How to edit an imovie MP4 video again?

Question

How to edit an imovie MP4 video again?

I have created a number of movies a few months back with title etc but now need the original file without the titles. How can I get it back? Thanks.

iMovie '11, Mac OS X (10.7.5)

Posted on Mar 14, 2014 3:02 PM

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Answer 1

GeeD

Level 6

9,179 points

Mar 16, 2014 4:14 PM in response to Imoviebeginner2014

You should be able to drag your .mp4 video into a new event then create a new project and edit it as you wish.

If you only want to remove sections of the movie (the titles?) you can do this with Quicktime Player 7 pro or Quicktime player 10 (the latest).

See: http://support.apple.com/kb/PH5879

Geoff.

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Answer 2

Mar 21, 2014 1:53 PM in response to GeeD

Hi Geoff,

thanks for your response. I can drag my mp4 into an event and can create a new project. Then I can edit (add titles, seperate audio etc) in imovie and don't need Quicktime Player. But what I can't edit (delete) are titles that are in the movie itself. So I search for a way to basically get back my original pure video, without the editing I did and that I saved it into this new file. Unfortunately I only kept the mp4 file and not the original from the camera. Makes sense?

Thanks for any hints, cheers

Urs

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Answer 3

Mar 23, 2014 4:44 AM in response to mtngoatjoe@mac.com

Good idea and of course I use Time Machine ... Unfortunately, so far I do not save the original file and only the completed project on my NAS. Because I was under the assumption that I can always take the project and modify it again, if needed. I can't believe that once the project is done there is no way to re-edit again. Please, someone must know the answer ... 😕

Thanks,

Urs

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Answer 4

GeeD

Level 6

9,179 points

Mar 23, 2014 5:01 AM in response to Imoviebeginner2014

When you say you save the completed project do you mean the .mp4 movie file ?

You need the iMovie projects and iMovie Events folders in order to do more editing. The project files (with extension .rcproject) contains the instructions on what iMovie has to do with the raw clips, stills, titles etc wheras the .mp4 file is just a movie from which you can't extract the components and for example remove titles.

If there are only a few titles you want to change or eliminate you could perhaps put the .mp4 file back into iMovie and cut outthe parts with unwanted titles and replace them with the appropriate clips from your events.

Geoff.

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Answer 5

Mar 23, 2014 2:29 PM in response to GeeD

Woah, that's a learning. So one always needs to save the finished project in mp4 but also the raw material.

I have version 10.0.2. So all the raw material is saved in one big file "imovie-Mediathek", correct? There is no way to take the version from December of that big file and get somewhere back the raw material from December with Time Machine?

Thanks,

Urs

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Answer 6

GeeD

Level 6

9,179 points

Mar 23, 2014 4:52 PM in response to Imoviebeginner2014

You need to keep the 'raw material' if you ever want to do more editing. Now I know you are using iMovie 10 and not iMovie 9 as I had assumed, your raw material is mostly in a package with the extension .imovielibrary but, depeding on the source, some may be linked to your iPhoto or iTunes libraries. You can 'Consolidate media' which ensures everything is in the library.

I am not clear exactly what you have saved with Time machine.

I have a folder called iMovie Backups which is automatically updated after each session but I've never tried to recover anyhting from it and now can't find any documentation for it. Have a look in your <user name>/ Movies folder.

Geoff.

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Answer 7

Mar 21, 2014 2:12 PM in response to Imoviebeginner2014

Do you use Time Machine? You might be able to get the original files back with that.

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