Q: How long should an "iMovie project finalization" take?

Depends on your computer.  I'm not by my iMac but with an aluminum iMac that is about 3 years old, I'd say 20 minutes to Export just a Large movie would be about an hour, Medium and Mobile owould be less and HD might be 2 hours.  I believe Finalize creates one of each version.

Michele Gardner wrote:

I believe Finalize creates one of each version.

Yes, that's correct. And it also explains why it takes much longer than just using a single Share export option, such as Share>Media Browser. I find that it's best if you export in the size (or sizes) required, rather than exporting in all sizes using Finalize Project.

John

I totally agree.

Hello. I made a movie in iMovie that it's time is about 3 hours. I clicked the finalize project and it writes the time remaining to the finalization finished is about 100 hours and now my computer is stuck (i'm writing from another computer). It is MacBook Air OS X Lion and it says it's an HD movie (1080p) and i dont know how to change it.

what can i do? is it normal that it takes 100 hours?

oh and can i do export instead of the finalize? whats the diffrence?

You do want to export instead of finalize. The name Apple gives finalize is unfortunate because it doesn't do what you are thinking it is doing. What Apple has Finalize do is create many copies of your project at different sizes. That's what it does, why does it do it? Hard to say, but I think they reasoned that once you make those different sizes you can share them to all the devices in your house you would ever watch video on (Apple TV, iPhone, iPod, etc.) That's what Apple defines as Finalize.

To export, you would go to the Share Menu > Export Movie...

Then save it to the desktop in the large size. This will create a movie file with an extension .m4v and iTunes will seem to be the only thing that can play back the movie. However you can rename the movie to .mp4 and then view it with VLC, QuickTime, etc. And even upload it to Youtube if you have an account there. But be forewarned also that Events Folders of your iMovie will start to take up lots of space on your MacBook Air. So get an external Hard drive if you can and start moving stuff off of the MB Air before you fill up your hard drive.

great post - you just saved me HOURS! thanks...I am not so impressed by iMovie - it's not that intuitive...

Yeah, it does require some amount of reading and consultation that's for sure. Now that I have saved you HOURS, maybe then try on this website:

http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/imovie_09_stone.html

Ken Stone did a great tutorial for iMovie '09 some years back, however iMovie '11 is very similar on a number of fronts that it's still very useful. It may help you over some rough patches you might run into as you create more projects. Good Luck!

Totally helpful. Thanks for saving me hours.

Seriously dude...

A million thank you from me an pd those who follow.

I looovvveeee you guys, thank you so much. I worked on a project of our Walt Disney Vacation for almost a year now and I was so discouraged that Finalizing the project was taking 24 hours and not working in the end. To export was the key !!!! Wow I love the Internet, I always find answer from amazing people like you guys. Million thanks :)

uncheck add to threater ... simple

If you're using Yosemite and iMovie 10, then this is a great tip! Saves hours.

Can I see how far along the sharing is taking? I shared it to the desktop and it says it has 0 KB and nothing seems to be changing. I tried sharing it again and now I'm afraid I have 2 going, what should I do? I also wanted to save as an .mov so I could burn to DVD but it doesn't give an option for the format. I can use a converter to change to .mov but seems like an extra step that wouldn't be needed if iMovie already did it. Am I missing something?