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huge .fcp project file
its around 500mb. This seems a bit excessive no? can i do something to optimize my project and make it lighter, load up faster, etc. delete old sequences etc? thanks
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5 Replies
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WOW! Yes, that is huge. VERY Huge. I try to keep things under 100MB. 75 if I can help it.
What I do is every time I want to duplicate my sequence and change it, I duplicate the PROJECT, change the date on the project and then make the changes…keeping all the old projects. This way my file sizes are small and they open up quickly.
I also separate my project into SEVERAL project files.
Shane
Littlefrog Post
http://www.lfhd.net -
so anyway to decrease the size.. start deleting old cuts since ive duped the project? anything else?
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You can put all of your Sequences into a different project. Then have a CUTS project and a FOOTAGE project. But deleting old sequences will certainly lighten the load.
Another thing that bloats projects is lots of text. The text files are stored by the project itself.
Shane
Littlefrog Post
http://www.lfhd.net -
Hi
I worked with an ex-Avid editor who hadn’t understood FCP’s ability to have
a) multiple projects open and active at the same time, and
b) multiple unopened projects active, because the open project was having to constantly refer to timelines from these old project sequences, because these sequences had been dragged and nested into a later project without bringing the sequence’s clips into the active open project’s browser.Its b) that is the killer. It caused huge project bloat.
My project for a 75min newsreel compliation show was 10MB.
His for a similar compilation was over 200MB, and ground his G4 Mac to a standstill.The solution is never copy edited Sequences (or In/Out-set parts of Sequences) from an older project (then close the old project). Because your active project will immediately have to invisibly append the WHOLE of the original project into your active project.
If instead you copy only the edited clips, not their enclosing Sequence, into your active project then you don’t get the bloat.
I’m a cautious sort of editor, so I also make sure the master clips to go with these added timeline shots also get included in my active browser, which I do by always keeping the project’s browser assets the same (by doing Save As to create each subsequent project), so my project is always referencing the same ‘instance’ in my active browser.
But a colleague tells me that even if you just copy/paste clips into a new sequence from an old project’s timeline, and they therefore have no browser presence in the latest project, everything works fine, and there is no project bloat.
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[PaulD] “I worked with an ex-Avid editor who hadn’t understood FCP’s ability to have…”
That’s your problem!
Former Avid editors switching to FCP can’t seem to crack the “Project is everything” notion. I say, “It ain’t the project… it’s how you organize the media”. Shane and others have given you good suggestions on how to reduce the size of your projects. I’ll add another one. Just because an editor is coming from “Avid land” don’t expect that they have a better idea of how to organize your project. Trust your own experience and take it upon yourself to “save them” from their own ignorance.
The beauty of FCP is that all media is just a quicktime file. In a networked workflow, this means that you can find and view media without even opening FCP or any particular project. If you have a logical organization to that media, everyone can find anything WITHOUT the benefit of a project or even FCP.
Outrageously large projects are NOT NECCESSARY!
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