I have 2-3 TB of iMovie HD projects imported from my dv camera - all are located on external drives that I connect to my computer when I need to use them.
Events and Project are different in iMovie 11, and I think you will find it better. An Event contains your raw dv clips. They are organized as a database containing the raw clip, a thumbnail of the clip, stabilization info (optional), and cache files.
Projects are where you edit your clips into a finished movie. Behind the scenes, projects are also a database. It is a text file in hexadecimal that contains references to the Event clips, including in and out points, descriptions of special effects to be applied, titles, references to music and photos from iTunes or iPhoto, audio adjustments, etc. You can see these edits in real time as you edit, but they are officially applied when you render the project using the Share menu.
This has huge advantages for organization of clips. Once you import a clip or clips into an Event, you can use those clips in one project or multiple projects, all without duplicating the space. Also, a single project can use clips from multiple events, all without duplicating a space.
iMovie 6 was kind of a nightmare of duplicated space, because it was built on a tape-centric model, and it assumed that no one would keep a project on disk, but would write it out to tape. So it could be very inefficient with regards to space. In iMovie 06, you might import a tape into a project. Then you apply titles or effects or edits. Those files are duplicated so you can always revert back to a previous state, so you start getting multiple copies of each clip you have edited. Then, if you decide to use the tape in another project, you again have duplication. The second project cannot see that the clips exist in the other project, so they have to be imported again.
In iMovie 11, your DV clips will exist one time in one event, but they can be used over and over in multiple projects, without taking up duplicate space. Yet you still have nondestructive editing, because to revert back to a previous state is just to revert back to an earlier state of the text file.
I primarily make clips from the videos (each project is about an hour long and the clips are 1-2 minutes to show a specific technique.) I've been using iMovie HD a long time so I'm familiar with it. I can learn iMovie 11 if needed. My biggest questions are about the organization of my projects, importing to iMovie 11 - should I just leave the projects as they are and then import the project that I need to take the clip from? That way part of my video will be in iMovie HD format and part in iMovie 11?
There are two ways you could go. (and a third that I will mention)
1) You can import iMovie 6 projects into iMovie 11. In this case, your import from tape becomes the iMovie 11 event. Your timeline will become an iMovie 11 Project. Photos and Music and Titles will not be imported. Any transitions will be replaced with a simple cross fade. More here. http://help.apple.com/imovie/#mov39f853b1
2) You could import from tape into iMovie 11. This would give you a chance to organize your clips into logical events. Alternatively, you could find your original DV clips within the iMovie 6 project and import from there.
3) A third item I will mention. Somtimes people will write a completed iMovie 6 project out to tape. Then the want to import that project into iMovie. They find that iMovie will import the tape into an Event, and the clips will be organized within the Event in chronological order as they were shot. If you want to import a finished movie into iMovie 11, then rather than importing from tape in DV Stream, you should use iMovie 6 to Export To QuickTIme using DV Codec. This will produce an MOV file in the DV codec, which can be imported into iMovie in the edited order rather than the order in which it was shot.
Also - I really need a way to keep everything organized - right now my iMovie HD projects are in folders by event - e.g. 10 projects to a date and location. What's the best way to do this so I can stay organized?
If you import your iMovie 06 projects, You will have an event with the project name and a project with the same project name, although you can change the names later if you want.
If you import from tape, or use FILE/IMPORT MOVIE from the raw DV files within the iMOvie 6 project, then you can organize the clips into logical events. By default, iMovie will group all clips from the same day into a single event, although you can specify that all clips from a tape (or from a SDHC Card) should go into a single event rather than being splt be day. For example, what if you shot a football game and a birthday party on the same date. They would be imported into the same event, but you could split the event later into two events. On the other hand, iMovie might split an event into - let's say - Sept 1, Sept 2, and Sept 3 for three separate events. However, you can combine these into a single event called Labor Day Weekend if you want.
Events will be sorted by the date you shot them. You can have your events sorted by year, or by year and month.
I need to slow some of the clips down to show slow motion
iMovie 11 has slow motion. It is easy to use. See this video. You are limited to even numbers like 12.5%, 25%, 50%, 75%, etc.
http://www.apple.com/findouthow/movies/#timing
I've also had trouble sharing the video footage with others I teach with - began using dropbox and that was a good start but my colleagues that have newer macs and don't have iMovie HD weren't able to see/use the video projects after I'd imported them from the camera to iMovie HD - best solution?
I would suggest that you share finished movies with your colleagues rather than works in progress. You can do this in either iMovie 11 or iMovie 06 by using the Share menu and rendering in h.264. For Mac users, you can use the standard presets. For Windows users, they can see the standard h.264 movies if they have the free QuickTime Player for Windows installed. If not, you can Share using QuickTime to an MP4 container in the h.264 codec. (You could also share in DV, but it would be a much larger file, with no corresponding benefit in quality).
You could also share through YouTube, etc.
I use iDVD occasionally to burn an entire project (about an hour) to a DVD - have used the chapter feature and don't know if it works the same with iMovie 11.
Here is how the Chapter feature works in iMovie 11.
When you get ready to burn a DVD, use the Share menu to Share to the Media Browser in Large size. You can then find your project in the Media Browser of iDVD and drag it into an iDVD project.
Be sure to keep your current copy of iDVD, because Apple does not sell it anymore.
This will probably bring up more questions in your mind. Feel free to ask.
