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Consolidating media
Hello,
I have a bit of an issue and wanted to see if someone would be able to give me some ideas on how to fix it.
I have 3 external hard drives with 12 projects that nedd to be saved but the media is scattered on all three drives. The drives are filling up and I wanted to get it to where I can save just whats in the sequence and put them all onto a new drive. This way it’s more organized.
The problem is some of the project sequences share some of the same media so if I consolidate say, one project and there is a shot that was used in a different project, will it take it off line in another?
COuld I avoid that problem if I make a mix down of the sequence and then consolidate that onto a new drive?
Any ideas would be greatly appriciated:)
Thanks in advance,
Gillian
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4 Replies
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Check out Random Video’s MediaMover or MDV (Russian freeware).
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Consolidate makes copies of the media, so it won’t go offline in your original project. Just make sure to not enable the delete original files option, because if the application fails during consolidation (or you run out of space) you’ve lost the original files.
+1 on Media Mover, it’s a very useful tool to move all your project media, not just the consolidation. It’s worth the $150 price tag if you’re using MC professionally. Beware though, that it can take media offline for you that you don’t want offline, if you’ve mixed media between projects. We use it very carefully because the media on our Unity can find its way to unexpected places very easily. By carefully I mean, once you let MM scan for projects, move one project offline at a time. Then check your cut and bins. And repeat until you’re sure your current projects are intact.
In the future, for your sanity, it’s best to actually copy the media if you’re sharing media between projects. It takes a few extra minutes, but you’re not going to have last minute panic when you delete an old project.
Or better yet consider making a common elements project/bin, so you can delete a project and not worry about whether you’re losing media.
Good luck and patience!
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Thanks for your help:)
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Sure thing.
I should add that best practice says to consolidate a copy of your sequence, just in case something goes haywire.
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