How to take clips from Event Library and put in separate event folder?

Question

How to take clips from Event Library and put in separate event folder?

(I looked in iMovie Help menu but found no help.)

I recently did a file transfer from my Sanyo HD2000A which was a large accumulation of clips taken since last spring 2010. This was my first upload.

Now I have a lot of clips organized by date by iMovie '11. There are various categories of these clips, and one of them is +"Ducks in my back yard swimming pool."+ Another is a huge number of clips taken over time of three baby sparrows in the nest outside my window. It is a progression of how they are fed by their parents and how they grow and leave.

My plan is to get them into their own folders, filed by time/recency, and then pick and choose from those two folders/categories during the making of a movie which includes them along with other little adventures.

Question: How can I separate all of the duck clips and the sparrow clips so that they are each in their own folder and not spread out in folders organized by days?

=L

24" Intel iMac 222.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM, Mac OS X (10.6.5), Lexmark All In One printer/copier/scanner/fax. 2-terabyte external harddrive

Posted on Feb 13, 2011 11:58 AM

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Answer 1

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

151,010 points

Feb 13, 2011 12:00 PM in response to Lorna from Hawaii

Keywords. Keyword for duck. Keyword for sparrow. Sort by keyword.

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Answer 2

Feb 13, 2011 12:31 PM in response to Tom Wolsky

Keyword for each clip? I never made keywords/tags for anything yet.
I'm still lost. Sorry. -L

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Answer 3

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

151,010 points

Feb 13, 2011 12:43 PM in response to Lorna from Hawaii

You select multiple clips and apply a keyword to them.

Make sure advanced tools are on in preferences. Click the keyword button in the toolbar. Add the words ducks and sparrows. Select the clip or clips and check on the keyword you want.

At the bottom is a search button that lets you filter by keywords.

For more details check the Help menu.

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Answer 4

Feb 13, 2011 1:02 PM in response to Lorna from Hawaii

Here is a [video tutorial|http://www.apple.com/findouthow/movies/imovie08.html#tag] that shows the basics of keywords. Keep in mind that the Tutorial is based on an old version of iMovie, so you should definitely check out iMovie Help as Tom suggests so you can see the latest features. The keyword function is more powerful now.

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Answer 5

Feb 13, 2011 2:09 PM in response to AppleMan1958

Tom W. and AppleMan ~

OK, I viewed that video that AppleMan offered. However, the tutorial's main goal is not my main goal. My main goal is not just to get all clips with the same key words identified, but to get them into their own separate folder.

Then after I get all the sparrow clips in one folder, and all the ducks clips in another separate folder, I can select which clips I want to use in a new project.

I want to have those clips always in their folder for sparrows and for ducks.

-L

Message was edited by: Lorna from Hawaii

Message was edited by: Lorna from Hawaii

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Answer 6

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

151,010 points

Feb 13, 2011 2:30 PM in response to Lorna from Hawaii

You can only make folders in the project library to organize your projects. You can make new events in the events library and move clips from existing events into the event you created. This event will be in the library based on the date of the most recent footage. This actually moves the media in the hard drive directory at the finder from one place to another so you might want to be careful with this if other applications are accessing this media based on its location.

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Answer 7

Feb 13, 2011 2:39 PM in response to Tom Wolsky

Tom, ok, what I wanted to do was make a new folder for the sparrows and for the ducks in the EVENT library, not the Project library.

That last caveat you added makes me cautious. What would those "other applications accessing this media based on its location" ???

Maybe I should not be creating new events folders......................... ?

-L

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Answer 8

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

151,010 points

Feb 13, 2011 2:42 PM in response to Lorna from Hawaii

You can't make folders in the Events Library. You can only make Events, which can be used to act as folders. Those events will be replicated on your hard drive inside iMovie Events.

Other applications like GarageBand for instance.

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Answer 9

Feb 13, 2011 2:46 PM in response to Tom Wolsky

Does "making an event" mean "uploading clips/footage into the Events Library"? If so, then I understand why I cannot make a folder in the Events Library.

I am going to have to just sit and figure out how to select my duck clips, my dog clips, and my sparrow clips all from the huge stack of clips I have.
-L

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Answer 10

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

151,010 points

Feb 13, 2011 2:52 PM in response to Lorna from Hawaii

In the File menu is a selection for New Folder. If you click in Project Library that selection is available. If you click in the Events Library it is not available. There is no function for making a folder in the events library.

An event is created when you ingest video. You can create a new event or add to an existing event. Or you can make a new event and move clips into and treat it like a folder.

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Answer 11

Feb 13, 2011 3:00 PM in response to Lorna from Hawaii

Lorna, I think I understand better now what you are talking about.

So on any one clip, it will be ducks, or sparrows, but not both.

You can create a folder in the Event Library called Ducks and another folder called Sparrows. These must be in the Movies/iMovie Events folder on your internal drive, or they must be in the iMovie Events folder at the top level of an external drive.

Go through your current Event folders. Drag the duck clips to the duck folder. Drag the Sparrow clips to the Sparrow folder. I would do a MOVE, but if you have enough disk space, you could do this as a COPY until you are sure that all works as you intend.

The next time you open iMovie, it will generate thumbnails and cache for these new Duck and Sparrow events. The events will be placed in the Event Library in the month of the most recent clip, even though the clips may span several months.

If all goes well, you can delete the prior events. If there is footage still in them (that is not sparrows or ducks, for example), you could delete the thumbnails and cache folders and let iMovie regenerate thumbnails and cache after it opens.

Also, Tom's advice about not moving or renaming anything you have already used is very appropriate...
If you have already created Projects using this material, this will break the links in your projects. (Unless you did a COPY rather than a MOVE above and left both the old and new folders intact.)

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Answer 12

Mar 10, 2011 2:51 PM in response to Tom Wolsky

Tom, ok. Since I see no way out of this, I am going to pick a folder with the least clips in it and then transfer all of my duck clips to it. I am hoping that iMovie '11 will automatically place all of the duck clips in chronological order. These duck clips span from the early 2000s to March, 2011. Since my dog will be in many of the clips, I need to show my dog in chronological order — not have her at 4 years old in an early clip and then 2 years old in subsequent clips etc etc.

So ok, I will end up with a Duck Events folder. Similarly I will make a Baby Birds Event folder.

Meanwhile I am hoping that iMovie '11, which is already a wonderful program, can do what might be a very hard task and make all Duck clips show up with the touch of one Keyword. 🙂 🙂 🙂

-L

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Answer 13

Mar 10, 2011 5:35 PM in response to Tom Wolsky

Tom, Just now I looked around and at File and there WAS an option to make a NEW EVENT! Well, this makes it easy. I won't have to use another existing Event folder to house the Ducks clips, which is what I was going to do several hours ago.

-L

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Answer 14

Mar 10, 2011 5:41 PM in response to AppleMan1958

AppleMan 🙂

Well, ok, now I went to check under File and discovered that it that it IS possible to make a new Event Folder in the Event Library, so I will make several new Folders for Ducks, Sparrows, and a few others.

And you know, I love the idea of Keywords, and for themes which do not have such an abundance of clips, Keywords will work just fine, but for the themes that have accumulated clips ever since 2001, I will resort to making new Event folders.

I think it's going to be fine and I appreciate your help so much. The burden is lifted from my eyebrows.

-L

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Answer 15

Mar 10, 2011 8:49 PM in response to Lorna from Hawaii

I have good news and one question.

First, I made a new Event folder in the Event Library and titled it DUCKS. The date was automatically applied to the new Ducks folder.

Then I clicked onto all of the other Event folders and dragged all of the Duck clips to the newly created Duck folder. I see a lot of duck clips there of varying degrees of quality. Cheyenne, my dog, is in many of them too.

Now I am down to the very first/oldest folder, and here is my questiion:

*Everything in that first/original Event folder was shot with my Sony digital video camera recorder DCR-TRV 11, in, I think, the highest/best resolution possible. And that Sony used a digital CASSETTE. All the other footage was shot with my newer, smaller, lighter, pistol grip Sanyo VPC-HD2000A, not at the highest resolution. The Sanyo uses a flash card.*

Therefore: Should it be ok to have that earlier footage shot with my Sony digital video camera MIXED IN with the footage that I shot with my new Sanyo VPC-HD2000A which was NOT shot at the highest resolution?

I have not yet put the Duck clips from the Sony camcorder into the newly made Ducks folder because first I need to know the answer to the next question:

*Should I drag the Sony clips into the new Events folder and do anything different or should I just work in iMovie '11 as if nothing is different?*

Now that I have made the new Event folder and have made the clip transfers (all except for the Sony digital video camera recorder DCR-TRV 11 footage), I feel confident about doing the same with the Birds Hatching In the Bird Nest footage.

I just need to know the answer to that question.

Thank you so much.

-L

Message was edited by: Lorna from Hawaii

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