Import Problems with FCPX

[John Rofrano]

[Bren Taylor] “I can bring them in but I then get a message that they cannot be processed and FC is reading from the card/camera only.”

FCP X is expecting to see the files in the same folder structure that the camera card provides. It will read some formats from anywhere on your hard drive but some it will not.

[Bren Taylor] “Previously I’ve only imported from mini DV tapes via camera so I’m wondering what I’m missing?…..”

If you are removing the files from the camera card manually outside of FCP X then that’s what you are missing. Back in the days of miniDV, you didn’t take the tape out of the plastic miniDV cartridge did you? 😉 Why then would you take the video out of the camera card structure? That structure is the container for the video much like the plastic cartridge was for tape. The card structure contains valuable metadata about the video.

My workflow is to Archive the camera card as the first step. It’s the button in the lower left of the import window that says Create Archive…. I save the archives on a separate hard drive so that I have a backup before I do anything. Then I import the media from the card into my Library for the particular client project. I equate creating the archive like saving the miniDV tape. 😉 It gives me the piece of mind that I have a safe copy.

If you just want to shoot and clear the memory card and edit later, use the Create Archive function to create multiple camera card archives. Then when you are ready to import and edit, point FCP X to the camera archive and it will act just like the original camera card. As I said, I have these camera archives on a separate drive that then gets backup up regularly so that I always have two copies because “if it ain’t backed up twice… it ain’t backed up!”

Hopefully that helps.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Bren Taylor]

Thanks for your response, John. And that’s great if I’m the one shooting and able to import directly into FCPX at home. But any suggestions for workflow on site? I’m now having others shoot for me and transfer the files to my mobile HD. And this is how I wound up with the current situation.

Bren

[John Rofrano]

[Bren Taylor] “But any suggestions for workflow on site? I’m now having others shoot for me and transfer the files to my mobile HD.”

Have them copy the entire folder structure to your mobile hard drive. For example: if you are shooting in AVCHD, the top level folder of the camera card will be /AVCHD. Have them make a folder on your hard drive with a meaningful name, and then drag and drop the entire AVCHD folder into that new folder. This is almost the same as using the Create Archive function. In fact, you can use Create Archive on these top level folders later to create archives.

The difference in size between just the video files and the entire folder structure is very small so this shouldn’t slow anything down or take up much additional room. In fact, it should speed things up because there is only one folder to copy and they are done. Then you will have an exact copy of all of the camera cards on your mobile hard drive to be processed later.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Bren Taylor]

Appreciate it, John! 😉