Reducing Project file sizes

[Walter Biscardi]

Sequences are the main culprit in causing the larger file sizes. The more Sequences you have, the larger and slower the project becomes.

One tactic is to break up your main project into multiple projects so you’re just working with one Sequence or a few Sequences at a time.

Another tactic would be to save your current project with a new name, say “Project Copy 1” and then delete any unused Sequences from that project. Older ones you no longer need, but you’ll have access to them in the original project if you did.

If you haven’t already, pick up Shane Ross’ Getting Organized in Final Cut Pro for a lot of great tips on managing any size project.

https://store.creativecow.net/p/63/getting_organized_in_final_cut_pro

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author.
Credits include multiple Emmy, Telly, Aurora and Peabody Awards.
Owner, Biscardi Creative Media featuring HD Post
Biscardi Creative Media

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[Nick Meyers]

as Walter says sequences and duplicates of sequences will contribute a lot to project size bloat
htey are very complex entities.

rather than keep old sequences in a project,
i’ll make duplicates of the project file itself,
archiving the edit at certain stages.

now on top of this,
there is some bug in FCP, whereby project file sizes can grow and grow,
and they are very hard to reduce.

i have deleted EVERYTHING from a project, and the file size still stays large!

i suspect the project may be tracking old render files, but i’m not positive.

BUT!
there IS a solution,
and that is to copy everything from one project into a new one.

i once had a 170MB project go back to 17MB from doing this.

BUT!!
there is a down-side to the copying process:
you can lose your master / affiliate relationships.
meaning, you wont be able to match frame back to the browser/bin.

BUT!!!
there is a solution to this, too.
and that is that you need to copy clips, multi-clips, and sequences separately.
that’s right, three separate copy/ paste actions.

if your project is complicated, that can mean a fair bit of re-arranging on the other end to get all the clip, multis, and sequences back into their correct folders.

hope that helps,
nick