PE2_iMovie

Screen shot from http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=450

One of my resolutions for 2011 is to become more organized - so there is no better place for me to start than by developing a system to keep my video projects organized so that I can find clips and projects easily.  The iMovie '09 Essentials Training video suggested the use of an external hard drive that is dedicated to my video project library.  So after consulting with my friend Sue who is one of the business consultants at my local Apple Retail Store, I decided to get a 1TB "My Passport SE for Mac" because it has a large storage capacity, is light weight, extremely portable, fits easily in the palm of my hand and matches the silver color of my MacBook Pro and my 24" iMac.

As you can see from these screen shots, I connected the drive to one of my computer's USB ports and labeled it as "Dr Jude's Videos" in order to distinguish it from my other external drive called "Full Sail EMDT."  I also created two folders - one for Full Sail Video Projects and another for UWM Video Projects.  Within the Full Sail Video Projects folder I added sub-folders for each of the first four courses in the EMDT program.  I will add folders for the other courses as soon as each course begins.  Note that I also labeled the folders with a number - "01" for month one, "02" for month two and so on - so that even if I forget the acronym for the particular course, the folders will show up in sequential order in the finder window.  I still need to copy the video files I created in the first three courses to their respective folders - but that will have to wait for another day.  Right now I will just make sure that all of the video projects I create from this day forward will be saved in the proper folder on my dedicated drive for video files.

Screen shot of Dr Jude's Videos - dedicated hard drive

Screen shot of Full Sale Video Projects folder

Screen shot of Month 04 ETC Video Projects folder

Some of the other tips I took away from the training had to do with using keywords to label video clips so that I can later search or filter my clips by entering desired keywords and then selecting search for all or search for any of those key words.  The use of keywords will also help when I insert comment or chapter markers into my clips and/or video projects.  Another great feature is the ability to add keywords to multiple clips at once through the AUTO APPLY feature or add them individually in the INSPECTOR panel.  Now all I have to do is import some new video footage into my computer and get started experimenting with these new found ways to keep my clips and videos well organized.  Stay tuned for reports on my progress.