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All in one folder? What’s wrong with that? Is it bad practice? If so why?
I’m a recent FCPX convert.
I held onto FCP7 for such a long time and now let it go like it was my old comfort blanket… Having worked on FCP for 20 yrs I really miss it, but it is time to dry my eyes and move on…
So I like X and I have a new I7 IMac. Needless to say, in comparison to my old MBP 2012 it is light speed and a joy… I have no problem with the programme at all, and although it will take me a while to stop hitting CMD R there are still a couple of things I’m unsure about…
Here we go…
In FCP7 I kept my projects very simply – Keeping all video footage, audio, render files, project files IN ONE FOLDER on an external drive (backed up obviously). Once the project was complete it was then just a simple job to copy/ paste the whole folder onto a slower archive drive to be stored just in case the job ever required an update (Many of my clients change their image every few years). Once copied over I would then delete from my faster external drive which cleared up space for the next job… Easy peasy…
Returning to an archived project a few years later (as I’ve often had to do), all I’ve ever needed to do is to open it and relink, or open/ relink/ re-render and I will be back to where I left it.
I’ve watched a number of tutorials on the best way to manage footage/ assets of finalised projects in FCPX and none of them make much sense to me so I did exactly the same as I did before… I imported footage to make a test project, created a timeline and did a few edits/ effects/ transitions etc… Storing everything in one single folder, assets/ library etc etc… Then copied the single folder containing ALL of the assets to a separate drive (and deleted the original)…
I was expecting to relink/ re-render etc etc, and that is all I had to do… Just like I did with FCP7
QUESTION IS: Is this bad practice? What are the pitfalls with this? Should I try and follow the endless storage tutorials or is this just as good? My fear is that I will come-a-cropper on a project soon and I can’t let that happen…
Thanks all, I hope you can clarify this for me. Rob
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4 Replies
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When I have a stand alone project, I just use a library for it. Then everything for the project is contained in the project, the project can be moved elsewhere and no relinking is required if needed later. I think this works for projects that don’t have a huge number of video files and fit easily on one hard drive. This requires less organization, but for more sophisticated projects it is common the keep the video files elsewhere and then the libraries can be very compact. For a season worth of sports, I make one library and it holds various projects for different games. Then it is easy to make a season highlight within that project, because all of the video is there.
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It sounds like you want to use a Library in place of your “one folder” (because a Library actually IS one folder under the covers). I would use a separate Library just like you did a folder and I would use the option to copy all media into the Library. This way everything you need is in one place. When you want to archive, just drag and drop the Library onto your backup drive and delete it from your work drive. When you need to work on it again, drag and drop the Library back onto your work drive from your backup drive and open it and continue working.
This is essentially exactly the way you worked in FCP 7 and one of the reason’s I love FCP X (i.e., Libraries make organization very simple).
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasstsoftware.com -
Hi John thanks for your help. So rather than ‘leaving files in place’, and leaving everything in the same folder, I should ‘copy files to library’ instead…. After that I can delete the original shots/ assets then right? I would obviously keep a back up of them while I’m doing the edit, but after the edit is done I can delete them if I need the space? When I move the shots into the library will it keep the original folder structure too? I shall do some more experimenting 🙂
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Yes, that’s exactly what I was suggesting. This is how I work:
After a shoot, I load the camera cards into my Mac and use the Create Archive feature of FCP X to create a Camera Card Archive. These all get stored in two places. 1 copy on my 12TB RAID 5 and another on a 1TB backup drive (of which I have many). I firmly believe that if you don’t have 2 backups, you haven’t really backed it up.
Then when I’m ready to edit, I create a new Library on my SSD, open the Camera Card Archive from either the RAID or backup, and import the footage I need into the Library. I do all of my edits with the Library copy of the footage and when I’m done, I copy the Library onto a different 1TB Backup drive and also onto the 12TB RAID. I then delete it from my SSD to make room for the next edit.
So I have a 12TB RAID with everything. A set of 1TB Camera Card Archives Backups, and a set of 1TB Library Backups. (three sets of drives) This works for me because I all of my edits fit onto my 512GB SSD. If I had a long-form project that needed more room I could edit off of the 12TB RAID 5 instead.
At this point I have 1 copy of the footage in the Camera card Archive and a second copy along with the projects in the Library. (one on the backup drives and one on my RAID array which is actually 4 copies). I could delete the camera card archives and still have everything I need to redo an edit because the Library has all of the footage that I used. It sounds like you would not keep 4 copies but you get the idea. Even if you left yourself with just 2 copies of the Libraries you would have a good enough backup of everything unless there was something on the original camera card that you needed (which is why I keep both)
The bottom line is that the Library is the “one folder” that holds everything just like you were doing except that FCP X keeps track of everything for you.
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasstsoftware.com
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