I can't open Final Cut because of huge project

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Level 1

5 points

I can't open Final Cut because of huge project

Hey everyone,

I'm working on a timelapse project in 10.0.9 on my MacPro5,1 with OSX 10.9 (13A603). I have the OS, final cut and the project and event files running on a 240 solid state SATA drive within the tower. AND lastly I have 16gb of RAM

So basically my problem is that this timelapse project is about 33gb large and when opening Final Cut it lags for anywhere between 2 and 5 hours to open. Once it is open I have to wait for the project to load which takes no time at all (1 minute or so). But when I start playback, pause and then try to play again I get the spinning beach ball of death.

I know my project is immense, but this can't be the biggest project of all time. Especially with the new RED cameras and RAW 4k footage. So what am I doing wrong? I don't want to throw out and start all over, but at the same time I know that that is a possibility that I'm going to have to cope with.

Also I've done the Repair Permissions, Repair disk and cleaned many extra unnecesary files within the computer already. So that's not an issue.

Can anyone help me? I'm supposed to have the project done by this Saturday, November 30th, 2013.

I appreciate any and all help.

Mac Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9), Advanced User

Posted on Nov 28, 2013 1:20 AM

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Answer 1

Nov 28, 2013 3:10 AM in response to thecus3

For a start try trashing the preferences with this free app.

http://www.digitalrebellion.com/prefman/

Shut down FCP X, open PreferenceManager and in the window that appears:-

1. Ensure that only FCP X is selected.

2. Click Trash and the job is done.

Perfectly safe as the preferences are separate from the app and when you re-open FCP X it will create new ones.

Many weird things happen as a result of corrupt preferences which can create a vast range of different symptoms, so whenever FCP X stops working properly in any way, trashing the preferences should be the first thing you do.

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Answer 2

Nov 28, 2013 3:42 AM in response to thecus3

I imagine since you talk about "timelapse" that you may have imported hundreds of still images. These can be a very heavy burden on your mac, especially if they are large - and often still images, like still taken with digital photo cameras like DSLRs, have a much larger pixel size than video. If you are not going to zoom in, then you may safely downsize the stills and that should help a lot.

Another suggestion is to work in proxy mode.

And, also, and even though an SSD is way faster than a HD, having the project and media in the system drive may not be the best option - especially if the drive is nearly full. Do you have enough breathing space in the drive? Remember, the OS is always writing stuff to the system drive, and FCP X will probably create massive render files on it too.

Having your media and projects in another internal drive (even if it is a HD) may work better.

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Answer 3

Russ H

Level 7

22,432 points

Nov 28, 2013 6:59 AM in response to thecus3

What Luis said – especially his advice on the size of your images.

If you're at a stage of your work where it's impractical to resize and replace, you might consider a couple of work arounds.

You could divide your project into a couple of sections and copy a section to a separate project. Hide the original in a folder so FCP doesn't open it automatically. When you're finished with the sections, assemble them in a new project timeline. (This is something I used to do routinely in legacy versions of FCP because it struggled so much with projects that contained high numbers of stills.)

Also turning off Audio Wave Forms will take some of that processing burden off your Mac Pro.

Russ

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Answer 4

Studio X

Level 7

27,229 points

Nov 28, 2013 7:40 AM in response to Russ H

One of the first things I do with timelapse material is to convert it to video.

This can be done simply.

1. Open QT 7 Pro

2. Import image sequence

3. Export as ProRes HQ

4. Import into video editing software

5. Have fun.

This works especially well if your image sequences have logical breaks. Just bring each logical sequence in as one clip. This has the added advantage of making the material easier to catalog and edit.

Good luck,

x

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