Onlining offline footage

I am editing an HD doc shot on a HVX and I have lots and lots of footage requiring lots and lots of storage space. I recently changed jobs, and now spend a lot of time away from my desk, so I started offlining segments, in order to be able to edit low-res versions on my laptop and then reconnect the media to the HD files later on.

Problem is, I recently tried to reconnect the media to the HD master clips, and it turns out that when I media managed my project (copying media, creating a new project, with photo jpeg compression, and 30 second handles) it changed some (at least) of the file names, and now I can't relink the media quickly and easily. There are far too many clips to for me to link them one at a time.

Are there easy solutions to this problem? Is there something I can do in the future so that I can easily 'unplug' from the HD footage and my hard drives, edit on the go, and then relink to the master clips?

Thanks for the help,

Austin Flack

www.austinflack.com

Austin,

You've just learned the cardinal rule for anyone using the classic "off-line to on-line workflow"...
that is : NEVER RENAME YOUR CLIPS!!!

If you want to call something by a descriptive name (WS HOUSE EXT) then use the comments column. That's what it's there for. FCP uses the CLIP NAME as the actual FILE NAME, and thus, as you've discovered, when you change it, you can get very confused as to where it came from.

If you're coming from an Avid workflow, you get a free pass, since doing this is quite possible. With FCP however, you just can't do it. The latest version of FCP created a new function called "Rename in finder", which in your case would have saved you. However, if you're using shared storage, this will totally F*@K anyone else trying to access that clip. Again, don't rename clips.

To prevent this at our shop, I've created large signs and posted them in all of our edit rooms: DO NOT RENAME CLIPS!!!

There are NO easy solutions to this problem for what you've already done. The simple solution moving forward is DON'T RENAME YOUR CLIPS.

Mark

PS. Did I mention it's a bad idea to rename your clips?

> To prevent this at our shop, I've created large signs and posted them in all of our edit rooms:
> DO NOT RENAME CLIPS!!!

That's a maxim I've preached into every producer, director and assistant editor I've ever worked with.

Austin, you didn't toss your low-res clips before attempting the online edit, did you? That's another bad-baddie-bad. What I'd recommend when moving from offline to online is:

1. Backup your project file, date/time-stamp, put in a safe place.
2. Save the current project file under a different name. I usually use a system like:

"Titanic 01 Edit.proj"
"Titanic 02 Online.proj"

3. Export the offline picture as a self-contained movie file. Full quality is great if you can afford the disk space, because higher quality could come in handy if you have a meltdown. However, make at least one copy with timecode burn. Clip timecode if possible, but if not, at least timeline timecode. Make very sure that the frame rate of this movie file matches your editing sequence, frame by frame.

4. Don't toss the old offline-quality clips yet. Use the online project file to capture one segment, at online quality, to a different drive location.

5. Look at the online edit. Does everything look right? If not, you still have your offline edit to help you figure out what's wrong.

6. In cases where timecodes are jumbled and the online edits are incorrect, the timecode-burnt movie file can help you if you need to do a picture conform by eye. And if you had made that movie file at the same frame rate as your final picture, you can even use it as an overlay for a frame-by-frame visual conform.

By the way, I think 30-second handles is pretty overboard. If you're actually ready to trim the timeline down to only what you used, usually one- to two-second handles should do. If you need more, then I'd say you're not actually ready to media-manage the project yet. Super-long handles can muck up the works (though in your case it's probably the renaming problem).


www.derekmok.com

Quote
Austin
when I media managed my project (copying media, creating a new project, with photo jpeg compression, and 30 second handles) it changed some (at least) of the file names..

Are there easy solutions to this problem? Is there something I can do in the future...

when you Media Manage there's an option: Base Media File Names on:
then you get the choice of either Clips Names or Existing File Names.

what it means is the NEW media gets named after either the original FILE, or the possibly re-named CLIP.

in an situation like yours, or any situation where reconecting is part of the process,
you want to base the new file names on the EXISTING FILE NAMES.

what's weird is that this is the defualt, and you must have changed it.
or someone else did...
maybe not for this current Media Manage, but maybe a previous one?

=================================================


OK, now for a possible solution. (im just free-forming this)

trick would be to re-name the low-res clips to match the HD names.
then use the new "re-name file" function
do it in yoru main offline edit project.

OR if you're really finished editng, make the process easier by doing it in a new project,
problem is the old project will be full of off-line clips
preoblem with doing it in yoru curent project is not all clips might be master clips..

thinking:
select all sequnces, Tools Menu > create MAster clips.
this will gather all NON-master clips from the sequnces and place in a new bin.
any existing master clips will be ignored.


import all your HD clips into your offline project
make sequnces where you have a string of low-res clips on V1, and the same HD clips on V2.

to find all DV clips: if your clips are scattered thru many bins do a find type = clip, Compressor = DV or whatever
sort by reel & media start, drag to sequence, or sequences

probably a good thing to select all the DV clips in the find window, and name them after the file names

sort the HD bin in the same way, of course and drag to the sequences

then you can go thu the sequences, and change the DV clips when the name doesn't match the HD clip

copy/paste the name from the HD to the DV.
(you could automate this with QuicKeys if that's your thing)


drag all the DV clips back to a bin,
and NOW re-name file to match clip.


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

anohter way wld be to do something similar in the HD project, with the seunqce that has the ofline clips.
at least you'll know which clips to bother with.


some ideas for you.
nick

uh, oh...

"photo jpeg compression, and 30 second handles"

missed that.
the 30 sec handles will make my method pretty hard.
maybe not, maybe 30sec handles will result in no change to the clips??

but if you had made subclips, splitting one file into 2 clips before you did hte MM your in for a lot of manual work.

maybe best to forsake reconecting,
and go with reel# & Timecode


in the FUTURE if you want to make a low-res copy with Media Manger:
DONT DELETE UNUSED
BASE MEDIA FILE NAMES ON EXISTING FILE NAMES.


nick

Wow. Thanks for all the swift responses. That's amazing. I am very grateful to have discovered this resource.

I realized that I should have noted in my first post that I did in fact click base media file names on existing file names, and after poking around a little bit, it looks like FCP only renamed clips that were referenced two or more separate times, and all it did was add a '-1, or-2' onto the end of the filename, so it looks like I should be able to sort things out, relinking and renaming clips.

In the future, if I click don't delete unused media, then after I have off-lined and edited, when I trash the offline media, I should be able to reconnect to my HD masters with no problem right?

I'm really just looking for a way to make my work more portable, so that I can cut when I'm away from my home office and get work done in coffee shops, etc because otherwise I would have lug a bunch of external hard drives around with me, and that's just not appealing or feasible.

Thanks again,

Austin

Quote
Austin
In the future, if I click don't delete unused media, then after I have off-lined and edited, when I trash the offline media, I should be able to reconnect to my HD masters with no problem right?

yeah, no worries.
i have had a few instances where reconnecting gets hampered by a .mov extension.
i dont have a deep unerstanding of what's going on there,
but the files are easy enough to find when it happens

Quote

lug a bunch of external hard drives around with me, and that's just not appealing or feasible.

i hear you.
so are you putting Offline RT clips on your laptop?
i surprised my self recently by cutting Standard Def ProRes off a little LaCie bus-powered drive.


nick

[off a little LaCie bus-powered drive. ]

That is a surprise. Naughty naughty! Don't you love it when you're in the middle of a project with a client at the desk with you and suddenly the timeline goes WHITE-- followed by your complexion (regardless of ethnic background) as your media goes inexplicably offline as you power up your wireless mouse or iPod-- or even turn on your cellphone? Or read the latest issue of SuperMeet magazine?

How did you get away with that? Don't use bus-powered anything on projects you value!!

- Loren
Today's FCP keytip:
Set Video In & Out separate from Audio with Control I & O !

Final Cut Studio 2 KeyGuide? Power Pack.
Now available at KeyGuide Central.
www.neotrondesign.com

Nick and I are both backup maniacs...I think that's why we're not too nervous about drives going bad. If you're gonna edit on a plane, not much of a choice, is there? I sometimes use a bus-powered FireWire 400 drive to edit, if portability requires.


www.derekmok.com

i WAS on a 'plane at the time!
cutting on a 15" laptop with the LaCie and headphones.
it still felt really cumbersome.

the way to do this would be to use a macbook air.
nothing much on it but FCP plus my media,
oh, and use wireless headphones headphones.


nick