how do you recover the best version of a project?

After two years of working of on a feature length project, I have various project files spread over three hard drives. I have dated the project files but when I open them one after another, I can't find one complete version of the whole project and I can't tell which is the best one.

What's the best way of consolidating about 20 versions of the same project?

Thanks for the help.

Vic

How could anyone here possibly even venture a guess on what you think the best version of your project is? If you organized yourself better in Pre-Pro / Production / Post Production, this would be a non-issue (you should know that very well as a "filmmaker".

To consolidate, look in the Help files under "Media Manager".

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

Yeah I usually only save a single version of every project for this very reason. If you want to make an experiment- duplicate the sequence you're working on and date that. But having to track multiple instances of one project over many FCP project files- in addition to the Autosave vault versions that only get saved for the active project- is a recipe for mass confusion.

Noah

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Thank you, Noah, for making that point. I often wondered when working in FCP about this aspect of the program.

Here are my reasons for getting into this bad habit:

1) Sometimes I end up taking a project in a new direction for the sake of experimentation or creating a shorter version for a special market.

2) I like to export an 8-bit uncompressed version for DVD SP and I might add an uncompressed sequence to a project and save it as a new project.

3) Saving a copy in another hard drive for protection, in case one drive or project gets corrupted.

4) Work on an online version or display version of the project, when I don't want to release the finished project yet.

Of course, in all cases I enter dates and indicate versions as project-1, project-2, project-3 as well.

So I thought there was an easy way to find out which of the project files represented my "final" version and couldn't find it by looking at dates only, because they're all fragmented to some extent (I started editing in FCP while still learning it). I literally have 30 versions of this one project that I shot on HDV.

But I like what you said: just save one version. When I find a complete version of the project and determine that it's the final version, I'm going to go and delete all other project versions.

Now, mind you, I have saved many self-contained versions of the project. So I do have them, but I was planning to go and edit a new trailer and I wanted to go back to my original HDV takes in the HDV timeline.

And thanks, Joey, for suggesting the Media Manager. I'm going to have to read up on that and see how I can consolidate all the movie files belonging to this one project in one place.

> 1) Sometimes I end up taking a project in a new direction for the sake of experimentation or
> creating a shorter version for a special market.
> 2) I like to export an 8-bit uncompressed version for DVD SP and I might add an
> uncompressed sequence to a project and save it as a new project.
> 4) Work on an online version or display version of the project, when I don't want to release
> the finished project yet.

And why would you create a new project file for any of these operations?

> 3) Saving a copy in another hard drive for protection, in case one drive or project gets corrupted.

"Protection" means archiving, and "archiving" means those stored copies should be date- and time-stamped, and they're old. So what's the confusion?

Seriously, get a Final Cut teacher. A real one. You always "innovate" your way into disasters because you read a few internet postings and then assume you've already mastered everything there is to know.


www.derekmok.com

You should already know about the Media Manager...you have been here posting your own advice for others for years and have been advised on every subject as well. It's all about what you choose to take on as advice from others and apply.

Vic's "4 reasons for getting into this bad habit" are not sound Editing practices so please WRITE THEM DOWN...LOOK AT THEM OFTEN so you can THEN AVOID THEM or you will get into the same mess...it is definitely the example of what NOT TO DO when building a project. Keep it simple folks. Don't guess / don't assume or you will end up with a project all over the place like vic's...and much pain sorting it out later.

Derek is right - time to invest in a Certified FCP Trainer or all your projects will end up like this..

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

aha, so I should have simply opened only new sequences for each of those separate projects. I tended to open up projects when I should have opened new sequences, with simply different settings. I gather, it's best to open up multiple sequences even for the uncompressed versions.

Thanks, Derek, for responding in a constructive way.

The thing is that I don't like too much clutter, and having one sequence per project appeals more to me; but it seems that this is not how FCP is designed.

One of the things I learned from you is to hit "control" + B and inactivate certain clips in the timeline. This I've used much. The only question I wonder about is when there are a lot of these tracks that are full of inactive clips, does that in any way slow down or cause the program to have output problems?

I used to delete and cut tracks that I had sub-mixed in the past, then suddenly one day I wanted to restore an old line of dialogue and I had deleted it. So when I learned that trick from you, I was able to quickly reactivate the clips needed and restore the sound. So thank you for that.

As for getting a teacher, I'm beyond that. LOL Although, I'm definitely going to hire an editor next time I do a feature in digital. There are just too many programs beside FCP to learn to do a professional job on a fully funded feature.

Quote

As for getting a teacher, I'm beyond that.

I can think of two ways to interpret this. Either you're saying that you don't need a teacher, or you're saying that you're too far gone.

In either case, you couldn't possibly be more wrong.

Quote

There are just too many programs beside FCP to learn to do a professional job on a fully funded feature.

For cutting your offline? Er ? no, Final Cut will pretty much do the whole thing. That's sort of what it's for.

> As for getting a teacher, I'm beyond that.

But you expect to get a full editing education from asking questions on here repeatedly. Then you plow ahead and make the same mistakes again and again, and every time you ask us to bail you out.

This above "project management" problem is the exact same problem you had something like two years ago when you said you'd deleted all the synced audio from your clips when you placed a sound-mix file in your editing timeline. You haven't learned anything since then. And yet you're trying to give "advice" to other people who are seeking help in the forum.

At some point, I'm just forced to point out: Final Cut teachers charge quite a bit of money for teaching this stuff in detail. If you're "beyond" paying a teacher to show you the proper way of doing things, then you should also be "beyond" asking basic questions here over, and over, and over, and over, while learning nothing whatsoever, even after several years. If you're "beyond" learning things properly from a proper instructor, even after years of being told by the pros in here to do so, then we're "beyond" trying to help you.


www.derekmok.com

It's amazing how my words are taken out of context

I have learned many things here - plenty. That's why I come back

No, Derek, I don't do the same mistakes with respect to deleting sound. I was just saying, I don't like clutter; but I've learned to manage sound clips.

It's true that I ask a lot of question, but that's my nature, and of course you shouldn't feel obligated to answer those you feel are redundant.

Jeff, I'm not sure I understand where you're coming from with respect to cutting offline. I normally don't cut offline; the concept doesn't appeal to me -- mainly because I don't wish to incur additional expenses of outside editing for simple projects. If I can't cut a movie in FCP, then I don't cut it in FCP. I will go back to cutting 35mm.

In fact I'm seriously thinking of shooting even my low budget features in 35mm now, because I'm finding that digital filmmaking is too complex.

Obviously, if a project requires a lot of Green Screen and special effects for which digital editing is well suited, then I will have to think about shooting in digital; but then I feel like in that situation to ask a top digital editor to do that job. At this point I don't have any special effects projects in mind.

When I say I'm beyond hiring a teacher, I mean I'm getting too old for it And there is nothing wrong with getting old....

There's something appallingly wrong with using "I'm getting old" as an excuse to justify one's ignorance of the basics of the craft one purports to practice.

Derek:

Media Manager is difficult to manage; it's easy to make mistakes and really damage a project, so I tread gently. In fact there are people who have advised, "never use Media Manager." I know it's not meant to be taken like that, but you know what I mean. ... Althought I have used it a few times and ended up saving some time, but I don't know it well.

Jeff:

You're very technical and it's clear to everyone that you have a profound knowledge in the digital technology. Frankly, nobody explains it in a more humorous way. I didn't mean it when I said I was too old; I take that back (may I? I wish you would tell me when it's good to do offline editing. But it's not urgent or anything; only if you feel like adding a note regarding how it relates to organizing and keeping projects in chronological order.

Thanks for your kindness.

Joey:

Despite your feelings, you sometimes have the uncanny way of putting your finger on the right solution here. I wish you a blessed Sunday.

Closing this thread

Michael Horton
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