Strategies for media management, P. 16) – Apple Final Cut Pro 6 User Manual
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Step 3:
Recapture media
Suppose you cleaned up your hard disk by having Final Cut Pro delete a lot of media
files, but you realized that there were a few clips that you had intended to include in
your sequence but hadn’t yet done so. At this point, these clips’ media files are offline
(in this case, deleted from the hard disk). You can’t reconnect these clips to media files
because the media files no longer exist. You need to capture the original footage to
your hard disk again. Final Cut Pro can easily do this. The clip, which still stores the tape
reel number and timecode In and Out points of the original footage on tape, holds the
information for finding and recapturing the media from tape.
Step 4:
Transfer your project to another Final Cut Pro system
Clips represent media files even when the media files aren’t there. This means that the
structure of an entire edited sequence can be saved separately from its media files. At
any time, you can always tell Final Cut Pro to recapture all of a sequence’s media files,
and the movie is automatically re-created. This applies equally to a single clip whose
media file you accidentally deleted to an entire sequence of clips that has been copied
to a different Final Cut Pro editing system. Even though the clips are offline (the clips’
media files are missing) on the new system, the clips contain the vital timecode and
reel number information to recapture all the media from tape to hard disk, making it
simple to re-create the sequence.
Step 5:
Perform the online edit and output to tape
When you are finished with your edit, you can use the Media Manager to duplicate
your finished sequence using full-resolution settings. Each clip in this sequence has
full-resolution settings, which you can use to recapture all the necessary media to
create the final cut at full resolution. Once recapturing is complete, you can apply any
necessary color correction, titles, transitions, and so on, and then output to tape.
Strategies for Media Management
It’s a good idea to pick a strategy for media management before you begin your
project. Some important things to consider as part of your strategy are:
Reel Name Conventions
This affects recapturing in Final Cut Pro or any other editing system. Reel numbers
must be correct so that Final Cut Pro asks for the proper tape when you recapture
media. Some Edit Decision List (EDL) formats have strict rules for reel names, so be
conservative with your reel names if there is even a slight chance you will export an
EDL for your project. For more information about reel name limitations in EDLs, see
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