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Consolidating and Archiving Projects
Hey! Could you guys give me some advice on how to consolidate and archive projects in MC7 working with shared storage and LTO? I’m still a bit new to this whole archiving process. Many of these projects have multiple sequences (agency versions vs. client versions, etc) which would still need to be easily accessible because my bosses are always coming to me asking for “that one edit from 6 months ago” or whatever; or they want to look at some of the footage that was shot for a project that is a year or two old. So, I’d like to know the best way to get a massive project down to a manageable size where multiple edits and selects are still available in case they are called up. They aren’t necessarily on-going projects, but some of the media may need to be referenced for rips or new spots down the road.
Here are my thoughts on how I might do it right now. Please correct me and guide me in the right direction where it’s needed:
1. Create a new partition on shared storage — “PROJECTNAME_managed” or some title along those lines
2. Create a new project with the same name on my PROJECTS partition, and open that up in MC7
3. Open Bins containing the original sequences that I want to keep from the original project and consolidate the media from those sequences to the new “managed” partition
4. Consolidate any important “selects” sequence media (with handles) to the new partition as well — in projects where we may reuse that media for future projects for the same client
5. If the project contains footage that would be good for future stock use, consolidate that footage to my Stock_Broll project
6. Dump the entire original project and it’s media to LTO, and then delete it from the share storage leaving only the new “managed” project and partitionI feel like I’m close, but not quite there. Any tips or tricks would help. Also, if I’m WAY off base, then please kindly redirect me. I want to get this system nailed down so I can clean up all these old projects — and look good in my bosses eyes 😉
Thanks for your patience and your help!
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3 Replies
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There are a couple of ways to address this issue. An a few questions to help get you there.
A a high level, they are:
1. Create an AS11
2. Consolidate media to an external drive, which will create an Avid Media Files folder, then drag your project into that folder and rename it to match your sequence. Consolidating a final sequence will allow you have only the frames you need in the sequence (plus a bit extra, called handles if you wish).
3. You can use an Application Called Media Mover, that will grab files that were created in your project and copy the media files you used (NOT AMA).
4. You can use a software called project parking from a company called Marquis. (PC only)Now the questions
Do you use a lot of un-consolidated AMA?
Are you Mac or PC?
Do you share a lot of footage from one project to another?James Beattie
ACSR Elite/Avid ACI, Apple Certified TechnicianConsulting for Workflow and Digital Technologies at Comprehensive Technical Group
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You may also want to look into StorageDNA. I know they have AAF support for retrieveing assets from LTO’s and such, but it may very well work in reverse where it can pull from shared storage from an AAF and back up to LTO with indexing as needed.
Michael
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I’ve been using Automatic Duck’s Media Copy to copy the MXF and AMA linked media to a San.
I then put “_HOLD” suffixes on the local MXF folder and rebuild the database from the San and relink the AMA file.
Check to make sure everything loaded and re-connected in Avid and then use the Duck software to create an HTML database report of the files that comprise the sequence. LTO then follows.
It’s a free app and works a treat. Consolidate could get you to the same place but that’s not going to work for AMA files.
Other options are other third-party apps like EDL Spy for more complex unix/DOS command tasks or using Resolve Collect and Resolve itself to whittle down the actual Raw files your using to something manageable.
Nice thing about some of these options is the AMA bonus and the ability to copy over folder tree paths if necessary for keeping track of origins.
Only EDL Spy and Resolve Collect require a small purchase. Other options are free.
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