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taking full version of project offline so I can work on laptop? advice appreciated!
We are working on a feature doc in FCP. The footage is all transferred in full resolution HD on 6 double TB drives hooked up to a MacPro and I’d love to find a way to majorly downsize the project so that I can work on my laptop wherever I choose. I figure I could just make little versions of every single clip we shot and make sure they all have the same name + I’d be good to go, right? I’m not sure how to do this… I’ve been poking around Media Manager but I can’t seem to figure out how to get it to manage my way into what I’m seeking.
Secondly, do you think it’s practical to jump back and forth between online full HD + offline uglyfest files often? It’s just a matter of pointing it to the new files + reconnecting, yes?
Thanks for the help in advance!
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3 Replies
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One more thing — I’d want to work off of a 500GB external so I basically would be aiming to take my new clips down to 1/30th of their original size. ! Is there some sort of simple way to approximate what the final export size will be beyond plain old trial and error and/or advice as to the type of compression I should use for optimal results?
Thanks again!
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[Schureman Lear] ” I’d love to find a way to majorly downsize the project so that I can work on my laptop wherever I choose.”
Are you looking to actually edit on the laptop, or log clips, take notes, transcribe etc? For the latter, there are some excellent cataloging programs out there that interface with FCP very well. I use CatDV Pro, and there are other good choices as well.
To use CatDV Pro with your already captured material, you simply export a bin or group of bins via XML. When you import that XML file into CatDV, your clips appear with in/out points, duration, bin and reel names, etc etc etc. You can then have the program create small preview files from the source clips which can fit on your laptop. I’m creating a batch of them right now in order to take a documentary project on the road with me this week.
Regards,
David -
[Schureman Lear] “s there some sort of simple way to approximate what the final export size will be beyond plain old trial and error”
Just research the data rates for different formats and do the math. Here’s one list, there are plenty of sources out there for this information.
https://edu.moviola.com/fcs_video_storage
and a neat, free widget from Digital Heaven that will convert hours of footage to drive capacity required and vise versa for all sorts of formats:
https://www.digital-heaven.co.uk/videospace/
Regards,
David
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