FCP Workflow and Backup questions

A

Andy Turner

Active member
I posted this over on another forum, but I have not received any comments so I though I would try it over here...

I have been shooting some test footage recently, but I am about to shoot my first job with the HMC150 and will use FCP 5.1.4 to edit. (I never bought Studio 2 and by the time I wanted it it looked as though Studio 3 would be coming out soon so I have been waiting as I think many have)

My question is about workflow and backing up the project when it is done. I am using Toast to convert the footage to DVCPro or HDV and then working with those files in my tests. This seems to work ok (albeit very slow to convert and the big files) but when I am finished with the edit and have delivered everything to the client I am faced with the issue of hard drive space. I like to keep two copies of everything that I do while I am working on the project and as an archive as well. The files are already 5, 6,7 times the size of the original and backing that up twice seems a little crazy. I will also keep a copy of the original PRIVATE folder as well...is that really all I need? could I reconnect from that?

Another question has to do with how to name the private folders for archiving (assuming I would need to and can reconnect from them later)

Thanks for any help

Andy
(hoping that FCP Studio 3 comes out in September and fixes all this :)
 
I wouldn't recommend transcoding AVCHD to HDV. Going from a compressed Long GOP to another compressed Long GOP might affect the quality of your footage.

I'm not entirely sure about FCP5, but a similar workflow for FCP6 is discussed here:

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=168928

I'd imagine that as long as you can repeat whatever transcoding process you're using, you'll be able to reconnect the files without a problem. To save time, it seems that for now, you'll have to leave the filenames intact. Best to test it out beforehand: record a few clips to card, save private folder, transcode, empty card, repeat, load files into fcp and do some edits, delete transcoded footage, re-transcode and re-connect).
 
Andy,

So far the way i do it is just backing up the "private" folder... to keep it organized i just create a folder with the name of the project. In that folder i create another set of folders (one for each card, and i name them "Month-Day-Year_Event-Name_Card1") so inside that "card1" folder you will find your "private" folder...

In the event of a re-edit I'll just re-transcode and re-link the files (I also keep the FCP project file, along with any pictures or music) No Complaints so far

Oh... i also burn a disc for each card (plus the copy on the harddrive)
 
jamesc said:
I wouldn't recommend transcoding AVCHD to HDV. Going from a compressed Long GOP to another compressed Long GOP might affect the quality of your footage.

I was thinking of transcoding into HDV when I need to match up my Canon A1 footage. What would be the best way to do that?
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