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FCPX Changing Original Media Filenames
Is there a way to stop FCPX changing the filenames of ingested media?
If I import any clips, currently it will change the names of them to something like;
2013-10-29 18_40_54 (id)If I’m working with 7D material, for example, I would rather retain the original MVI_#### filenames. Obviously there will always be the original card masters to go back to if needed, but it would be better if the filenames in my events/projects correlate exactly with the media from the camera throughout the process (in case it’s ever necessary to refer back to the original files).
Thanks in advance,
Adam -
9 Replies
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Thanks Andy.
I can see the logic of this, although generally I don’t tend to receive multiple files with the same name across different card masters from a shoot (thankfully the camera ops I mostly take material from avoid this).
If I understand correctly, applying the custom name as you describe would end up with files being referred to as one thing within FCPX, whilst those same files will have a different name at the Finder level. If this is the case, I guess that mis-match is best avoided (can see that leading to a whole load of confusion) so I’ll probably just leave the default settings as they are.
Cheers,
Adam -
You can do this through the “apply custom name” function. I don’t have time to explain this now but look it up in the docs. I believe they did a show about this on Macbreak Studio also.
anickt
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Is this DSLR material?
If so, have you tried simply dragging and dropping instead of importing?
This will bypass the QT rewrap and reference the movie in to the Event.
In order for this to work, your prefs need to be setup more or less like this:
When you drag the movies in, you should have a little alias (or bent) arrow, instead of a green plus sign. If you do have a green plus sign when dragging/dropping the footage on to the Event, simply hold option and it will be a temporary preference setting override. Meaning, if you have create optimized media checked in the prefs, you can hold the option key when dragging the media onto the Event, and the arrow will change to an alias arrow and FCPX will import an aliased version of the movie in to the Event. I hope that makes sense.
When the movies are placed in your Event, it will look like this:
Contrary to what you’ve been told on this thread, FCPX itself creates duplicate file names, so dupe file name are OK and FCPX seems fine in being able to track them.
For instance, if you imported your clip as you mentioned, and FCPX renames it to the creation date, if you made optimized and Proxy versions of that media, FCPX would call them the exact same name, but put them in a different folder.
If you import the media as I outlined, and make Proxy or Optimized versions, FCPX will make those the same file name like this:
Hope this helps,
Jeremy
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Thanks Jeremy, that’s good to know too.
I’ll likely do some tests with this and other methods mentioned to get a workflow that works best for me.
As a standard practise, I always copy the entire contents of any camera cards onto the hard drive I’m working on (I have a sub-folder marked CARD MASTERS within any project’s folder, so I know that I can always get back to the original media exactly as it came off the camera if ever I need to) – that in mind, FCPX pointing to content on a card that is no longer connected shouldn’t ever happen because it will always point to the carbon copy I placed on the Hard Drive.
Thanks to all for the input from all – it’s really helpful in getting to grips with media management in FCPX. At first it seemed to me as though it works in much the same way as in FCP7, but there are clearly some important differences.
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Thanks for your response, Andy. And I certainly hear what you’re saying with about working with smart people – in the past I have had the misfortune of working with some not-so-smart people (sadly, haven’t we all?)
And the mis-match thing could potentially be a problem, as I do sometimes get notes from Producers, or even DPs/Camera Ops, who have in their possession a copy of all the original camera media and request specific shots/takes be included. They’ll only refer to said clips by the original name assigned to it on the camera – so it’ll be “can we use MVI_#### to replace the establishing shot currently used”. So in that scenario I just need to find said clip quickly and insert. Being able to search for it right in FCPX and have it turn up right away would be a big timesaver (I used the search function in FCP7 in a similar way countless times).
Thanks again for all your input – it’s all very helpful.
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Fact #1. Nearly all the clip and asset and keyword “names” in FCP-X are ephemeral and temporary. The program tracks actual clips by deeply embedded hex ID codes.
Fact #2 If X lets you double click on a name and change it – doing so will NOT break any fundamental location link. Only finder moving where X expects to find assets will do that under normal use.
Fact #3 The File Renaming module kinda hidden in the info tab under the gear icon – is amazing and incredibly powerful. If you learn it AND if you kern to use it early in a collaborative workflow – it will make asset synchronization and tracking – even between multiple users – much better. But it’s not particularly intuitive. You need to be in the correct “mode’ to use it and have an idea about HOW you want to name stuff, to make it work really well.
I’m in the process right now of of writing a script that gives a hopefully good primer on this topic for either my next webcast or the one after that (depending on how much I can cover in each program.)
But asset naming in X is important and everyone should learn it.
BTW, I’m likely going to transcode the big lesson I did last year about Tagging and Asset Naming and plan to put it up in my Livestream account in a few days. When I do – I’ll put a link here.
Hopefully, that will help some people wrap their brains around this. Names (and numbers) matter – when you’re learning to name stuff in a database – particularly when you want it to work a specific way and last.
FWIW.
Know someone who teaches video editing in elementary school, high school or college? Tell them to check out http://www.StartEditingNow.com – video editing curriculum complete with licensed practice content.
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The irony is, now that I’ve finally (mostly) gotten my head around FCPX’s media managing, it’s likely going to change next month with 10.1 or whatever it will be called. The iMovie media managing makes all this so much easier.
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Seriously? My client just send me her media. It was all nicely labeled clip #1, etc. I import it and she starts sending shot lists and such for particular pArts of the script. But X has nicely given them new names. Why wouldn’t I want the shots toatch the HD? I ALWAYS want shots to match the HD. People log on set too. They use the file names that are on the HD. Not what X came up with. Shouldn’t be a conflict anyway
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The orig file name is stored in metadata and easily recalled.
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