jaco34
Level 1 (10 points)

Q: Managing a big project

What is the best solution for managing a big project (90 min) ? How has such an experience all the way through ?

I'm editing alone on my own, with iMac i7 3,4 GHz, 16Go RAM, HD 3 To FW 800. No or very little extra sound studio work is expected.

 

1. What should be the maximum length of the project so that FCPX works smoothly ? Is it possible to work with very large projects (over 30 minutes) with many clips and effects without FCPX slowing down, having corrupt files or endless rerereredering time ?

 

2. What are the things you should care about with big projects and what have been the problems (HD, export, RAM, media managing) ?

 

Thanks

Final Cut Pro X, Mac OS X (10.7.2)

Posted on Mar 6, 2012 6:14 AM

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jaco34

Q: Managing a big project

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  • by jaco34,

    jaco34 jaco34 Mar 6, 2012 6:19 AM in response to jaco34
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Mar 6, 2012 6:19 AM in response to jaco34

    And I use Lion 10.7.3

  • by andynick,

    andynick andynick Mar 6, 2012 7:24 AM in response to jaco34
    Level 5 (4,943 points)
    Video
    Mar 6, 2012 7:24 AM in response to jaco34

    This is my pet checklist for questions regarding FCP X performance. It includes tips which are relevant to larger projects.

     

    FCP X 10.0.3 runs very well on my 2009 MacPro 2 x 2.26 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon with 16 GB RAM and ATI Radeon HD 5870 1024 MB.

     

    First, check that you have at least 20% free space on the Hard Drive that your System and your Media, Projects and Events are on.

     

    Check the spec of your Mac against the system requirements:

    http://www.apple.com/finalcutpro/specs/

     

    Check the spec of your graphics card. If it's listed here, it's not suitable:

    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4664

     

    If you are getting crashes, there is some conflict on the OS. Create a new (admin) user account on your system and use FCP X from there - if it runs a lot better, there's a conflict and a clean install would be recommended.

     

    Keep projects to 20 mins or less. If you have a long project, work on 20 min sections then paste these into a final project for export.

     

    Create Optimised media - most camera native files are highly compressed and need a great deal of processor power to play back - particularly if you add titles, filters or effects. ProRes 422 takes up much more hard drive space but is very lightly compressed. It edits and plays back superbly.

     

    If you are short of drive space, use ProRes 422 Proxy (FCP X Preferences > Playback) - it plays back and edits beautifully, but you must remember to select High Quality when you export your movie.

     

    Hide Audio Waveforms at all times when you don't need them (both in Browser and Storyline / Timeline). They take up a lot of processor power. (Use the switch icon at the bottom-right of your timeline to select a format without waveforms if you don't need them at the moment, then switch back when you do).

     

    Create folders in the Project and Events libraries and put any projects you are not working on currently, in those folders. This will help a lot.

     

    Move your Projects and Events to an external HD (make sure it's formatted OS Extended - with journaled on or off) and run from there.

     

    The biggest single improvement I saw in performance was when I upgraded the RAM from 8 GB to 16.

    Andy

  • by Luis Sequeira1,

    Luis Sequeira1 Luis Sequeira1 Mar 6, 2012 8:29 AM in response to jaco34
    Level 6 (12,682 points)
    Mac OS X
    Mar 6, 2012 8:29 AM in response to jaco34

    Another suggestion: if your project can be naturally divided into parts, create each one as compound clip inside your event browser and only put it all together at the end. Working with smaller pieces of video tends to be much faster. Furthermore, compound clips created in the event browser can be easily reused.