Dragging Assets: Bins vs Finder

[Shane Ross]

Why not organize it on the finder, the import those folders and that file structure into FCP? FCP is flexible enough to keep that structure intact….that is one of the things I love about the software.

I often match back to bins to find footage NEXT to the stuff I used…because I know that it is in the same bin as something, but not sure where. Plus I don’t have to keep stepping out of FCP to find footage.

But…whatever works for you. Another cool thing is that FCP is open to a variety of workflows.

OH…best to have it in bins. If your hard drive dies, then you have NO reference to the footage in FCP at all, besides what is in the cut. So you cannot recapture said footage in it’s full form. You can if it is used in the sequence, but what about all that other footage that isn’t? You’ll have to recapture from scratch. You would with FCP too, but all the logging information is there.

use FCP…

Shane

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[Brent Hannigan]

Hi

Having worked on 4 hour long documentaries in FCP this year I would say (from my own experience) that it is not a good idea to drag movies directly from the finder into your timeline. I have found out that just because it is easy to use this method, in the long run it can cause problems. (eg not being able to match frame among others.)
I would keep things nice and organized in the FCP bin structure. It takes a few more moments but will pay off later.

Brent

[Conrad Chu]

What I have been doing was that whenever I did need a the master clip of an asset that I dragged directly from the finder, I just ended using View -> Reveal Master Clip (Shift+F). FCP then automatically adds that asset into your bin. I’ve found that to get me the best of both worlds: dragging from Finder as well as getting the benefits of Match Frame.

And at the end of the project, I do run Media Manager to gather all the assets together, and at that point, all the subfolders I might have made for my project get flattened anyways during the gathering process.

I guess my main reason for asking is that my church, Gracepoint Fellowship Church, is going to be getting Final Cut Server, and I’m trying to see if it’s worth training the volunteers to drag those assets into the browser first, or just dragging them into the viewer for cutting or even the sequence itself.

I’m going to continue to give these techniques a try. I haven’t done any 1 hour documentaries yet with this technique, so I’ll proceed cautiously and share my learnings.

Thanks
Conrad

[Andy Mees]

Conrad

The bins don’t just contain references to the master clips, they contain a wealth of metadata too, such as reel numbers, shot descriptions, scene and logging notes, clip markers, good/not good etc plus technical clip info. The Browser window is the organizational brain in your project. The footage can easily be collected into bins, appear in multiple bins, be sub-clipped and sorted … certainly you can replicate some of this in the Finder, but not as quickly and as easily as you can in the Browser window.
Respectfully, I’d suggest you;d be doing yourself and your trainees/assistants a disservice by not utilizing the Browser for what it was intended.

Just my 2c of course
Best Regards
Andy

[Paul Dickin]

[Andy Mees] “certainly you can replicate some of this in the Finder, but not as quickly and as easily as you can in the Browser window.”
Hi
A Browser search in my project can take more than 20 seconds, and only throws up hits one at a time.
The Finder’s search of my media assets takes only a few seconds, typically less than 5, and throws up all the hits in a list.

The sooner Apple throws away the old FCP Browser, and gives us a proper Cocoa-based Asset Management utility similar in power to OS X’s Search facilities, and with access to full metadata display, the better…

So I maintain a matched set of media folders in the Finder and the Browser, because that the only way to work around FCP’s inefficiencies. 🙁

The fact that Media Manager can’t maintain the Browser’s folder structure in a Project Archive situation is a real pain.

[Andy Mees]

A Browser search in my project can take more than 20 seconds, and only throws up hits one at a time.
The Finder’s search of my media assets takes only a few seconds, typically less than 5, and throws up all the hits in a list.

But Paul, the (faster) Finder search does not search any of the metadata nor can you search specific search fields of that metadata (even if you went to the trouble to duplicate the metadata in the Finder’s spotlight comments), nor can you find used or unused within a given sequence etc etc. If FCP’s find is only throwing up hits one at a time then you can always press the Find All button, no? I’m not dismissing your workflow here (nor Conrad’s) just offering up some of the “pro’s” of the argument for using FCP’s Browser.

The sooner Apple … gives us a proper Cocoa-based …

Yeah, well I think we’re all singing from the same page on this one. We live in hope.

Best
Andy