David Das
Level 1 (40 points)
Apple TV

Q: Archiving a project with only the essentials/used footage

I'll use a very simplified example to ask my question. What if I taped 1 hour of continuous footage (no breaks -- one long file), imported it into FCPX, ended up using only 2 minutes of it in the FCPX project, have now finished the project, and would like to archive this project, but not have to waste the disk space of keeping the 58 minutes that I will never need?

 

What's the easiest way to do that?

Mac Pro, OS X Yosemite (10.10.5)

Posted on Dec 19, 2015 8:30 PM

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David Das

Q: Archiving a project with only the essentials/used footage

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  • by Shaggy,

    Shaggy Shaggy Dec 20, 2015 12:41 AM in response to David Das
    Level 1 (54 points)
    iPad
    Dec 20, 2015 12:41 AM in response to David Das

    You will have to export the segments separately or you can use http://www.primariesexporter.com

    If you going to keep the tapes, that would be your backup. If not I would suggest backing up the complete Tape with your project for safe keeps.

  • by Russ H,

    Russ H Russ H Dec 20, 2015 4:55 AM in response to David Das
    Level 7 (21,890 points)
    Quicktime
    Dec 20, 2015 4:55 AM in response to David Das

    Take a look at this support document's section on archiving for the general archive workflow – although it doesn't directly address tape media.

     

    FCP X was designed to work primarily with file-based media. There is no built-in equivalent to legacy's FCP  log & capture or Media Manager.

     

    Russ

  • by David Das,

    David Das David Das Dec 20, 2015 8:40 PM in response to Russ H
    Level 1 (40 points)
    Apple TV
    Dec 20, 2015 8:40 PM in response to Russ H

    I'm sorry, I probably used the word "taped" too loosely, as I'm not referring to literal tape. I just meant "recorded."

     

    I recorded (using an iPhone) a continuous 1-hour video. Once imported into FCPX, I've edited it down to two minutes, and now there's lots of additional stuff (overlays, transitions, titles, etc.) I would like to archive the FCPX project but am 100% positive I will never need the 58 unused minutes. So my question is, how can I archive that? Just in case in the future, I will want to come back and change titles or re-use pieces of the 2 minutes of keeper.

     

    (Again, this is a simplified explanation, but it's something I need to do a lot.)

     

    In my audio work, audio programs generally have a "select unused clips" and even "compact project" functions that do this exact thing -- they're willing to fully remove recorded material that you are sure you will no longer need (even if it's part of longer media). Or, you can "consolidate" by forcing the audio program to create a brand new, rewritten media file of just (say) the 2 minutes of keeper material, so that the original 60-minute file is no longer needed and can then be removed. The brand new, rewritten file is full-res with no conversions, therefore, no quality is lost.

     

    Anything equivalent in FCPX?

  • by Russ H,

    Russ H Russ H Dec 21, 2015 5:23 AM in response to David Das
    Level 7 (21,890 points)
    Quicktime
    Dec 21, 2015 5:23 AM in response to David Das

    Archiving from within FCP with only used selections of clips is tricky because typically you'll want to retain handles for those clips. 

     

    Here is a brief tutorial on archiving while minimizing the file's "footprint". It's a very good workflow,  but is most efficient if the footage in the browser consists of multiple shots – rather than one long take as was your case. In other words, his method retains only the clips that were used – but if any part of the clip is used, the entire clip is retained.

     

    If storage space is at a premium, you might take a look at the app that Shaggy linked to to see whether it will so what you want.

     

    Good luck.

     

    Russ.