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Archive-self contained movie?
I am told that one of the best ways to archive an FCP project is to make a self-contained quicktime movie. My question is what is the best format to do this in?
I have 2 different projects, one is standard DV and the other is DVCPro HD.
In FCP, under the “using quicktime conversion” setting, it allows you to choose the compression type for quicktime file. How do I know which is the right one? By default ‘H.264’ is selected, but I want to ouput the best quality file since it is for archive. ‘Uncompressed’ is an option, but then I get like a 30gb file for a 10 minute movie..
Can I just choose the compression type that matches the project’s format?
For example, for the DV project I could compress with ‘DV/DVCPro-NTSC’,
and for the DVCPro HD project I could compress with ‘DVCPro HD’.Please help, thanks!
David
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3 Replies
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[David Benassi] “My question is what is the best format to do this in? “
The same format as your timeline. Export > Quicktime Movie > Make Self Contained.
That gives you an exact carbon clone of the same quality as your original. do not add more compression by going to H.264, that’s not an editing codec anyway.
The BEST way to archive your project is to use Media Manager to make a copy of all your media onto an archive drive, which is what we do now. At the very least, Media Manage your final timeline so all the media you used for that final timeline is copied over and you can re-open the timeline at a later date.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
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Credits include multiple Emmy, Telly, Aurora and Peabody Awards.
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If you don’t choose the Quicktime Conversion option, just go Export/Quicktime, FCP will (more or less) automatically export a file at your chosen sequence settings. For archiving purposes of a finished piece, I’ll export a self contained via that method, ergo I’ll have a file that’s at the editing specs I chose to work in. MOST of the time this is what the footage was shot at, or at least a majority of what it was shot in. As long as you’ve put some thought into your sequence settings if you have mixed footage, exporting just to Quicktime and choose make movie self-contained, you should be fine.
You may also want to consider exporting different versions of your piece- one as is, one without graphics, one without music and fx, etc.
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Export Using Quicktime Conversion will always add a compression hit to your footage, as it transcodes it from one codec to another, or even into the same codec.
Export > Quicktime movie is faster and won’t give you that hit.
Cheers,
Ben
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