Media Manager

I have a media manager question. (Clearly, I have just finished up a project.)

I used media manager to clear out a bunch of files I don't need, yet it retained a shocking number of files that I don't use in any sequence. Why did it do this?

I'll admit this up top as a lesson learned: I used quite a bit of Capture Now to capture my data -- and then renamed it in FCP. Now, I can't even manually discard it because I don't know what is what. (The thing is finished and off to digi, so I could just delete everything, but I'm doing this to learn.)

Does FCP have the same problem -- that it can't recognize the source files because they have a different name in FCP's Browser?

Also, all of my files are around 10-20 minutes long, even if I only use 1 minute of them. I want to get rid of the media I don't use.

I took one pass and instead of copying the files (no room) I had it retain the original files -- this got rid of 100G. I expected to be able to take a second pass to copy the files (and get rid of unused portions) but it appears that it will not get rid of any data if I do this.

Any hints?

Mike

Mike,

By renaming files in the browser (and not at the finder level) you are "confusing" FCP as to what and where the actual media is stored. Also, if you use "capture now" with No information, it will default to "untitled, untitled-1" etc. Do this over multiple sessions and you end up with many clips labeled "untitled". This is why most people do NOT recommend using "capture now" EVER .

The only way you can use "Capture now" effectively is if you are meticulous about naming the files in the digitize screen, OR rename at the finder level BEFORE you do any editing. Be aware that name changes at the finder level will cause the files to go off-line in your project. Since you want to work with the "correctly named" files anyway, I would delete all of your original files from the project and reimport your newly named ones.

I wouldn't even bother trying to "clean up" this project. If you can, wipe out the media and move on, using better media organizing techniques next time.

Good luck.

Mark

"By renaming files in the browser (and not at the finder level) you are "confusing" FCP as to what and where the actual media is stored."

not necessarily.

FCP still remembers what file it is linked to.
even if it went offline, you would still get a cal for "ORIGINAL FILE NAME" and not "NEW CLIP NAME" in any reconnect box.

well, lets say MOST reconnect boxes.
there are occasions when FCP WILL forget the path.

(i havent worked out exactly what causes this.)

so it then becomes up to the USER to remember what the original file was called.
good luck!


as for Capture Now files, and making sure they are properly named before you start editing, i couldn't agree more.


------------------------------------------------

mike,
how did you use media manager to "clear out a bunch of files I don't need"?

are you getting mixed up with other Media Management techniques?
like doing a search for all unused or similar?

what you want to do can be achieved in MM,
but i want to get my head around where you;re at.

cheers,
nick

Nick,

I've never seen a call for the original file name -- but none of my files have been offline either.

So, first off, I'm done with the project and have learned my lesson about file management and Capture Now. I'm only trying to suck every lesson I can out of my blunder so next time I'm way better off.

The way I used Media Manager was...

I had 220G of material, but only a 40 minute final documentary -- roughly 9G. I was trying to see if I could use Media Manager to get rid of everything but the 9G I reference in FCP.

But, I didn't have that much room left on my drive, so instead of choosing to copy the files (which by my understanding would make additional files that retained only what I used), I chose to let FCP use the original files ("Use existing." I wanted to avoid any possible errors that might come about because of memory issues. I expected it to erase any clip I didn't reference.

This went well, and I ended up with 96G of material.

Now that I had memory space, I was going to do MM again, and this time, copy the files. My assumption: this would add 9G of material to my drive (based on the existing file names) and then erase the 96G.

However, the media manager interface told me that I would still have 96G of material after I performed the operation.

I went to the source files and found that MM had retained many many files that are simply not in my project in any way -- I never used them. (I was cutting a doc, which explains my high shot-footage to used-footage ratio.) FCP kept them for some reason the first time, and again wasn't going to erase them. This is what confuses me.

Granted, this may be some sort of safety mechanism so that MM doesn't go through and erase all the media on a drive (because it might belong to a different project altogether.)

Anyway, that's where I am. Just trying to learn MM. And since the project is done essentially (the relevant files are on digi) any "catastrophe" will be meaningless since I'm going to reformat the drive later in the week anyway.

Mike

"Use Existing" - yoiks!
you're lucky nothing went wrong. (are you sure it didnt? have you seen your program since the MM?)

sorry, that could just be my prejudice showing.
i've had some problems with "Use Existing" and dont like to use it anymore.
the real problem is that Media Manager can make mistakes, especially with Time-Remanpped footage, and if you "Used Existing" you cant go back.


there are a whole bunch of check boxes in Media Manager.
it sounds li you didn't explore them.
things like "INCLUDE master clips" and "INCLUDE affiliate clips"
if they;re ticked the amount of media to save will bloat.


MARK: if you're still reading, you might be able to shed some light on these functions.
you're using FCP a lot, and in a very high-end way, so my Q to you is:
Do you ever have need to INCLUDE the Master or Affiliate clips when you're doing a Media Management?
I cant see any real need for these options, but maybe someone on a show as big as yours does??


Back to MIKE:
Sometimes ticking those options doesnt help.
that can happen anyway, as FCP gets confused sometimes and doesn't want to give up on it's master clips.
so you hag onto a lot more material than you should.

(Q are you using SUB CLIPS?)

so you need to FORCE FCP to break the Master / Affiliate relationship.

one way to fix that is to control or right click on your sequence in the browser, and choose "Make Sequence Clips Independent"

a Better way, in my opinion is to copy your sequence into a new project.
that breaks the M/A relationship, but doesn't do it on your main sequence.

if you do this you'll find yourself losing a lot more media.

then there's the Base Media File Names on.. thing
in your case where you changed the clip names after capture, you should chose "Clip Names"

as you;re trying to learn about how MM works,
have you looked closely at the sequence that got made,
and the media that got made?
you'll notice FCP adds numbers to clips where there are multiple instances of them.
(you'll also notice how the clip names and the file names have different numbering methods. one uses a space and one uses a dash. so FCP, which works by using FILE name to connect, goes and creates a situation where file name and clip name are different... very frustrating)

but maybe you didn't get that, if MM didn't actually trim any media.

that;d be good.
otherwise you've have numbers on numbers when you MM a second time.

that might get you started on MM.

another way you could have started out reducing your media would be to do a search in the browser for all unused media in a certain sequence.
when presented with a list of all the unused clips, you can make them offline.
Shift D open "Make Offline" or find it under the Modify menu, i think.
use send to trash mode, check you timeline, that noting Wrong has gone offline,
then empty the trash.


cheers,
nick

>> "Use Existing" - yoiks! you're lucky nothing went wrong.<<
Well? a few clips did go off-line and need to be reconnected. They?re still on the hard-drive. These errors are exactly WHY I?m doing this now, to see the problems. The same clips are off-line in both the old and the new file, btw. (It always creates a new file, right?)

I think you?re right that I didn?t explore all the boxes at once. Frankly, I find it confusing. It?s almost as though they know it?s problematic, and they scare people off with the interface.

>> so you hag onto <<
A sweet typo, that I will now start using in bars.


>> Q are you using SUB CLIPS? <<
Yes ? almost a requirement since I used Capture Now. They were great to work with, but now are a pain.

>> one way to fix that is to control or right click on your sequence in the browser, and choose "Make Sequence Clips Independent"

a Better way, in my opinion is to copy your sequence into a new project.
that breaks the M/A relationship, but doesn't do it on your main sequence. <<

I?ll do this. I knew neither of these things. Good stuff. If I copy into a new project, will it automatically make my sub-clips into Masters?

Oh, and, by the way, my producers just called and asked for me to print out an old rough draft ? one before they had any studio notes. So maybe it?s a good thing I still have 96G?

MARK: if you're still reading, you might be able to shed some light on these functions.
you're using FCP a lot, and in a very high-end way, so my Q to you is:
Do you ever have need to INCLUDE the Master or Affiliate clips when you're doing a Media Management?
I cant see any real need for these options, but maybe someone on a show as big as yours does??


We NEVER use media manager to delete media, only to create new clips to be redigitized at high resolution with handles. In our shared media environment, multiple episodes may be accessing the same media (Flashbacks, b-roll, etc.) so, the media stays on-line until the end of the season when we finally sweep the drives clean.

My guess would be that you'd want to create a "new" copy of your sequence with the associated "reduced size" new media and delete everything else.

We're aware of the issues of "speed ramps" and still frames and take steps to handle that material manually. I read that the 5.1 has addressed this, but we haven't transitioned to that version yet.

Mark