iMovie: whats the fastest way to import and save all original media?

Good afternoon. Ok I need help please. Is there a way to simply take all the imported original media and just save it all in one fell swoop? Rather than having to import and then process/export clip by clip.

I thought I had a quicker way just grabbing all the original media from the imported camera (right clicking imovie library > show package contents > original media) untill I tried to play one of the original media files - no sound and it was mov file. I assume mp4 is better???

I have 2800 hours of video I need to import off my camera. I don't need to modify them at all, aside from the occasional combining of clips into one movie. So I need the fastest way. Importing and then exporting clip by clip will take me forever. I would prefer to just import and then just drag all 50 clips or so into my movies folder. But as stated above that does not seem to work as expected unless I'm missing a step.

Thank you!