offline files won't reconnect!!!help!!!

hi there-

I am an assistant editor working in FCP 5.0.2 on a fully loaded G5. My media is being saved to an external firewire drive. Then at the end of each day i copy those files over to another drive that the editor is using so that we both have the same media at the same time.

For some reason though. When I open up the project on her drive - all of the media is offline (even though i copied it over). Then when i go to reconnect it i get a message that says "the following file attributes are mismatched: media start or rate" what does this mean? is it because of changing the path to the media?

i need a solution ASAP. any thought would be soooooo appreciated.

ps - i am 'reverse telecineeeeee-ing' the footage after digitizing, so i not only have media files for my original 29.97 footage but also new "reversed" files - could that me confusing things?

Sounds like you are not using the Media Manager to copy over the files. Are you not?

i'm not using the media manager - have never used it before and don't know really how or what it does....?

Well the manual is a good place to start. :-)

Also read this

[www.kenstone.net]

ok - so i read the manual and the ken stone article - it all makes sense - but, let's say i don't want to make a new project everytime i bring the editor new media. i want to be able to put the new media into her existing project where she has been working...if i use the media manager to make a new project and new media, open up the new project and then move the new media into her old project will the media stay connected?

I do this all the time - copying media to mirror drives can be done on the finder level. You just have to make sure that the drive/folder/naming conventions are exactly the same.

Then when you copy the project to the other machine, bingo, it all links up because FCP has no idea you moved anything - it thinks you're on the same set up.

Worst case is if you have changed the folder naming structure and FCP needs help in reconnecting, you just point it to the correct folders and it will reconnect.

You really don't need to use media manager to make this happen.

If you are getting error messages about mismatched time codes or frame rates, then something else is going on - question - are you doing anything to the media after capture - like running it through Cinema Tools to reverse telecine? I'm wondering if you are keeping two sets of media, 29.97 and 23.98, and FCP is seeing the 29.97 when the clips are really 23.98. Just a guess though.

as a matter of fact - yes - i am doing a reverse telecine and keeping both media - i thought that might be it. the thing is i don't want to get rid of the 29.97 media - should i have a drive to save the 29.97 media to and then a drive for the 23.98? any other thoughts?

You could put the two sets of media on two drives if you want to. Or, when you reconnect, just point FCP to the correct folder (reversed) and you'll be fine. It seems as if FCP is finding the 29.97 folder first.