How to back up your FCP project: Media Manage

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When creating a large FCP project with so many clips from so many different hard drives and sources, it’s wise to Media Manage, which means to put all your clips in one folder.

Step 1:

Select All and right click > Media Manger

Step 2:
The Media Manager display has a few different options.
It first shows you how much memory your master clips are using.
The modified green bar shows how much memory your clips will use when Media Manger is finished back up your files.

Now for your settings.
a. Media: Copy. I chose to COPY files instead of MOVE, RECOMPRESS, USE EXISTING, CREATE OFFLINE because I will use my master clips for other projects but I do want all my clips in one folder and one hard drive so I don’t have to be connected to three hard drives when I need my project in the future.

b. Include your render files will save time re-rendering.

c. Delete unused media from duplication items.
Use handles. I put 15 frames. It gives each clip some room on each side of your IN and OUT.

d. Base media file names on existing file names.

e. Duplicate selected items and place intro a new project.

f. Media Destination > Browse. Make a new folder with the file name on it and place it on a hard drive with lots of space.

Step 3:

Create a new folder where you want your back up files to go.

This is going to a while depending on how large your project is.

Step 3
Error Messages:

If you happen to get some error messages, make a note of which clips had a problem and copy them over by hand later. Also you can hit “retry” and see if it works.

Step 4:
Eject all hard drives that you might have footage on. Now open your new file and see if everything is connected. I had some clips that wasn’t connected, so I had to right click and >Reconnect Media. The clips were in my new folder.

Step 5:

Locate your location to search in, press LOCATE, and find where your media folder is, then the file and hit choose.

Error Message:
If for some reason it says your file attribute doesn’t match press > Try again. If it still doesn’t work then hit>Continue. And it will reconnect the media the best it can, it usually connects the media just fine.
If you still get an error message export your original clip file again and drop it in your media folder. Your file might be damage.

And there you go, all your media clips are shorten, using less memory if that was your objective or will allow your to open up your file with out the possibly of lost media.

Media Managing is pretty easy, so use it and show off.

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