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Massive multi year project failure scare
Hey guys,
Sorry for the dramatic headline, but it was definitely one of the scarier realisations i’ve had in the last little while. I almost lost a year’s worth of work…
Really quickly, I am halfway through post on a 3 x 1 hour series for TV, also to be made into a feature doc for festivals etc. The footage was shot over 3 years and when opening Premiere it connects to something like 37,897 video files to open and begin work.
Ridiculous I know. Some of those video files were accidentally duplicated when I imported a sequence from another file – having said, I definitely have tens of thousands of video files that are indeed unique and required for the project.
I know I should have asked this earlier in the project, but I was wondering if my project is too big.
The Premiere File is about 45MB ( I was under the impression that’s not necessarily the worst thing?)
The reason I say I lost almost a year’s work is because, I stupidly downloaded some malware when in a rush the other day and my whole OSX system slowed to the point where Premiere was unable to load all those video files – in fact I had to open, let it fail and force quite, open, fail and force quit, etc etc etc many many times while it loaded all the media… It took me a whole day just to open the premiere file!
I think I fixed the malware… hopefully (although system still slightly laggy).
The structure of the bins and files inside my project are excellent and I am happy to say that I can find almost any one of those 37,800 video files in just a few minutes due to the way it is organised – that’s not the issue.
I am just wondering – I am dancing with death having so many files associated with one premiere project?
Does it need to be broken up into, say, 3 smaller projects?
How do you even go about doing that?
Sorry for the can of worms style question here – but it’d be amazing to get any some insight from experienced editors who know how to deal with big projects like this…
Many thanks in advance,
Matty Hannon
The Road to Patagonia – A two year surfing odyssey – from the top of the world to the bottom
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4 Replies
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The size of your project is NOT your problem, period, end of that story.
Your problem is more than likely “pilot error” on your part, and, you need someone who REALLY has a technical background (ie. a finishing editor) to sort out the underlying issues for you before you move ahead and dig your hole any deeper. FYI, the first rule for those is a hole is, stop digging.
FYI, I’m currently fixing a similar project for another filmmaker now – it happens to be on FCP 7, but, don’t let it worry you that I’m regarded as the FCP guru to the stars, I quit using FCP years ago, and long ago moved on to Premiere and Resolve. I’m wrapping that fix later today and would suggest you ask that filmmaker for a reference – he’s been editing with major issues for ages, and I got him fixed-up in just a few hours.
If you need my help, send me a private message at drw000 at mac dot com.
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist & Workflow Consultant
David Weiss Productions
Los AngelesDavid is a Creative COW contributing editor and a forum host of the Apple Final Cut Pro forum.
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OK thanks David.
I’ll definitely keep your email handy, but good to hear you think that file size of of a premiere project is not an issue, for the moment everything seems to be running fine, and like I said, I have structured the internals of the project professionally (aside from accidental duplication of some files).
My main concern, and something that i’d heard second-hand from one of Australia’s well respected finishing editors was that project files should not get too large as they become unstable and inefficient.
I am still experiencing minor issues with my system speeds outside of premiere, so I am thinking that I may still have some residual malware symptoms.
Thanks for your thoughts.
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Matt, please share, what was the malware that affected your OSX?
We mac folks sometimes think we’re living in a charmed world.
Best,
RobertRobert Withers
Independent/personal/avant-garde cinema, New York City
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Hey Robert,
Feel a little silly admitting it, but it was for an Adobe Flash download that also installed a Yahoo search engine redirector, Advanced Mac Cleaner and one other one I can’t remember the name of.
In my defence I was accessing my good friends website at the time and assumed it was safe and rushed it through…. but assumptions are…
I think i’ve cleaned them all out with Mac Cleaner and MalwareBytes, and the only issue now is that my mouse is a laggy… (might just need a disconnect and reconnect of bluetooth?… who knows)
Thanks for the thought..
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