Something for the daring minds ...

Media managent has changed to the better with 10.1.

One thing me and others came across is that some cam formats are always copied to the Original Media folder inside the Library. That's good or bad depending on your point of view.

I made the suggestion in an other thread to create something like a "Capture Library", move the clips to a media folder outside the Library and go from there.
I supplied a little script to make that process easier.

Now I've extended the script into a little app to combine the needed steps with a few clicks.
You can open a Library and the app will list all files of any Original Media folder inside the Library which are not symbolic links.
Then you can select those file and move them to another "Media" folder. During the process the files in the Library's Original Media folder will be replaced by a symbolic links to their new location.

In several cases you have to relink files, but that works flawless.

So if you want to play around with some test projects download the app from the link below.
Don't use it for work in progress though you can use it in connection with a dummy "Capture Library" I mentioned above.

Let me know about your experience.

-Andreas

www.spherico.com/filmtools/X-Files/X-Files.1.dmg

Some workflow tools for FCP [www.spherico.com]
TitleExchange -- juggle titles within FCS, FCPX and many other apps.
[www.spherico.com]

Very cool Andreas. Thanks!

Michael Horton
-------------------

Hi Andreas

(Firstly thanks for all the work you are doing with this). I certainly spread the word about your work wherever I go - demonstrating and teaching Final Cut Pro X with Apple and other partners across Europe.

Anyway, I'm interested in your above post in which you say certain camera formats are always copied to the Original Media folder - is this with 10.1?
If so, which formats is this happening with?


Thanks
Alex Snelling

www.slackalicefilms.com
www.10dot1.co.uk

Hi Alexander,

I don't know all cam formats which will be copied but there are P2 and some Canon versions at least.

As mentioned in my initial post that's not a bad thing.
As I did with my VirtualCameraCard app you can force directories, sparse bundle or even drives to be recognised as camera cards.
This can be an advantage if you are sure you only want to convert parts of long (big) movies.

Bad thing is that you can have a mixture of real movies and sym links inside the Library's Original Media folders.
Sure you can Consolidate the Events/Libraries.

Another option is just to select a clip and Reveal in Finder. This opens the Original Media folder inside the Library in case its a self-contained movie - if not it shows the external file (bad thing is that inside FCPX there is no hint for a sym linked file or not). Once you found one self-contained movie you can select all of the other movies inside the folder which are no sym linked files and move them to your "favorite" media folder.
Obviously they will go offline inside that library package. You have to relink them.
Bad thing here is that you have to do these steps for each of the media folders which can be a bit tedious.

So my little prototype app combines these steps with a few clicks.

Hope that helps to understand better.

-Andreas

Some workflow tools for FCP [www.spherico.com]
TitleExchange -- juggle titles within FCS, FCPX and many other apps.
[www.spherico.com]

Hi Andreas

Thanks. I am quite familiar with Final Cut Pro X as you will see from this:
[www.slackalicefilms.com]

So I have been using 10.1 for some months now and I have not seen the behaviour that you mention where the media MUST be copied to the Original Media folder (unless you want it to). Can you be more specific about which cameras as this is quite a concern and certainly not the advertised functionality (as far as I know).

Thanks
Alex

"So I have been using 10.1 for some months now..."

So you are one of the lucky beta testers.

I'm not, but used and tested it since it's release.

So here are 2 screenshots of importing P2 material.

[www.dropbox.com]
[www.dropbox.com]

As you see there is no option not to copy the material.

Also see:
[www.fcp.co]

-Andreas

Some workflow tools for FCP [www.spherico.com]
TitleExchange -- juggle titles within FCS, FCPX and many other apps.
[www.spherico.com]

Hi thanks for screenshots

Where it says "Copy files into..." on the second screenshot, you can now select any destination folder you wish from the pulldown, even a network-attached folder. That should solve the main issue that I was asking about.

By the way Andreas, I like your sparse bundle workaround for importing parts of files - that is incredibly useful - if you can make that into a plug-in/app that would be amazing - but if you can do it - then Apple should be able to do so to?

Cheers
Alex

thanks alex,

so i learned again something new !

anyway. the app can be helpful in an other way.

regarding vcc i was already thinking about a "temp" card set up, but haven't got it working for 10.1 yet.

- andreas

Some workflow tools for FCP [www.spherico.com]
TitleExchange -- juggle titles within FCS, FCPX and many other apps.
[www.spherico.com]

If you have some media in the original media folder inside the library bundle and you don't want it there, all you need to do is to use the Consolidate command to move it wherever you want - and the media will be automatically replaced with sym links so there will be no need to relink anything.

As to FCP X forcing you to copy media, that should generally only happen if you are importing from a camera card or a camera archive.

Thanks Mark,

As I replied to Alex I wasn't aware that with 10.1 any import thing could be copied to any location you want. Shame on me.

The other thing is to change links of your choice quickly. (I copied my post's text from an email I sent and missed the last line: "You can use Consolidate as well."

Something I also wrote in the reply to Alex's notes is that the app can be helpful in an other way.
As said the app is/was a proto scanning the content of a library and internally logs whats found.

There are nice options to use it for Proxy Media.
See: [www.fcp.co].

Thanks for your reply (and I like your tutorials !)

-Andreas

Some workflow tools for FCP [www.spherico.com]
TitleExchange -- juggle titles within FCS, FCPX and many other apps.
[www.spherico.com]