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Cleaning Up A Mess
Hi there,
A previous editor had been capturing footage from various sources and seemed to have created a new project for each capture session. (??) The footage is scattered over 5 different hard drives. It is nearly impossible to track down footage for a particular project I’m working on. Is it possible to delete these other projects without losing the captured footage and re-importing them directly into my project (ie. dragging media folders (files) into my project media folder)?Any recommendations on how best to organize (archive) the footage for future use in other projects?
Thanks,
Chad -
5 Replies
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Start a new project and import captured media to that project.
Or transfer imported media over to a single media drive and start a new project and import.
In both instances your time consuming problem is likely to be logging and sorting what is what. There must have been some method in the original editors madness that allows you to sort media into topics and / or format types. If you want to edit in HD and have some DV PAL footage you’ll probably need to up-res before bringing in to your project to retain a better quality. I’d also suggest you convert all footage to Pro Res.
You might want to invest in this https://store.creativecow.net/p/63/getting_organized_in_final_cut_pro
Cinematographer, Steadicam Operator, Final Cut Pro Post Production.
https://www.steadi-onfilms.com.au/ -
Thanks for your comments Phil. I went through all the drives and saw that the amount of the media is too much to put on a single drive. Can I “import” the footage into my project while leaving them in their respective drives (and scratch folders)? In other words, if I do select import, do the files remain where they are but are just added to the bins with the source path. My apologies, if this sounds too elementary, but this is the first I’ve come across this situation.
Thanks again for your help.
Chad -
If the other “editor” has made useful notes, you can export batch lists from all of these projects and import them into a master project, then reconnect the media.
Based on your description, though, I’d be kind of surprised if they did that. I’m guessing you’ve got a lot of projects named “Untitled” with a lot of clips named “Untitled” all of which are from reel #001 with timecode that starts at 00:00:00;00.
You have my greatest sympathy. Good luck!
Arnie
Post production is not an afterthought!
https://www.arniepix.com/ -
Its OK to leave the clips in their respective scratch folders.
If the capture editor had sorted the captures into some sort of classification, and you wish to retain that. Then an easy method is to leave his projects alone. Open a new project, and open each of his projects one by one and select and drag his clip bins to this new project one by one.
FCP, allows you to open more than one projects at a time and drag and drop clips, bins or sequences from one to the other. No media is actually moved or copied while you’re doing this. All original media quicktime movies stay exactly where they were.
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Neil Sadwelkar
neilsadwelkar.blogspot.com
twitter: fcpguru
FCP Editor, Edit systems consultant
Mumbai India -
Thanks Neil, good to know about the bin transfers. I hope I can track down all the projects that were used. Still a nightmare, but I least I know I will eventually wake up.
Cheers,
Chad
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