Organizing Events

[Craig Alan]

Well I decided to go all in and try to get all the media associated with this project into one Event and use keywords instead of the folders (events) I had created. The mess I had started by my importing from different media folders from different cams and choosing to put them in their own events.

I can’t at this point explain every step I took but it was a combination of finder level and FCPX level moving, deleting, relinking, and using “File>organize event files”.

It all worked out ok. There are no missing files. The project is neatly organized in one event with keywords representing the different events I had.

I went back and forth between the finder and FCP X. Not sure I understand everything on the finder level. But I did not find it impossible to go home again if I moved things around on the finder level. Which does not mean I’m recommending it. And I did not move files from one event to another on the finder level.

The worse moment I had was when I could skim through my timeline but when I tried to play I got a spinning beach ball and had to force quit. This got corrected with a hard reboot.

FCP X does not seem to fight you that hard in term of reorganizing. I discovered too late in the game that it allows you to ‘merge events’.

As for my original question, in the empty event there were files on the finder level that were being referenced by the other events. Once these were deleted on the finder level I was able to delete the event in FC and relink where necessary. Still not sure how the event was being used as a reference yet was empty. And yes i double checked to make sure no filter including a space as a search was applied. But I think on the finder level there was missing folder(s) that allowed its contents to not show in FC.

I would really like a much better understanding of the relationship between FC and the finder structure. I will be running a lab soon with many students and I’ll need to trouble shoot mistakes they make with organization. To be honest I do not recall so many different opinions about organization issues with any previous NLE.

I’ve read in several places that there are advantages to copying original media into an event rather than referencing the original media. But if I have say a camera card folder in the finder and then copy all those clips into FC rather than create references to it this will take twice the space. What exactly is the upside? If I do copy these files into FC, can I then safely erase the originals?

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Camcorders: Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV30/40, Sony Z7U, VX2000, PD170; FCP 6 certified; write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Jeff Nesmith]

It’s all about “organizing media”, otherwise you end up with reference files everywhere but media still ends up disconnected. I wrote a blog post about consolidating and organizing all your media within FCPX, using Finder to see behind the scenes, but not as a way to do the job. Hope someone finds it helpful: https://www.gypsycreative.com/organizing-horribly-disfigured-final-cut-pro-x-project/