[Don Smith]

I don’t have a direct answer for you but it seems to me you are misunderstanding the size of your source footage. Possibly “720×576 Anamorphic” describes footage that BECOMES 720 on the horizontal when it is stretched (displayed) from its anamorphic state. Final Cut is treating it AS IT IS DISPLAYED, not as its squeezed (narrow) source. After all, an anamorphic video is squeezed horizontally and is expanded only when displayed. Open that source in something like Quicktime 7 and do a Get Info to find its true size. Once you have its true size then the numbers may make sense.

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[Don Smith]

Just for my education could you explain further what part is not making it? Maybe a screenshot? I’ve devoted a number of hours to understanding media management in the 10.1 update and this knowledge will possibly help me fill in a gap. Thank you.

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[Don Smith]

After thinking about my reply about XML it occurred to me that I’m overthinking it.

Since both your Media library and your current project Library are loaded, just Option-drag the Event in the media Library to the library name of your current project to make a copy.

If it appears that the copied Event has copied media (managed media that was in the originating Library) keep in mind that the Libraries are using ‘hard links’ without actually duplicating the real media. If your originating Event had sym links to the media, then you’ll have sym links in the copy.

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[Don Smith]

OK. In those Libraries that hold your media, can I assume that all the keyword information is in an Event within each Library?

Export the media Event XML and importing that XML into your working Library retains the keywords. It may retain the notes but I have no experience with that but its worth an experiment. Exporting the XML of an Event does NOT take Projects along with it but by your description you have no Projects in those asset Libraries anyway.

So, highlight the Event in your media Library and from the File menu export the Event XML and then go to your working Library and import it. I’ll be curious to see if this works for you. The imported Event may show unconnected media and you would reconnect that media back to the media folder. Maybe not.

If it does work then you’ll already have that exported XML file to import as you need it in future projects.

All of this is much more simple in practice than it is to describe it. If I’m wrong about this process then please be kind. Just throwing out a possibility to try.

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[Don Smith]

Not that I’m aware of but why not just import the external media folders you’ll be using and leave them external? It’s only sym files that take up almost no room. Then dip into that well with abandon! You can import media folders (and leave them external) into more than one Library. With that in mind, is there really a need to make those media folders into their own Library if you don’t plan to edit within that Library? Just have your media folders as you do now and import them (leaving them external) into every Library where you think you’ll be needing something from them.

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[Don Smith]

Well, you lost me so let me just give you some points about media management in the 10.1 update.

For me, I had three Events that dealt with the same subject from the old FCPX and about 15 projects between them that I made into a single Library in the 10.1 update. SO much better!

You can mount your Libraries and Events and drag between them to organize your assets to make a single, unified Library after the fact. Try dragging all into a single Library and delete the abandoned Libraries. Managed media (media inside the Libraries) will not be lost and external media will not be touched.

Do an edit on one machine, highlight the Project and export an XML file. Import into the other computer. I would suggest that your newest edit have something appended to its name so you can tell an old project from one that is new.

If you have added new keyword collections, also choose the Event and export its XML. Exporting an Event that way does not include Projects so to get both you need to export the XML of both.

As long as both Libraries (one on each computer) have the same media it won’t matter that they aren’t both organized exactly the same way.

Note: I seemed to have found a bug in the XML export. If you have movement in a clip (Transform) with keyframes and you’ve set some keyframes to Linear, they revert to Smooth in the XML export. At least that’s happening to me.

Hope this helps.

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[Don Smith]

For some there’s an advantage to bringing files into the Library. It depends on your needs. For me, I would never bring in media files on the same drive because that would duplicate the media and I see no need for that.

I will sometimes bring into the Library things scattered around my hard drives like still pictures or a piece of music but I certainly leave all big media where it is. Your mileage may vary. For me, I seek first to leave media in place.

It’s the great thing about media management on the 10.1 update; you can do whatever you want.

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[Don Smith]

I also have adopted the workflow of never importing media into the Library bundle. All my media is organized in a folder external to the Library.

You can, of course, Finder-copy that Library to another hard drive then Consolidate that remote Library so that it contains all the media you’ll need when you take that external hard drive to another location. The only thing you won’t have is any home-made effects you created with Motion so ZIP your Motion Templates folder to take with you.

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[Don Smith]

I now see your point Trevor and I agree with your assessment.

[Don Smith]

While confusing to look at your video at first, I got the idea as it played that it is not a bug.

It appears to me that the intent is to make a marker on the timeline and not on the clip but the designers have chosen to make timeline markers appear on the topmost clip instead of what we used to call the scrubber bar in FCP7. It makes sense since a marker at a certain point is, well, a marker at a certain point and is at the same point for any clips below it.

I don’t have Final Cut open but one experiment I would like to try is the new feature where you set markers and then, on the Retiming drop-down, choose the command where you set jumps at each marker. Can’t say the precise name right now (OK, full disclosure; I can’t open the new Final Cut because my home computer is too old to load it. I’m waiting for delivery of my new Mac Pro. But, I do use the new Final Cut 10.1 at work). I would be interested if the markers appear on the topmost clip but will put the jumps on a selected clip below. If it doesn’t then I’m leaning toward calling the markers buggy. If the selected clip below inherits the jump at markers command, then I lean toward calling it design.

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