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Workflow experience? Help needed
I am having a hard time finding out how fcpx wants me to handle all the files that are associated with a cut.
Lets assume a sort of generic workflow:
– Receive Raw Footage, Save to Projectfolder/Raw
– Convert “odd” Footage to ProRes, Save to Projectfolder/Converted. ( Capture Scratch remains empty)
– Receive lots of additional Media/Audio/Images/Texts, save to Projectfolder/additional
– Create FCP Project, save to Project Folder
– Import –needed– sources into fcp project
– Cut
– Do stuff in AE/Motion/Wherever, save to project folder
– Export Motion Graphics Render to Project Folder
-Export Cut Versions to Project Folder
…THEN the time comes, the thing is “done” and you might want to move the whole thing off your machine.
In my example I just have to go to the finder and duplicate the “old school” project folder as it contains not only – and this is important- the stuff I needed for the project, but also all the files (.aep, .motn, .psd,…) that I might need once again in the future.Now please, please… someone explain to me how a good workflow works in fcpx. I did cut several projects (>15) with it, and I am willing to give it a try.
Besides a couple of small odd things, this “database” file handling is driving me crazy.This happened to me:
Working on a daily cut on location (macbook pro, 2011 quad core i7) … working for 4 hours. Almost done, fcpx Crash, Project File Damaged, wont open again no matter what.
… well normally you’d go to your autosave vault and recover from this scary moment… but not in f cpx right? the database needs no saving, remember? so there is nothing that saves you, you are literally lost if this singular file looses a couple of bits.
And this… scared the hell out of me. I had to redo the cut until late in the night. Since then I do regular “duplications” of the projects. but that is not how fcpx is meant to be used… am I right??Of course I could have used time machine, but sometimes you are just in that a hurry that an additional external hdd is not what you need right now.
But that autosave-database-dilemma is another story.
Back to workflow and archiving projects. How do you handle it?
Thank you so much in advance!Pete
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4 Replies
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I had a project where FCP X encountered a Modified File issue. All the edits that were done with that file had to be redone. (or have the clip replaced)
Time Machine did not fix this issue. I tried. I went back to several versions of the file and the Modified Media never went away. So be cautious of that. I even had Apple on the phone. Didn’t work.
Duplicating projects is the only way (at least that I know of) to save yourself from loosing your work, in the event (no pun intended) of a crash and corruption of your work.
Archiving your work, I’d suggest you use FCP X’s consolidate features.
I’d also suggest using Steve Martin’s suggested method of using Disk Images to manage your Events/Projects. It keeps things well organized. It allows you to open as many, or as few Events/Projects at a time. And it makes it’s easy to back up.
https://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/fcp_x_managing_disk_image_martin.html
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Ok. Based on your particular workflow you can do this a couple of ways.
Workflow number 1: DIY method
This method will be similar to the method that you outlined. FCPX does not have to manage your media for you if you don’t want it to. For the purposes of being clear, I’m going to use FCPX’s terminology, meaning that “event” is analogous to an FCP7 “project” and a “project” is analogous to an FCP7 “sequence”.
• Create an event folder in the finder.
• Save original footage into a RAW folder
• Convert footage to ProRes and save into a CONVERTED folder
• Create additional folders for other elements: music, gfx, etc.
• Inside FCPX, hit CMD+SHIFT+I to open the import dialogue.
• Make sure the “Copy Files to FCP Events folder” is unchecked.
• Make sure the “Import folders as Keyword Collections” is checked.
• Make sure “Create optimized media” is unchecked (not really necessary if you already converted footage to Pro Res.This method will create keyword collections for the folders you created at the finder level allowing you to maintain all that organization you did before hand. When you’re finished editing, just archive the entire folder as you did before. The one caveat is that you’ll need to archive the Project folder which will be inside the FCP Project folder on the root of the drive you edited on. Each sequence or “project” will have it’s own folder so if you duplicate sequences to avoid losing work, you’ll have a lot of these. However, in the project browser inside FCPX you can create a folder to house all of these projects and then when you archive, just archive the one “MyProject” folder.
Workflow number 2: FCPX organizational method.
This method stores everything in one place, but can maintain the same level of organization inside FCPX.
• Create a new event inside FCPX.
• Hit CMD+SHIFT+I to open import dialogue.
• Make sure that the “Copy to FCP Events folder” button is checked.
• Make sure that the “Create Optimized Media” button is checked.
• Import all your footage, music, gfx, whatnot.
• Create collections to organize footage and edit away.In the Events folder (on the root of the drive you edited on), FCPX will create a folder for that specific event. Inside will be a folder for original media (the untouched raw footage), as well as a transcoded media folder for all the prores media that it transcoded in the background while you were editing. To archive, you need only to save that event folder and the corresponding project folder (see above).
That, in a nutshell, is pretty much how it works.
Good luck.
Andy
https://www.timesavertutorials.com
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Kevin and Andy thank you for your suggestions!
Kevin: I read about Steve Martin’s Solution before and I like the easy way of handling the projects then. BUT my concern is the use of image files. If you group 5 projects in there, and THAT file goes corrupt… wow. Big damage. Of course, backup etc will help, but the risk seems pretty huge? How do you see that issue?
Andy: Here also a “security” issue. I explained why I am a bit scared of projects go corrupt. If you go for your “DIY” Version of handling Files… when it comes to archiving, does fcpx find the archived files?
lets say I copy project&event folders on to root of archive hdd and then the “converted” folder. Does it find the new position of “converted” folder?
I read that fcpx is not simply having pointers to folder/files but to some sort of unique identifier, so you can rename files and it still finds it.
But what if it is duplicated in an archive? It will not have the same identifier then… And there is no reconnect. Do you have experience with that?Thanks so much again!
Pete -
Are you concerned that the Disk Image will encounter and issue? So that everything in the image file could be lost?
I guess I never thought about that. I’m not much of a disk image expert. Is that a general concern with Disk Images?
I suppose you could duplicate the DI to another location periodically. Or if you are in the habit of duplicating projects for backup or versions, you could duplicate them to another location.
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