Shared storage workflow suggestions

[Mark Raudonis]

Will,
We have close to one hundred FCP systems tied into two X-SAN systems. Over fifty editors are currently sharing the same media, working on multiple episodes. Each show has a different workflow, but typically, anywhere from 3-5 editors are working on the same episode (single job).

Are you on an X-SAN system? If so, using the “reveal in finder” key will open the master clip in it’s original folder. This does alow you to “matchback” to the original clip, and depending on how you’ve organized your media, find related clips.

Coming from an Unity system, you’re going to have to “rethink” your approach to media organization. At our company, we’ve taken advantage of the fact that FCP does NOT need the media to live in a project. Now, many “non-editors” like the story department, producers, legal, and music all have access to the original media right on their desktop…without even needing FCP. Using just a Quicktime player, they can view individual clips or sequences output as QT’s. Avid’s approach to this is called “Media Manger Select”, but it’s very expensive and a bandwitdth hog.

The key to sucess in a FCP shared environment is a logical, structured approach to organizing your workflow (media). Feel free to contact me off-list for more details.

Mark

[Will Macneil]

Thanks Mark. Don’t worry, there’s no need to sell me on the benefits of FCP and quicktime.

How do your editors move their sequences between projects?

W

[Matt Lyon]

Hi Will,

Your situation sounds similar to ours.

We are also sharing media using an XRAID system (NOT X-SAN), with our systems connecting over gig-E. We keep “master” projects which are the main reels of our show, which is what the main editors work in mostly. The assistants process incoming media in their own projects, than create “delivery projects” filled with all the media, or timelines, that need to be delivered to the editor. The editors each have delivery folders on the X-RAID, where the assitants copy these FCP projects. The editors can then open these projects and move the necessary media into the main projects. Once finished, the delivery projects are tucked away in dated folders in the finder. The key to the success of the system is using standardized naming conventions, and adhering to them religiously.

Being animation, we don’t really need to preserve master clip relationships, although you could do so easily by delivering media and timelines together. Maybe keep everything in a folder together in the project will ensure this happens.

We also version and clean our master projects religiously, to ensure file sizes stay managable.

Hope this helps!

Matt Lyon
CORE Feature Animation
Toronto

[Will Macneil]

These both look like great solutions for a situation where projects are moving through a pipeline. But what about where an edit is moving back and forth (as often as several times a day) between to or more editors. I can’t see a good way to move a sequence without constantly creating new projects.

W

[Matt Lyon]

Although we don’t constantly create new projects, we do version our timelines quite frequently within the master project. The master projects are stored in a location shared by all. Typically, when an editor hands off the project, the new editor will open the project, duplicate the timeline, change the version number and add their initials. The old timeline gets put away in an “archive” bin.

This does result in large projects, which need to be versioned up themselves and cleaned often, but the advantage is you can maintain a record of all the creative changes that occur. We also have to enforce a “one person in a project at a time” policy to ensure nobody steps on each other’s toes. It is quite easy for two people to have the same project open and, unfortunately, whoever saves last overwrites the other person’s changes.

We IM each other to stay in touch about who is working on what, which is somewhat low tech, but very effective. If two editor’s need to cut the same timeline at once, one of them will grab a copy of the master project and save it to their local drive. When they finish, an assistant will merge the projects.

Matt Lyon
CORE Feature Animation
Toronto

[Mark Raudonis]

Will,

The quick answer is, “Work locally, save gobally”. As Matt has mentioned, with careful attention to naming, everyone will know what is the “latest” project. Even in Avid land, only one person can “own” a timeline at a time. Same principle here. Editors “pull” their projects down to their “local” system off of a common shared folder on the x-SAN. They do their work, then save it back to this “common” folder.

Different shows have different methods for moving sequences. Some will create a new project with only the sequence in it and save that to the common folder. ANyone needing that version can tell which is most current by either cut number or date stamp. Others will simply update the whole project. On an Avid, the “project” is king. In FCP, the “project” is much less important, and other methods of organizing your media, cuts, and elements can be used.

Mark

[Randev]

Hi Mark,

I was very excited to see your post about 50 editors sharing media and working on multiple episodes.

I have been struggling with getting a good workflow and storage solution for our projects. We do a video magazine that comes out once every two months or so. We have about a terrabyte of footage that we need access to from project to project. We are looking into getting some sort of video server but we are not sure quite what to use. We need easy access to the terabyte of footage and what we have been doing is to save it all into a project which takes forever (ok…literally about 10 minutes) to load!

I was wondering if you have any suggestions for workflow/storage solutions, and if you wouldn’t mind sharing your workflow.

Thanks,
Evonne