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Not crazy about the new media management structure
I’m puzzling over how I’m going to deal with the new library structure. I understand that it will work better for many facilities. But in my case, we don’t tend to work on big projects for long periods of time. Instead we shoot a lot of events, we probably generate about 60 or so per year. But we may use footage from any one of those events for any project for years to come.
I’m probably going to have to move to external files, but the problem there is where the heck do I put the Library files then. I can’t store them in shared storage (I have a NAS), I can’t store them on individual macs (making sure they are synchronized would be a nightmare, not to mention would clog up small laptop hard drives), I can’t store them in a dropbox account (render files are going to make them too large). I think my only option is to store them in sparse bundles in the NAS like I’m currently doing. But now with the added complexity of libraries which give me no benefit. And I can’t put them into one big library as that will prevent multiple users from working on different projects at the same time.
I have to admit I’m more than a little disappointed in the sharing capabilities of 10.1. I thought they were going to do better. Seems like a bit of a kludge to me, adding no REAL sharing capability. Taming the multiple copies of events, projects and libraries to allow sharing is going to be a beast.
Maybe I’m missing something here. But the way it looks this file structure is going to be more work for me, not less.
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9 Replies
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This was always the downfall of projects in FCP legacy, Avid, and Premiere. Bins were to some extent, stuck to a project. Unfortunately it seems to benefit more than it hurts to return to that mode. But maybe you can just ignore libraries. There’s nothing to say you can’t put one event in each library and all would function as it did before. Store all the one event libraries in a folder called final cut event libraries at the root level of your drive if you feel like it. You could also have a library that only has projects, no events. Or one project per library and store it at the root level in a folder called final cut project libraries. But now, you can put these things wherever you want, and mount and unmount at will. I think it really gives you more options.
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I think if you have an honest to goodness SAN, these sharing options are pretty good as you can use a Library just as you would an FCP7 project without some of the SAN Location juggling and media location woes.
You can also make “transfer libraries” so that there’s no confusion.
You can also bring media in AND OUT of Libraries with the Consolidate function.
At the end, you’d have to import the separate Libraries in to one master LIbrary and archive it.
This all depends on a system that can use and read/write protect Libraries, though.
Jeremy
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I’m probably going to stick with it the way I have it (using sparse bundles for individual events) for awhile until I can see a better way. It’ll be an extra step of creating a library each time I make a new event. And of course it’s going to be a good couple days of creating library files from my old events and projects with no benefit. But if it makes other people happy, I can deal with it.
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[Bret Williams] “all would function as it did before. Store all the one event libraries in a folder called final cut event libraries at the root level of your drive if you feel like it. You could also have a library that only has projects, no events. Or one project per library and store it at the root level in a folder called final cut project libraries. But now, you can put these things wherever you want, and mount and unmount at will. I think it really gives you more options.”
Actually on further thought, it wouldn’t work as it did before. If I create a Project in it’s own Library I think that means it will create new media every time I put a shot in from an Event that’s not in that Library. It’s going to lead to a lot of unnecessary file duplication, which not only will waste space, but will slow down performance while it’s copying. Basically, I see nothing here that I wasn’t already doing better and more flexibly with Sparse Bundles.
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No, FCP X will do the right thing. If you store your media in an external location on your network, you can refer to it in as many different libraries as you want, and it won’t duplicate your media.
Managed Media, files stored directly in your Libraries, would be duplicated.
External Media, files stored in some other folder, would not.Open as many libraries as you want, drag the clips you need into your new library, and you’ll only be duplicating pointer files.
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Yeah I think I’m going to have to move to external media storage. Although I will add that was ALWAYS possible with the previous structure. The only difference I see is that you can set a location during capture which is a little more convenient.
But now I have about 150 events I’m going to have to turn into external media. What is this about a week of work?
Can somebody clarify something for me. The way I see it, it is impossible to have a project with media that spans multiple drives with managed media. If so, is anyone really going to manage media anymore? What happens if your project fills up a drive are you SOL and forced to switch to unmanaged media?
As much as people like the library structure, I’m not sure this was particularly well thought out.
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You can put media wherever you’d like.
If your drive fills up, you can start to put it on another drive.
The library and media can be separate. You can convert managed media to external media at any time and vice versa.
When you import media that needs to be rewrapped, you can specify a destination.
I think this is much more flexible than 10.0, and solves many major complaints about media managing.
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Going forward then who would bother with managed media.
Does external media still need that goofy alias file that the current version requires? How do you convert from managed media to external media? Does it require relinking? Also, does the Library remember the folder you want to import files to? If not, I see a lot of misplaced files in the future. And why can’t you externally locate render/transcode files to make the library file a nice small file that can be passed around? Seems like they should have just gone with the FCP 7 file structure which basically they’re emulating now without the capability choosing where to locate render/transcode/thumbnail files.
But the bottom line is I see how I can work with it in the future. Basically I’ll make new events for every project I start that will go in it’s own library, even if that event is 2 years old. So I’ll end up with multiple copies of basically the same event which isn’t that big of deal. Maybe I’ll have a single library of events for each drive from which to pull from.
The real problem for me is getting to that point from where I am right now.
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[Brett Sherman] “Going forward then who would bother with managed media. “
If you aren’t worried abut a shared situation, it becomes a workflow choice. With managed media you have exactly one file to worry about, and that’s the library, (plugs and templates aside). Everything you need to take with you, archive, and restore is in that library for that job.
[Brett Sherman] “Does external media still need that goofy alias file that the current version requires?”
Those are symbolic links, and yes they are still required for external media. I find them to be rather powerful and less goofy.
[Brett Sherman] “How do you convert from managed media to external media?”
Use the Consolidate function.
[Brett Sherman] “Does it require relinking?”
No.
Actually, before I answer these one by one, this will be a great read for you as it addresses a lot of your questions: https://www.apple.com/final-cut-pro/docs/Media_Management.pdf
Also, this looks to be rather informative as well: https://www.rippletraining.com/categories/apple-pro-apps-tutorials/final-cut-pro-x-tutorials/final-cut-pro-10-1-in-depth.html
[Brett Sherman] “But the bottom line is I see how I can work with it in the future. Basically I’ll make new events for every project I start that will go in it’s own library, even if that event is 2 years old. So I’ll end up with multiple copies of basically the same event which isn’t that big of deal. Maybe I’ll have a single library of events for each drive from which to pull from.”
I am confused why you think this will be harder than it already is. A library is a collection of Events and Projects in one single file that is exposed to the Finder. Why do you need to create multiple copies of Events? Why do you need one lIbrary per drive?
You should also check out Event Manger X which is now free. It will help in your conversion to Libraries: https://assistedediting.intelligentassistance.com/EventManagerX/
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