FCP X Media Management Nightmare!

[Bill Davis]

OK that helps.

The most helpful thing I can tell you is that X simply does NOT work like Legacy or Premier Pro.

Sure, it would be a “no brainer” to solve in those two programs. Because they’re kinda “dumb” when it comes to how they link to and handle the relationship between the clips you import and everything else you do to them. They’re flat file lookups. So it’s incredibly easy to re-connect stuff.

X isn’t like that. It’s a true relational database. So each clip can be connected via metadata to everything and anything else. Which results in a virtual spiderweb of interconnections. The downside is that you have to learn how to both create and maintain those connections if you want to work properly in X.

The HUGE upside is that as you build your database relationships both in the Event Browser and in your Storylines, X can allow you to leverage decisions you make in one part of the software into many OTHER parts of the software.

At best, that means you can do things ONCE – and leverage that work over and over and over again.

Just as with any database, the more time you spend building it out – the more powerful it becomes. So in X as you construct things – from color corrections to custom transitions to opens and closes and full fledged project “looks” – those typically can be stored in the live database and therefore become available to apply to new projects.

In one sense, X is not an editing program so much as a video construction and basic video distribution system. Much of it’s power lies outside the storyline (timeline) and that often takes new editors some time to grasp.

It sounds like you ran into an unusual problem. We don’t hear a lot of stories here about things crashing and losing data in X – quite the opposite, actually. Since it works entirely on metadata references, and writes those to disk as you work – the typical process is that if X does crash – it nearly always opens back up with everything intact right up to your most recent work.

Lost clips and messed up timelines are a major exception and not the rule.

Hopefully, this was just a one time thing.

And I’m glad you were able to recover easily.

Good luck in the future.

Know someone who teaches video editing in elementary school, high school or college? Tell them to check out http://www.StartEditingNow.com – video editing curriculum complete with licensed practice content.

[Lucas Barros]

I guess you’re right Bill,
I really like X and have been using it since it’s launch,
but this really got me scared.
The clips were right there and it should be easy for FCPX to see them and reconnect.
Anyways…all is good now and the video is almost done.
Hope u guys had a chance to see the first cut I posted.

Thanks a lot for ur inputs and thoughts.
😀

Lucas de Barros
http://www.novelofilmes.com.br