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Switching from Avid to FCP5 questions
I’ve read the post on FCP5’s MM. It is a mess. One basic question I have is why does FCP use the file name of a clip as a way to reconnect or manage media?
I’m new to FCP, so if anyone could give me a brief description that would be great. I tried to move a project from Avid to FCP using the EDL from the Avid. The sequence was CUTS only so it wasn’t too bad. But what I noticed was FCP wanted clip names to be UNIQUE, so it would add a 1 to the end of a duplicated name.
Why can’t FCP use the REEL and TIMECODE to reconnect, recapture or MM its clips?
Thanks for the info in advance,
JD
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5 Replies
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FCP’s media manager is not perfect, but I wouldn’t call it “a mess”. Misunderstanding is more prevelent than malfuntions. There are some fundamental differences between how FCP and AVID handle media management. As you noticed, FCP simply uses an english file name to designate a clip. If you’ve pulled in 30 clips all called “Reel 101”, then FCP is going to append a “1”, “2”, “3” and so on to the end so that it can tell them apart. Avid does this too but it all happens “under the hood” during digitization and Media manaagement, so you never notice it. When you look at the individual AVID media files, the actual filename is a long, long number that makes no sense to most human beings. There are some advantages to the FCP “plain english” file naming system. For example, in a networked environment, anyone can access the original media. Since they’re just quicktime files, you don’t even need FCP to watch them, a QT player will do just fine. Heck, you can even use a PC!
The downside to the FCP system is that anyone coming over from AVID is used to changing the “name” of the clip to whatever they want to. This can cause problems later when you’re trying to relink managed media. In FCP, the place to “Change the name” is in the notes column. If you leave the original file name intact, you’ll have much more success managing the media.
Reel # and TC are just a part of what the MM has to keep track of. This is an extremely complex part of the software that even AVID has some problems with. With FCP, there are known bugs relating to speed ramps and slow mo. Be very careful with that kind of material.
Mark
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Welcome to the family. You won’t like FCP for a few months. You’ll hate it. Some of the Avid switchers still hate FCP but I think you’ll find most have adapted well.
I’ve never used Avid products but I switched from Media 100 where up-rezing was an elegant one-button process. I still wonder why Media Manager is such a disaster.
Most of us figure out how to get our jobs done without using Media Manager.I hope your experience with FCP becomes more enjoyable as you gain some trust.
bogiesan
This is my standard sigfile so do not take it personally: “For crying out loud, read the freakin’ manual.”
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Final Cut doesn’t seem to understand that Media Managment should have nothing to do with digitizing, up rezzing, etc.
What it should do (but doesn’t) is delete render files that are no longer used. Still pretty much no way to do that.
In other words, delete unused precomputes.
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[Bret Williams] “What it should do (but doesn’t) is delete render files that are no longer used. Still pretty much no way to do that.
Humm. FCP does delete unsued render files when it either reaches the undo level treshold or when you close a project. And if you want to delete active renders, the Render Manager is right there in the Tools menu.
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My expeience has been that it retains them. With the idea that autosaves and such may need them. I guess it would be an easy enough method to test. Let’s hope it’s doing what you say these days.
But I’m assuming that it would keep render files for versions of a sequence that might be old, but in the same project.
For example I may keep incrementing my sequence, version 1, version 2, etc. All might be rendered. In Avid, I can do the same. But I could highlight the current seqeunce and ask the media tool to find unused precomputes for a particular sequence. That way I can delete all the unused reders.
In the render manager, it’s broken down by sequence, but as you increment a seqeunce number, it still links to the old render files. Deleting sequence 1 renders might delete sequence 4 renders unknowingly.
The media manager is really more akin to one helluva awesome consolidate tool. Avid doesn’t allow you to do as much with it’s consolidation. Like retain the media, but actually delete the unused portions of it! That’s pretty incredible, albeit dangerous if something went wrong. But Avid makes you copy the media to another drive. You might not have another drive.
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