FCPX, XSAN, 3 edit suites and RED PROXIES

[T. Payton]

I think I can help. However, although I should state that while I was briefly trained on XSAN and FCPX by an XSAN guru, I don’t run an XSAN myself at my office. Therefore this is based on testing I have done on my system, but the principles are completely transferable to XSAN.

This is actually fairly straight forward if you keep everything well organized. The key would be never copy your footage to a FCP X event that will be used for editing, and therefore always use “symlinks” to your footage on your XSAN.

First organize your 5K footage and your Proxy Footage in separate folders on a location in our XSAN ** (see note below for some options) then begin by importing your project into a single “master” Event. Organize this master event as much as you would like for a starting position for the editors. Then duplicate the event 2 times, command-D, (one for each editor) and copy manually in the finder to a XSAN location. Then each editor would add that XSAN location in FCP X to store their event and project. Make sure the events and projects have unique names. You editors can now edit freely, adding favorites, notes, etc. to their particular event.

Once their editors are done, manually copy all the events & Projects to a single SAN Location so they are all in the same Event and Project folder. (Make a backup copy of the projects & events before hand). Then with that “master” SAN location set in FCP X, combine your timelines as necessary. When you are happy with the results you can relink to your 5K R3d in all three events quickly. To do this make another backup of your events & projects and then command click and select all three events and choose File > Relink Event Files and choose all to relink to your R3D footage. If the proxies are named correctly it should find all your R3D files quickly. Ensure that your timeline is the correct resolution and you should be good to go.

** Note about proxies. While possible, it would be quite tricky to use the built in Proxy functionality of FCP X to switch between full resolution and proxies. It would involve a rather complicated process of creating symlinks in your event/Transcoded Media/Proxies. But you could create a “Ingest” Event that would hold your original footage and create proxies too. For this ingest event you would “Copy clips to Final Cut Event Folder”. The event would then be a well organized place for your r3d files (in “event name”/Original Media”) and your proxy files (in [event_name]/Transcoded Media/Proxy media). You could even add additional footage to this ingest event after editing begins. This ingest event would not be the event you duplicate for your editors, it would simply organize your media and create your proxies. You can get an idea of how this would work here:

https://images.apple.com/finalcutpro/docs/Final_Cut_Pro_X_Xsan_Best_Practices.pdf

I hope this helps. Run some tests and see if this works for you.

——
T. Payton
OneCreative, Albuquerque

[Elliot Pollaro]

This sounds extremely complicated. Apple should definitely fix this. I am going to study what you have told me and try to do this.

[T. Payton]

I’m probably making it sound more complicated that it is. The workflow is actually the same as it would be in FCP 7 with the exception of how events/projects need to be duplicated in FCP X opposed to in the Finder.

The fellow who showed me XSAN and FCP X actually said he thought it was better in FCP X than it was in 7.

Agreed that Apple can make it better because there isn’t really a cooperative workflow in FCP X yet.

Hit me up with any questions.

——
T. Payton
OneCreative, Albuquerque

[Helge Tjelta]

I would try it a little differently.
FCPX on Xsan uses SAN-locations. Think of them as FCP7 project-files.

Make a folder for your project.
Do one ADD SAN-location (to this folder), import and use generate proxies and use RedRocket if you have one (lucky you :)).
Make two more folders on the Xsan.
Do two more ADD SAN-location (so that the other editors can do their own stuff….)

Organize as you need, then do the duplicate projects only and choose the two other SAN-locations. This way you have FCPX doing all the stuff for you. Just rename the duplicates in edit 2 and edit 3

When editor two and three are done, move project to first SAN-location (or do a duplicate projects only to the first SAN-location….

But, do a small test first….

Helge

[Elliot Pollaro]

Im sorry if im being hard, but im having trouble wrapping my head around these processes. I know its a long shot but if any of you could make a video showing how this would be done. It would help me tremendously. We were also wanting to be able to put proxies on a laptop and be able to cut stuff away from the office and bring it back and reconnect it to the original 5k footage later.

[T. Payton]

I’ll see what I can do. BTW, this might be useful to check out from Ripple Training:

FCPX – Media Management & Collaboration

https://www.rippletraining.com/categories/apple-pro-apps-tutorials/final-cut-pro-x-tutorials/fcpx-media-management.html

——
T. Payton
OneCreative, Albuquerque

[John Heagy]

What frame size are your proxies?

If not 5K is it possible to relink 5K in place of 1080 proxy?

John

[T. Payton]

Elliot,

This is actually a similar workflow to what we have at our office. 2 editors sharing media and projects. It really only takes a few minutes to setup once you understand the concepts and the potential gotchas. I’m trying to put together a video/ write up on how to do this and post it as a tutorial here but it will take a few more days to pull it together. If you need immediate help, you can contact me through my company web site.

onecreative.net

——
T. Payton
OneCreative, Albuquerque

[Elliot Pollaro]

Let me know if you release a tutorial.

[T. Payton]

I don’t have the tutorial finished yet, but this is a rather extensive “walkthrough” of how shared media can work with FCP X:

https://www.fcp.co/final-cut-pro/tutorials/1017-superb-walk-through-tutorials-on-making-trails-with-final-cut-pro-x-on-shared-storage

This should be very helpful.

——
T. Payton
OneCreative, Albuquerque