How do I reduce the size of a Final Cut file?

You could try some compression like zip (or some variant), but if your only need is to email it, you might try a free-large-email service like Dropsend .

File/Export/Using QuickTime Conversion; set to preset for the web (multimedia), and keep in mind that the medium and low broadband settings drop frame rates down. I suggest high bandwidth setting, of course the person on the other end will need quicktime to view. A 3 minute vid should compress down to under 20MB, but you may need to tweak the audio setttings using the options button. I recommend setting the audio to AAC @ 128kbps, or lower if it's just talking (no music or hi-fi sounds). That should give you a good quality output.

Otherwise, export the full video at full resolution (.mov), then open in iMovie, then choose the Share/send to iTunes or Share/save to disk, and use iMovie's settings in the dialogue window to set for the web.

To clarify: sndfreg's advice is great for sending a playable (finished) movie, mine is for sending the editable Final Cut file itself.

@ ben yer right-maybe consider a .mac account- for $99/yr uou can habe up to 10 GB of storage and filks can download up to 150 GB/month fron your .mac; you can set up your storage with a public directory from which anyone can download (you provide them the URL once you've set it up). No more thumb drive and access anywhere from any mac or PC (via a web browser).