What Does Finalize Project Do? iMovie 11

Finalize Project will render your project in all sizes available. This may take some time, so you may want to do it overnight or while you are away from the computer. Once you have done it, you can share to iTunes, MobileMe, FaceBook, YouTube, etc, and you only have to worry about the network time. It does not have to render again.

Hi,
Can you force iMovie to only finalize in one size? I'm making some videos to upload to YouTube and I only want to finalize for medium format - it would save both time on finalizing and also leave smaller iMovie files as well but I can't find what setting I need to change in order for this to happen, if indeed such an option exists.
Thanks.

No not that I have found. 😟

-- Dan
Keeper of TheUnofficialiMovieFAQ.com

If you share to YouTube before you finalize, it should give you the option to pick which size or sizes.

Yes - that would make sense.
I did that for the first upload to YouTube and the size of the saved project is a whole lot smaller than subsequent ones where I finalized and then uploaded.

after you have finalized it, can you still go back and edit it some more?

Yes but you will get a warning saying you will have to "Finalize" again.

-- Dan
Keeper of TheUnofficialiMovieFAQ.com

Why was Finalize added when its the same thing as Sharing to Media Browser in all sizes?

When you share directly to YouTube (for example) on a big movie, it might take an hour to render and an hour to upload. If it fails, it can be hard to know if the failure was in the render or in the connection to YouTube. This let's you render, make sure all is well, watch it, and then send to YouTube.

With 1080P, the render can take a lot longer than before, so you can let it render while you are away, or overnight, and then send various sizes where they need to go. For example you might send 1080P to YouTube or to Toast, but you would never need to send 1080P to iTunes, so 1080P is not even an option there.

But you are right, it is the same thing as sharing to Media Browser in all sizes.

Thanks for confirming its the same thing. Interesting choice for them to add it, but I agree and do the same thing myself... but using Media Browser 🙂

Can anyone tell me where imovie saves the small, medium and large files it produces when you click Finalize Project under File?

They are embedded in the project file package.

Can anyone tell me where imovie saves the small, medium and large files it produces when you click Finalize Project under File?

As Tom states, they are embedded in the project file package. To access this, right-click (or Control-click) on the project name in the iMovie Projects folder (on your internal drive, this is in your User>Movies folder). Select "Show Package Contents" from the pop-up menu. In the Movies folder you will see the various exported movies.

John

actually you can export in imovie, when you are happy with the movie click on the "movie projects" button at the top right, select your project with right click, and you can exprt the movie...