FCP file re-linking issues

[Nick Meyers]

Reconnecting:

the simplest solution to this is to not have to reconnect at all.
you can achieve this state if both your media and your co-worker’s are in exactly the same file structure on identical drives.
oh, the drives have to have the same name, too.

once you have that sorted, you should not have to reconnect aver again.

Master Clip:

this is very tricky.
it should work, but it is very fragile thing in FCP: too easily broken.

if it is broken, it can be hard to fix.

i have been having a similar issue, so here is what i have been doing:

say you have a sequence in an edit, and you now you have a bin of rushes for that sequence.
you should be able to Shift F, but it is not working.

so, copy the scene from your edit sequence in to a new sequence.
now find the bin with all the relevant rushes
edit all of these rushes into your new sequence, too.

you may want to get rid of any clips that aren’t really from your scene’s rushes.
like music or VO, or SFX, or titles, stills, whatever.

now delete the rushes bin.

select the sequence in the browser, and go to Tools Menu > Create Master Clips
you wil get a NEW BIN with all the clips as master clips.

check that this is working by trying a Shift F on some of the clips in the sequence.
another test is to colour the timeline clips and see if the browser clips also change colours
(or, vice-versa, colour the browser clips, see if the TL clips follow suit)
working? good.
name the bin and put it where it belongs

now try Shift F on the scene in your original sequence.
does that work?
if yes, then good.
if not, just copy paste the scene back from your “fix” sequence into your edit sequence.
try Shift F again.
working? good
not working? damn.
maybe you have some corruption in your edit sequence.
maybe you have to copy paste your entire timeline into a new sequence
maybe.. who knows what?

bad news is that maybe the problem cant be fixed.
i have had that happen to me.
it really is a weak spot in FCP

it will be particularly problematic with your partner working on their projects and you working in yours.
one thing i have noticed when working between a few projects:
if you copy / paste a bin of clips PLUS a sequence containing the same clips from one project into another,
then you break the Master / Affiliate links.

solution is to copy the bin and sequence separately

oh, and the obvious thing to mention: you can’t Shift F between projects.
wont work.
rushes and edits have to be in the one project

nick