MXF workflow question???Help!!

[angela]

Hi.

My question is this:

I have media (a lot) shot on the HVX. The MXF files take up a lot of space on our Xsan as it is but when I log the footage through HD Log and export the XML it creates movie files for FCP. Essentially then I have say 20GB of MXF format files and then an additional 20GB of movie files that I will use to edit from. So for one P2 card or one full FS100 drive it is really ultimately going to take up double the space on the Xsan. My question is this then, since I have the MXF files already backed up on another drive and shelved, do I need to keep the MXF files on the Xsan? Can I get rid of them or does the HD Log logged clips still need them accessible for metadata referencing? I tried to do a test and throw the MXF file in the trash but it wouldn't empty the trash because it said all the MXF files were locked. So another question is, even if I can delete them (and again, let me say it, they are all backed up) how do I delete them or unlock them to delete them?

I know this is actually a lot of questions in one but ANY and ALL advice is appreciated. Thanks!

Sincerely,
Angela

[rgbuser]

The answer has to be another question, which is how safe do you want to be? If you are confident about the original MXF files being archived somewhere, you can always access them if any problems turn up after you've wrapped them as movie files. And learn from us who have learnt the hard way: never, ever dump the original MXF folders because imports sometimes don't show up problems until later. However, the movie footage itself will have gone through a codec when you import and that can misbehave so it's worth keeping the original MXF data.

I don't know about whether HDLog needs the originals for anything - would have thought not, unless you want to relog and change the metadata.

To delete locked files from the trash you can hold down the option key as you call up Finder > Empty Trash (guess you must be on a Mac). But this is not terribly good practice - files are locked for good reason. I prefer to select files, call up File Info, then unlock by hand. Long-winded, I know, but this way I know which locked files I'm dumping.

have fun
Tom

[angela]

Thanks for responding.

I tried to unlock manually by 'getting info' it didn't show up as being locked. However, when I tried to empty trash it said it was. I will try holding down the option button. Thank you, again.