Mac iMovie file size help! Which I know isn't a question...?

Question

I made a seven minute movie, edited on iMovie. I'm entering the disc in an amateur competition, and the movie needs to play right off the disc.

Now the thing is over seven gigs, and I can't burn it to a disc. There's no DVD burner. I guess I need to shrink the file size, but I don't know.

Answer 1

Does your Mac have iDVD? Do you have access to a Mac with a Super Drive? Transfer the project to iDVD, create menus then follow these directions.

Backing up or transferring your iDVD project to another computer

You can archive, or save, your iDVD project to back it up or transfer it to another computer. This is useful in an environment with several computers, such as a computer lab, where only certain computers contain a SuperDrive for burning DVDs.

When you archive and transfer your project, iDVD keeps all the assets (movies, photos, audio files, themes, and the files in the DVD-ROM section of the project) together and linked. If you used a special font in your project, make sure that font is installed on the computer where you transfer your project. Otherwise, you won't see the font in your project.

To archive your iDVD project:

1.

Choose File > Archive Project, and then click Save.

2.

Type a name for your archived project.

3.

Locate the folder where you want to save the project. The size of the current project is displayed in the Archive Project dialog.

4.

Click "Include themes" if you want to archive the themes with the project. Select this option if you are using custom themes that might not exist on another computer, or if you want to be able to use your theme in future versions of iDVD.

5.

Click "Include encoded files" so the project files won't need to be reencoded after being moved to a different location. To save time and hard disk space, leave this option unchecked.

6.

Click Save. Your project is saved with the word "Archived" in the file name.

For a good indication of how long archiving will take, check the minutes used in the DVD Capacity meter in the Status pane of the Customize drawer. Archiving a project can take some time, since all the data in the project must be copied, relinked, and then reloaded. A progress bar shows that your project is being archived. You can cancel at any time.

If you only have permission to read the assets (audio, photos, and movies) you use in an iDVD project, other users will not be able to copy or open your archived project. To let others open or copy the project, before archiving, select the asset or a folder of assets, choose File > Get Info, click the triangle to the left of "Ownership & Permissions," then click the triangle to the left of "Details." Choose Read & Write from the Others pop-up menu. Click "Apply to enclosed items" to set the permission for the contents of any folders.

If you make any changes to your project after archiving it, you need to archive it again.

Tip: You can also create a completely encoded version of your project as a disk image and transfer this disk image to other computers or burn it on disc. To create a disk image, chooose File > Save As Disk Image. The disk image will require less space than a fully archived project.

Answer 2

After you save the movie in iMovie, go to File > Share. Then select the QuickTime tab (usually is the default selection). Change "Compress movie for:" to "CD-ROM" and then click "Share" or change it to Expert Settings. Then click Share. You will get a window where you can choose the export option such as "Movie to Flash video" or "Movie to MPEG-4". To the right of that, click "Options..." You can change the options and see the size listed below. Most CDs will hold 700MB.