Best way to backup FCP project? (not using Time Machine)

[Captain Mench]

Your best bet for backing up comes with a proper start of media management. Keeping track of all of your captures, elements, pictures, etc in a single set of folders.

Usually, when I begin a project I let FCP set a project folder on my scratch drive. It will create one for each project. All I care about from FCP’s angle is that it puts any captured material there. Additionally, I’ll put folders inside THAT folder. First is EXTRA_ProjectName. Inside that, I’ll have folders for AE, Music, Motion etc.

THIS way, if I want to back up a project all I need to do is backup EXTRA folder and the project file itself (I also have all my project files backed up every night I work on a new one onto a thumb drive).

Any of the captures FCP does I don’t worry about at all. Everything I use is already logged and on tape if I need to go back and get it.

Hope that helps with a start.

Mike

[Zane Barker]

[Cory Lei] “I have been trying to backup my project to an external hard disk on FCP5 but there seems to be no option within the program to do this. “

Yes there is it is called Media Manager. Media Manager will let you copy ALL the files used in your FCP project to your archive drive.

There are no “technical solutions” to your “artistic problems”.
Don’t let technology get in the way of your creativity!

[Cory Lei]

Thanks heaps for directing me in the right direction!

Sorry if I asked what is probably a very simple question to most users. 🙂

[Dino Vince]

If you’re careful about always entering reel numbers and names when capturing, backing up FCP project files will allow you to recapture. But when you don’t…

Often, I’m working at a pace where I choose not to enter reel numbers, etc., but after I’ve spent time building a sequence, I always export a Quicktime of the sequence as a backup, then update the Quicktime occassionally, as more work is done. I figure I can always fudge the latest Quicktime much quicker than recapturing all of the footage.