iMovie ’08: Moving iMovie footage to another drive

iMovie ’08 stores your project in two parts: the event video (Event files) and the projects (Project files).

Event Files

• The Event file contains all of the video from the camcorder.
• This file is usually relatively large.
• By default, these files are stored in ~/Movies/iMovie Events.
  
  
  Figure Events folder

Project Files

• The Project file contains instructions on how to assemble pieces of video from the Event, as well as any titles, transitions, or audio added to the project.
• This file is usually relatively small.
• By default, these files are stored in ~/Movies/iMovie Projects.
  
  
  Figure Projects folder

You can have multiple project files which reference the same Event video.

Storing Events

If you begin to run out of hard disk space, you can capture Event video directly to an external drive:

1. Connect an external hard disk via FireWire.
2. Make sure the disk is formatted as Mac OS X Extended.
3. When importing, select this disk as the destination from the pop-up menu in the import sheet.
   
   
   Figure Import sheet

Moving Events

If you need to create space on your internal hard drive, you can move existing Events to the drive without breaking their connection to existing projects. Keep in mind that the external drive needs to be connected when working with a Project that uses this video.

To move Event video to another hard disk, use the iMovie interface (and not the Finder) as follows:

1. Connect an external hard disk that is formatted as Mac OS X Extended via FireWire.
2. From the View menu, select Events By Volume, or click the hard disk icon in the Events pane.
3. Drag and drop the Event from the computer list in the Events pane to the external hard drive icon in the Events pane.

This moves the Event to the external hard disk while retaining the connection to any projects that use this video.

Figure Moving an Event

Moving Projects

If you need to move a Project to another computer, copy both the Project file and the Event to the secondary computer. Place them in the appropriate locations before launching iMovie:

• ~/Movies/iMovie Events/
• ~/Movies/iMovie Projects/

If there is not enough room for the Event video, move the Event to an external hard disk using the instructions in the Moving Events section above before moving the Project to the other computer. Connect the external hard disk to the computer before opening iMovie.

Warning: Moving Projects or Events to other folders, drives or computers without following the instructions in this article may result in an unusable Project or Event in iMovie.