FCP 4.5 Project file size and crashes

[Marklopresti]

[Christopher Pavsek] “I’ve been told that if a project file exceeds 10mb in fcp (4.5 is what i’m using) that it can lead to quirky behaviour including crashes, which i’m having.

Is this the case?”

I was editing a project for a retail client that included 36 total spots. I’m not sure what file size I was up to, but all of a sudden it crashed and I simply couldn’t get the project to boot up. I even went to the autosave archive, but still no luck. Considering the fact that I running FCP on a topped out G5 made it all the more frustrating. Anyway, my solution came out of complete desparation. I copied the project onto my G4 Powerbook, which also has FCP on it, and the project booted up without incident! I then sliced it up into three smaller projects and brought them back to the G5. So the G5 with the dual 2.5G processor and 4G of RAM couldn’t handle it, but the G4 laptop could. So my advice is to cut up your present project into two or even three projects before you get to the point of no return. Best of Luck!

Mark LoPresti, Buffalo New York

[Don Greening]

FCP is a RAM hog. The more memory you have the better it will run, because large project files and their accompanying timelines have to be loaded into RAM for quick access. FCP can make use of around 4 Gbytes of RAM, give or take. FCP5 may be able to utilize even more. If you don’t have enough memory for large projects FCP has to access some of the timeline info from the hard drives, which will slow everything down to a crawl.

I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve never heard of a project file size limitation for FCP. But I do know that processor speed, RAM and hard drive transfer rates will limit your file size for you. Like they say in drag racing: “Speed costs money. How fast do you want to go?”

– Don

[John Burgan]

Not everyone here seems to agree that project file size is an issue, but all I can say is that the following workflow has proved to be rock solid for several high-ratio long-form documentaries I have edited in FCP over the last few years. Put simply: it can’t do any harm to try it out, and it may well solve the problems you’ve been experiencing.

Break the original project down into separate projects ie. Media/Edits, then further down as necessary into chapters/acts/interviews, whatever seems most logical. Also weed out redundant edits by archiving them, keeping the project with your main edit up to date and as lean as possible.

There’s no problem for FCP to have multiple projects open simultaneously, you can copy, cut and paste between them.

Also, make sure that you regularly save your projects using the “Save As…” dialogue, forcing the whole file to be re-written from the ground up on a regular basis. Apparently months of saving to the same file is a recipe for corruption, and simply backing up a buggy file is no insurance against losing your work.

[John Burgan]

BTW hello Chris – didn’t see it was you. And there’s me going on like a cracked record 🙂