Capture scratch with FCX?

John Foundas

John Foundas

Well-known member
I'm using the free trial and trying to make a back up copy of my raw material while using FCX.
Normally in 7, I would log and transfer my avchd footage into FCP as PRLT, and use my G-Raid as the capture/scratch.
Since FCX edits avchd natively off the class 10 SD card, how do I make a back up on my system simultaneously like before?

I'm juggling so many apples right now trying to absorb this new platform, any help on this matter would be appreciated.
I'm burnt, spent and crispy and feel like I'm overlooking the obvious. Thanks in advance!
 
In preferences and when you create events you set the location for import. You can import and transcode the files to ProRes and/or proxy prores for editing on your HDD and edit off the SD card while you wait for the file references to update. If you just want to edit off the SD card and have a backup on your HDD you can just make an image file backup of the SD card using disk utility and save it to your external HDD.

You can also just import the files with no transcoding to the event folder (set location for the event) of your choice. If you want to make a backup of that you could just drag/drop the files in the finder to copy them to another location.
 
Thanks a ton (steam coming out of ears). Very helpful. I really want to embrace this new platform. It's frustrating.
In 7, I have always made a master sequence of my raw for a project. Then, just scrub through that and edit from it. I'm an old news guy. Pecking and poking around, 1 clip at a time is crazy to me. I need to be able to scrub through the raw and get the big picture of what I have to work with.
Any way to do that in X?
 
Good question. I've been researching this quite a bit over the past week to figure out an optimal workflow for myself and the small team with which I collaborate.

While you can edit natively off the card, I think it's still considered best practice to copy the entire source contents to a hard drive first and go from there. Most of the recommendations I've seen point to using Disk Utility to make an exact copy of the card. Depending on your needs for redundancy (is it client footage or just playing around?), you could/would make two (or more) exact copies, saving each one to a different RAID or different HD.

When you import the footage, you can copy it into the Final Cut Events folder or leave the source media where it is. Again, from what I've been reading, it seems as though most people are not copying into FCP Events but leaving the original media where it is.

There are some who argue for/against transcoding your footage before importing it into FCPX. I'm still working through this one myself. I've been leaving my footage as-is (not transcoding) but have noticed my system getting bogged down once I start layering, color-correcting/grading, adding effects, etc. So I'm going to try transcoding to ProRes first and see if that helps at all.

As for creating a master sequence with all your clips in it, you can do the same in FCPX. Just drag all the clips from the Event Browser to the timeline and go for it. In that respect, moving clips around can be much easier due to the magnetic timeline.
 
I used to do a master sequence in FCP7. Don't do that in FCPX. By far the best thing about FCP X is the event browser and metadata. Works way better than the master sequence scrub & cuts I used to do in FCP7 for years.

Basically you do the same. Choose your view type (list or thumbnails) for event library, and skim through using I/O. For clips you like, hit I/O to mark the in/out range and then F to mark as favorite. This is the equivalent of "cutting out" a clip from the master sequence previously. except you can just keep going. You can even hit CMD+K to tag it with a keyword if you want. Then CMD+1 to go back to event window. Keep this up and when you sort out favorites, you can see all the I/O ranges you marked and use "D" "W" or "E" to put them in your timeline for the edit. You can make smart collections for better sorting, too.

I recommend watching some tutorials, like ripple training. A lot of this stuff is FCPX 101 so you'd do well to get up to speed on all of that, it's worth the few hours.
 
I usually follow this workflow:
- Copy card to hard drive A (which is NOT my system or FCPX drive)
- import and COPY (but don´t optimize): this will make a COPY of my material in the "Original Media" Folderof the event I import to. That event is on drive B (not A and not system drive). Basically this is a simultaneous backup of my material. When import is done.....first then format the cards, because the drive could die during import!
- Backup my event drive via TimeMachine overnight to drive C.

Now I have one drive A with my originals (basically drives with all my years work on it), I have a work disk B and a backup of my work disk C.
When the job for this event/project is done I copy them to some additional backup drive for longtime archive freeing up space on the work drive and time machine again.

I always have at least 2 copies of my work this way.

The beauty of import and copy: you can work while importing and backing up at the same time. FCPX will work on drive A until the file you are working on is on drive B.

But all this is digital....so make sure you always have 2 copies of everything. Not only in FCPX but in any NLE!
 
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