Can iMovie edit Projects without importing video files?

Yes, you are correct. When you load original media into iMovie it makes a duplicate original that is stored in the iMovie library. So you use up double space. No way to avoid unless you delete the original media from its location outside of iMovie. Generally, deleting your original media from its location outside of

iMovie may not be wise because you never want to have your original media stored only in iMovie. If the iMovie library became corrupted, or if your iMovie app became obsolete as it yields to future versions, you might have trouble getting your files out of iMovie.

For information, the iMovie app does not store any files within itself. Rather, it refers to the media that is stored in the iMovie library. I keep my original media on external drives and load the clips into iMovie as needed.

One option is to export the project as an independent movie file to your desktop or elsewhere, and then you can delete the files from the iMovie library. The downside is that the project would be disabled and you would not be able to edit or amend it, or export from it again. However, you would still have your original media stored separately, unless you deleted it after loading into iMovie.

File space is relatively inexpensive to purchase. So you can easily store any original media on an external drive.

-- Rich

Hi,

The original media that is used in the iMovie project is contained in a finder folder within the iMovie library. No way to avoid that.

Projects that are exported out as a video file can be stored anywhere that you want.

-- Rich

A very interesting project for your dad.

I have never used H.265 so am not familiar with any app that can capture from tape directly into H.265

If your dad can settle for H264 then Quick Time Player " New Movie Recording" produces H264 for the "High"

setting ( ProRes for Maximum which you won't want to use due to very large file size ). One long clip is produced unlike iMovie/FCP producing scene breaks. QTP New Movie Recording is more resilient to glitches/drop-outs on the tape than using iMovie/FCP , making capture more successful from tape recorded many years ago.

If you cannot find an app to capture directly to H265 but have to, say, capture to .dv or H264 first and then convert to H265, then you will know that each re-encoding step could affect the quality, albeit marginal.

Your dad might want, if not done already, to check that the camcorder can be recognised in iMovie and Quick Time Player "New Movie Recording". More recent Macs and OSs with those adaptors can cause problems regarding camcorder recognition .No hard and fast reasons why, but it can happen.Better to know sooner than later.Some find thatQTP recognises their DV camcorder when iMovie/FCP does not.

From personal experience some years ago ,doing much the same as your dad is doing, I would suggest that he tests his chosen workflow with a small sample of video from the HandBrake conversions and the MiniDV capture with editing e.t.c. right through to how the final video is going to be viewed i.e. delivery.

Rather find out now that your workflow is successful right through to delivery ,than decide that you have to change something ,that took you many many hours, and you have to do it all again a different way.

What you don't want is any surprises or disappointment, especially with 35 years of footage.

Hope all goes well, and expect that with your dad's footage spanning 35 years, that you will be featured in it.

Bet you can't wait to see the final " Home Video"

You are welcome. I wish your father total success with his project.

-- Rich

You say that your dad is now in the process of capturing and transcoding all the videos from VHS, miniDV, and DVD to an external HDD.

Has he already started to do this?

If yes, has he used iMovie to capture the miniDV tapes or some other app?

How is he capturing the VHS? Analog to digital converter and then into iMovie?

Perhaps the miniDV camcorder has passthrough ( analog to digital conversion) and he is using that to convert the VHS to digital ( .dv ) and then into iMovie directly?

If iMovie has been used to capture the miniDV ( .dv ) then, as you know, these files reside within an iMovie library and there is no duplication here as there is not another copy of this on your Mac or external HDD, unless of course you decide to copy it for backup.

If your dad used FCP to capture these tapes instead of iMovie then the same scenario would exist, so I do not see any advantage in learning FCP to do this.

It certainly is a handy feature to have " leave files in place" but if they have already been captured into iMovie or FCP, then you don't need it.

When converting DVD for iMovie then the converted video has to be imported into iMovie so duplication is unavoidable, but you can always delete the original converted video if you don't want to keep it.In this particular case leave files in place could be used for FCP, hence no duplication.

Again, how is your dad converting the VHS? What model is the miniDV camcorder? It may have the analog to digital conversion mode that you may not be aware of, which is very handy.