleted. This is readable in real time. Deleted clips are NOT visible in the Media pane.

Finding stray files in the Trash is usually down to small changes made to transitions and other minor tweaks that were not deleted the last time the project was closed. Such small changes are often made after a final polish review. I have never found a problem deleting them nor any damage occuring to my project as a result.

AW.

that does NOT mean you cannot permanently delete unused footage in iMovie. Just think about what having a 'no-delete possible under any circumstances' kind of application would mean; folks would be bombarding the Discussions pages complaining that their hard drives were full of junk they could not get rid of.

Hi Alan - that is precisely what happens. This board has been frequently 'bombarded' with just that issue. Do a search for 'non-destructive editing' and you will see what I mean! While I certainly agree with you that totally unused clips can be permanently deleted, the unused portions of clips that are partially used in a project cannot be permanently trashed (even if only one frame of a clip is used).
Of course, if the project itself is trashed then all goes - permanently!:-)


Message was edited by: catspaw

Well in my defense of the indefensible here I can only say it has not caused me to have a noticeable problem. But then my own iMovies are less than 9 gb as a rule.

Apologies to one and all and thanks for your patient input.

AW.

Just to add on to what has already been mentioned, I would just like to add that exporting back to tape as well will help you out. The same thing goes for exporting to quicktime though, as far as having less options to make any future edits.

The best way to avoid this problem is to be organized when initally importing your footage. Draw up a storyboard and have a good idea of what will and what won't be used. Just as a sidebar, I imported almost 50 hours into Final Cut Pro (different program, same idea) when I did my first 2-hour feature film, thinking I would just import everything and then figure it out later. Well, the next thing you know my hard drive space shrunk up and I started to experience numerous problems. It's much better for your workflow and your computer's hard drive space to efficientally import your footage.

Hope this makes sense.

+The best way to avoid this problem is to be organized when initally importing your footage+

That is indeed the best tactic to employ. Either change the clip parameters in Prefs to suit your purpose and/or be really choosy about what you import by doing it manually and selectively.

I'm sorry if I'm bringing up a bunch of things that have already been discussed, but I'm still a bit confused. I have an avi file that I've imported into imovie in order to edit it, and am having the same problem of a ton of disk space being eaten up, with no way of relieving it even when I delete portions of the clip. From what I've read so far, it seems that, because all of the clips I've "deleted" were from one imported file, I cannot really delete them. Is there no way around this? My imovie so far is ridiculously massive, and I haven't even finished it. Any further clarification or help on this issue would be really appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Hi ms.zebra - as you haven't yet finished editing your big movie, this may not be feasible. But you can Share to Full Quality Quicktime. This will create a much slimmer version (because the unused portions are genuinely excluded). You can in fact do some more editing after that has been re-imported into an iMovie project, although previously-placed transitions, titles and effects are embedded, and can't be further altered. If going with this suggestion, I would suggest you quickly go through the rest of the long clip, cutting out what you don't want, but not doing any other editing, then doing what I have suggested above.

ms.zebra wrote:
... I have an avi file ... From what I've read so far, it seems that, because all of the clips I've "deleted" were from one imported file, I cannot really delete them. Is there no way around this? My imovie so far is ridiculously massive, ...

iMHD6 is part of iLife, meant to work with miniDV devcices.. which usually encode in 13GB/h ..
iMovie is meant for the hobbyist' project: import a tape, edit it, done - erase it.
video is a harddrive eater.. for sure, there're playback codecs, which 'crunch' hours of video into a few MB files.. but those are not meant for editing puposes.. so, 'ridiculous' depends on point of view..
and, iM is no 'word processor', where you're able to erase pages to save a few bytes on a harddrive.. 😉
the concept of this app is under the credo of somplicity & convenience.. all the nice features, back to original, untrim, step back, etc.. need that 'undistructiveness' ...

get a bigger harddrive.. you get tons of Gigs for <100$ ...