Opinion on UPGRADING in the middle of a project

[Richard Cooper]

Hi Chris,
If you do, make sure and ARCHIVE your current OS hard drive (put it on the shelf) don’t forget to make a safety copy of your FC 5.1.4 project file and put it on your old OS drive first) Then, start with a fresh new drive, clean install Snow Leopard and Final Cut Studio 3 with all the updates and extra software you may need. PS, AFX etc and then open your 5.1.4 project file. FCS3 will ask if you want to convert your project file to be read in FCS3, click yes.(At least I think it can from 5.1.4, it does from a 6.0 project file) Then if it all works your are fine, welcome to a brave new world. If everything goes to H*ll it is as simple as putting your old OS drive back in the machine and you have only lost a day or so and you’re right back where you started.
This is how I upgraded from FCS2 to FCS3 and fortunately my old OS drive is still sitting on the shelf untouched now for 3 months. No problems here.

Whatever you do DO NOT just upgrade on your current OS drive, that is a recipe for a disaster.

Hope this helps.

Richard Cooper
FrostLine Productions, LLC
Anchorage, Alaska
http://www.frostlineproductions.com

[Michael Sacci]

[Chris Guevarra] “This is now causing us some problems with new editors jumping on board. “
What do you mean by this? As in they edit on their own systems that have newer version? What features in FCP 6 or 7 do you need?

[Chris Guevarra]

Hi Michael, thanks for the quick reply.

The reason to upgrade is simply that they’re going to be editing on their own system that has a newer version (FCP 6). That would be the only reason why we would be upgrading and not for the new features.

Thanks,
Chris Guevarra
massmovementtv.blogspot.com

[Chris Guevarra]

Hi Richard,

Thank you so much for quick and detailed reply. I think this is exactly what we’re going to do.

Was there a systematic way you double checked your project to make sure everything (all the cuts, tc, media ends and starts, etc.) was the same? The reason why I ask is because we already have a lot of assemblies and cuts that we would like to preserve for the new editor.

Thanks,
Chris Guevarra
massmovementtv.blogspot.com

[Richard Cooper]

Sure… as long as you have your project the way you want it just right click on the FC project file icon and duplicate, then put your original project file somewhere safe on your old OS drive and your duplicate project file somewhere with your media files. I assume you have all of your media files on a separate dedicated RAID or Firewire drive(s), neatly organized, ;~) correct? Just make sure NONE of the media files, including any stills, graphics, music, VO tracks etc you need for your project are on your old OS drive…This should be standard practice… but sometimes there are stray files here and there. Once you have all of your media separate from your old OS drive you can reconnect once you have the project open in the new FCP version.

Good Luck!

Richard Cooper
FrostLine Productions, LLC
Anchorage, Alaska
http://www.frostlineproductions.com

[Michael Gissing]

One thing to bear in mind is that FCS 3 and Snow Leopard are designed for intel Macs so if you are still on a G5, then don’t go past FCS2 (FCP 6.0.6 is the last vers 6)