Importing Footage and the Lack of Bins

[Jeremy Garchow]

Put everything in one event no reason to make multiples, or open the library smart collection and click “all video”. Sort by date imported.

You can also make a smart collection that has a time limit (like imported in the last six hours, or whatever limit you want). This can help keep new stuff separated from older stuff for a time to help aid in organization.

Alternatively, You can use keywords to keep track of “cards” or reels within the event, every import gets its own keyword. This will separate each import from the others within the event.

There are many ways to do this, you just have to find the best way for your workflow. FCPX has some really cool organizational features.

[Oliver Peters]

You can also rename the clips inside FCPX, which will help you stay organized. That way you aren’t dealing with the random P2 clip numbering. This won’t change the actual media file names, but they will stay properly linked.

– Oliver

Oliver Peters – oliverpeters.com

[Joe Marler]

[Stuart Christensen] “….after I reformat the P2 cards, the random nature of sequential ordering performed by the camera will change, and if I import those new clips into the main import window of my project, they get scattered in between all of the footage that is already imported and marked up with I/O points…”

The files listed in the FCPX import window will by ordered by whatever criteria you want — name, date, size, etc. If you order by ascending date, the new files should be at the bottom — not scattered in between previously-imported files.

By “main import window” if you are talking about the Event Browser, the files will likewise be shown in whatever order you want. You can order or group them various ways. Use menu option View>Browser>Sort By and/or Group Clips By. Or you can change the Event Browser to List View and simply click on the heading.

I normally copy each day’s material to a separate date-named folder to avoid having to pick through one big folder for new material. You can have FCPX automatically tag the incoming material with the folder name. See the import dialog or FCPX>Preferences>Import>Keywords: From folders.

You can also tag the files at the Finder level and have FCPX apply those tags as keywords during import: https://www.fcp.co/final-cut-pro/tutorials/1456-using-finder-tags-to-help-with-importing-media-into-final-cut-pro-x

However it’s not necessary to even use the FCPX import dialog. You can drag/drop files directly from Finder on top of the event in FCPX. The various import behaviors are then determined by the FCPX>Preferences>Import settings.

[Stuart Christensen] “….So, I was wondering if anyone has a workflow or solution to create a folder or (Bin) in the main window of the project so I won’t have to keep creating “events” and copy and paste the clips back into the main timeline. This process is seriously tedious and maddening….any help would be greatly appreciated. I just started using FCPX 10.3.4 about 4 months ago”

For my doc team, I normally copy all media for each day’s shooting to a date-named folder, and within that by folders by camera name. I never select import ranges — that feature is only available for tree-based media like AVCHD or XAVC-S. I import all media with “leave files in place” and auto-assign initial keywords based on folder names on disk (mainly shooting day and camera name). Since multicam requires each camera angle be named in FCPX and since we have several cameras which make similar filenames, this allows quickly isolating the clips from an individual camera to batch-assign camera name or angle in the FCPX metadata: https://support.apple.com/kb/PH12658?locale=en_US&viewlocale=en_US

I rarely even look at the material outside of FCPX, except for confidence checks. I don’t spend time trying to meticulously organize the media by files and folders. This would require looking at the material with some viewer which is vastly slower than the FCPX skimmer. After importing I use FCPX to favorite, reject and keyword the material.

For some projects I use a single event and use FCPX database methods to organize if after import. This is extensively organized in the Event Browser before any timeline editing is done. It is not uncommon to spend over 60% of the total editing time on organization, before even using the timeline. Then the timeline editing phase goes much faster.

For other projects (say a year-long production filmed at various sites separated by months of time), I use an event per physical shooting site. Strictly speaking this isn’t necessary — the material at each shooting location could simply be keyworded. However having separate events helps facilitate multi-editor workflows where various assistant editors are keywording and rating the material in assigned events, which are then consolidated by sending an event XML to a master copy of the library.

[Stuart Christensen]

Thanks so much guys, a lot of good approaches mentioned and will greatly help me establish a good flow for future projects. So far I have cut about 20 projects on FCX without any knowledge of the program so it is proving to be an enjoyable experience punctuated with moments of confusion followed by small tantrums. However, I find myself really liking the process and the programs capabilities.

Thanks for the quick responses!

I know alot….but not as much as the other guy.