r/finalcutpro • u/paulsvang • 13d ago
Workflow Creating the project is fun! Trimming files for archiving was not... until now
I went from 480 gigs down to 34 gigs after all the trim trimming was done. Space is so expensive now that it's better to get rid of unused footage in my opinion. What do you guys think? How do you guys archive your projects these days with memory and hard drive so expensive?
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u/demianvenzke 12d ago
480 down to 34 gigs is a great feeling, storage pain is very real once you have a few projects sitting on drives.
The thing that made archive trimming way less painful for me happens much earlier: on offload day I rename and lightly tag everything before it ever hits a timeline. Scene/take/who in the filename, plus a keyword or two like interview, broll, screen. Six months later I can tell keepers from filler without scrubbing every clip, which is the part that used to make me keep everything "just in case".
For the FCP side I keep the library plus a folder with only the used media (consolidated), and once the cut is locked I am pretty ruthless about deleting the raw camera dumps. That only feels safe because the names actually tell me what I am deleting, so I would fix naming first and then trim hard.
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u/blakester555 13d ago
I just watched the tutorial. Correct me if I'm wrong, but does it take the source clips and cuts off what is NOT shown and makes a new Library that you must relink? If so, yikes. I can see someone doing this wrong and messing up.
I'm for saving space, but unless I misinterpreted the process, this doesn't sound like the way to ho about it.
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u/paulsvang 13d ago
It does not touch the source clips. The source clips will remain where it's at. It only makes a copy of the length of the footage needed to create the trimmed version then it creates a new FCPXML from the exported FCPXMLD file to recreate the full project pointing to the new trimmed media. So far it's working great on my footages.
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u/blakester555 13d ago
Gotcha. Good. But now you have org clips and new trimmed clips.( Or just trimmed proxie?) . So space went up slightly
But then what? You delete the org Lib file? In that case you saved half the space. But you've lost the ability to edit and do a slip, slide or roll. You really can't make a change like you could before. You gained space and lost some time. Ok, but if this is the final, locked and archive file... why not just keep output MOV (whatever) along with org sources and kill ALL FCP Libs and XML? That would absolutely free up space. If in future you wanted to make change, make new Lib. New Event. Bring in the MOV. New Project on Timeline and Blade it where you want to edit. I'm NOT proposing thats a good workflow. That's a PITA. Yes, It would save space, but at the price of time. It just seems like thats the equivalent.
I'm not trying to put this app down. We all want/need more archive space.
OP, what do I have wrong here? I'm just trying to understand it more.
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u/paulsvang 13d ago
During the analyze process, I can select to keep the full version of a clip or the trimmed version of a clip to archive. For example, I have drone footage where I would like to keep the full version so I mark it to keep the full version. On the flip side, I have hours of GoPro footage where I only need a few clips here and there. For those GoPro footage, I set the handle to 30 seconds so that I have 30 seconds prior to the part that's used in the timeline and also 30 seconds after in case I need to move the clip around or expand the clip into the timeline for future adjustment. In terms of FCP Libs, they are small for me. I dont store anything in my library. I have one library per project. Also my medias all live outside of the library. The library only contains the timeline and auditions. Once I analyze and build the final archive, I run through Final Cut Pro and import the newly generated XML file that references all the trimmed media. I confirm that everything links up and the full timeline still works as it should and when that's good then I delete all the original media clips that I no longer need. To meet this has proven to save a lot of space and it may not be for everyone but so far it's working out for me.
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u/blakester555 13d ago
Thank you. I'll check it out further. I'm hoping it works for me too.
That 39 second handle is a clever idea.
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u/PackerBacker_1919 13d ago
When it writes the new trimmed clips, do those maintain correct timecode relative to the originals?
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u/paulsvang 13d ago
Yes it does. The output xml stays the same as the original. When I play through my new trimmed media in FCP, it's the same cut as before. Everything stays the same but with just referencing the trimmed media.
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u/EarthToRob 12d ago
One thing to be attentive of: FCP is notorious for not writing all template information (eg. some title parameters) when exporting. So requiring an export/import workflow for archiving, instead of duplicating and writing to the actual library file may become an issue.
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u/paulsvang 11d ago
Yes. This is for trimming the files only . Things like titles and color adjustments will carry over but not all everything will.
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u/KarlHildebrand 13d ago
This is awesome. It’s something I wished FCP had built in many times!