Media Management

Here's some tips for doing media management. Let's start with a basic media management example. In this case, you are done working on a project but need to keep it around for "just in case" type scenarios. For example, you have to make changes or revisions that aren't foreseeable now, or you might want to pull some shots for use in a different project in the future.

First, figure out what you want to media manage. The way that I recommend doing media management, you're going to be make a copy of a sequence or sequences (and their corresponding media) and then put them in a new project. So figure out what sequences are the ones that you want to keep. For example, for a promo, you made a version for air and another version for the web. I'd recommend media managing both of those sequences to a new project. When you manage more than one sequence, Final Cut Pro can figure out which media is used in both sequences. And FCP will only make one copy of that footage and not one for each time that clips is used. So if you have a bunch of different variations on a sequence (like a premiere promo, a repeat promo, a promo for the web) you won't be taking up a lot more space by managing all the variations at once.

Note that you should check for any offline clips before you select media manager. Open up any sequences and scan for any white clips in your timeline. If the clips are offline in the sequence, then they will also be offline in your new media manged copy of your project. Also, if there's media in the sequences that you didn't end up using, then delete those clips. For example, if you stick some shots that you didn't use at the end of a sequence, I recommend deleting them.

So select these sequences in the browser. Then select Media Manager under the File Menu. Here's a sample media management window.
This is from a speech of Robert Reich. The sequence that I selected references 76.6 GB of media. But not all of that media is actually in the final show. By only considering the amount of media that gets used in the cut, then I can make a much smaller copy of the project. In this case, I can copy all of the media I used (and some handles) to a project that only uses 23.7 GB of media. BTW, the "modified" bar will get updated as you change options. For example, try turning on and off the option for "Delete unused media from duplicated items." Hopefully, turning this on will give you a much smaller project.

Let's go option-by-option through this window.

Copy - I almost always use the "copy" option when media managing. This leaves all of your original media intact and in place. So you could keep working in the original project if you wanted (but you usually don't). One reason I do this is because media manager has a reputation of messing up media when using the "move" option. If that happened to you, you could lose some media--the "move"option deletes the original clips. So I recommend never using the move option. The "copy" option makes another copy of your project and its media. So the onus if on you to get back to the original project and delete any media that you don't need any more.

Include render files - Sometimes I check this, sometimes I don't. If you leave it on, then your new project will included any render file for sections of the sequence(s) that you have already rendered. This is good, if you're sequence has lot of effects that are slow to render. On the other hand, if you have a lot of render files, you can be taking up drive space for something that can be recreated without much editor labor. If you don't have a lot of render files, just go ahead and leave it checked.

Include master clips outside of the selection - I rarely use this option. This will take every master clip in the project and put it in your new project--even if it's not used in the sequence(s) that you've selected. I suggest leaving this off.

Delete unused media from duplicated items - Yes! This is where you can use your drive space efficiently. By checking this selection, you will only copy over the part of a clip that you actually used in your cut. So if you made a 30-second promo for an hour program, you don't have to make a copy of the entire show. You just want to copy the bits of the show that you used in the promo.

Use Handles - I usually use a second or two of handles. This will copy any extra footage available before the in point and after the out point on a piece of media. I like it because if I have to tweak something in the cut, then I can adjust my edit point. Or if I want to use a clip later in another project, then I have some more media to work with.

Include affiliated clips outside selection - I frankly don't know what this does. If you leave it unchecked, you'll still get all of the media that's in your sequence. If you select it, then sometimes you'll get some extra media. Let me know if you know what this means. I suggest leaving this off.

Base media files names on existing file names - I never gave this much thought. The media manager in this case is making copies of all your clips. You can change the name of the new files to what the original clip is called or to what the original file is called.

Duplicate selected items and place them into a new project - Yes, I recommend checking this. This way you'll get a new copy of the project. I like it that this new project is very clean--just the sequences that you've used.

Include nonactive multiclip angles - If your selection includes multiclips, then this option is important. I usually do not use this. If you leave it off, you won't be missing anything that is in your sequence(s). If you leave it on and you are managing multiclips, then you get all of the angles for those multiclips. This can add up to a lot of footage that's not in your sequences.

Media destination - Select where you want the copies of all the media to go to. Your new project has a separate save dialog box from this.

Please consider using our new G-Speed XSan volume to store your archived projects. There's a folder called "UserArchives" in there. This will put your copy off the main XSan volume, but still in a place where it's easily accessible.

After you press OK, then media manager will ask you where you want to save the new project file. When you've done that, Media Manager actually starts working. It will make copies of your new clips and save them to the destination of this new media. Then it creates the new project, which will then open up in Final Cut Pro. Check it out to make sure it worked OK.

Remember, you've just created a copy of your project. If the point of doing this is to free up space, you still have to go back to original files and delete them. If you don't, you're just taking up more space by creating a copy of your project.

Tips for Media Management-No Reel Names
One weird gotcha with media management is that FCP doesn't like clips without reel names. If a clip doesn't have a reel name, FCP will not delete unused media. So if you use 30 seconds of a an hour-long clip, FCP will still copy over the whole hour. Not an efficient use of drive space. If you add anything into the reel name of that clip, then FCP will delete unused media.

To edit the reel name of a clip, select the clip, then do command-9. This bring up the Clip Info window. Here's what that window looks like:
Select the Logging tab. The second row in this view is for "Reel". Click on the blank spot to the right of the word "Reel" and underneath the name of the clip. Then you can add whatever you want to name the clip (e.g., "none", "unknown", "Tape 3B", "05May2010")--just as long as it's not blank. In the example image, where it says "001" is where you could click to edit the reel name.

Sometimes, you will know easily if a clip doesn't have a reel name. For example, any clip that was imported into Final Cut Pro (as opposed to captured) doesn't have a reel name. So, for example, clips from Crawford will come into Final Cut Pro without a reel name. Other times, it will be hard to figure out which clips don't have reel names. If you try to media manage a project and it seems like your copy is bigger than it should, try to figure out if you are copying clips without reel names. Usually a copy of a minute promo, will be less than 500 MB. If it's over a 1 GB, then you should definitely look for clips without reel names.

Here's a tip for finding clips without reel names. This tip uses Media Manger, but in a different way. Media manage the selection that you want to make a copy of, but instead of choosing "copy" under Media, choose "use existing". (Important! Make sure "Delete Unused Media" is not selected. If you delete unused media, then Media Manager will destructively trim footage from your original media. Ouch!) Save a new project (it doesn't matter where, since you are not going to work with this project for more than a few minutes.) This new project will then open up. In the bin called "Master Clips" are all the clips that were in your selection. Open up this bin in the list view, and then find the column for "Reel". You can see right away which clips have reel names and which don't. For some things, like graphics and music, it doesn't really matter if they have reel names.

I often sort the view by the length of the clips. That way I can start by looking at the biggest clips. To sort the list view by the length of clips, find the column for length, then click on the column header that says "Length." If you click again, it will switch from ascending order to descending order (or vice versa.) You can also sort by reel name by clicking on the column header that says "Reel"--that way all clips without reel names will be listed together. Unfortunately, there are lots of columns in the list view. The reel column is usually way off to the right. You can drag column around to place the reel column next to the length column. The handle to drag a column is its header. (BTW, length is different than duration. Duration measures the time between the in and out point. But length measure the total time of the entire clip.) You can edit the reel name in the list view (you don't have to open the Clip Info window.)

Tips for Media Management-Audio Keyframes
One bug in Media Manager has to do with audio keyframes. For some clips, the audio keyframes get messed up in the managed copy of a sequence. This is a pain because it can screw up your audio mix. So here's what I do as a workaround.

I will first do the media management. Then I go back to the original project with my good mix in it and do an export of the sequences that I have media managed. Go ahead and export the video and audio--not a bad idea to do an export of the picture to for reference. But you really will want to have the audio in place and sounding the way you want in this copy. Export these movies to the same folder where your managed media is. Then import this clip or these clips into the media managed project. Then you are going to cut this mixed down audio into your managed sequence. Go ahead and leave in the old audio too--don't delete it. Having both sources of audio in at first will help you to make sure your mixed down audio is in sync with the timeline. Once the mixed down audio is in and synced up, just turn off all the other audio tracks in the timeline except for the 2 tracks where your mixed down audio is. Now your sequence should sound just like it originally did.

BTW, for promos at Link, don't put in any dates or times in the exported audio. Since this voiceover needs to be updated regularly, we don't want that in the mixed down audio.

If you want to learn all the ins and outs of media manager, then I suggest checking out some of the online tutorials at lynda.com. There's a whole section on the media manager in this course Final Cut Pro 6 Essential Training. Let me know if you don't know how to log on using our lynda.com account (these tutorials aren't publicly available for free.)