Here is why the new Library structure can actually be a very bad thing

I understand why some of you are happy with it but I actually think that the breakthrough concept of FCPX has just been watered down. Let me explain:

We're a 2 people film production who work on one project at a time. Because we work in natural history and science my archive is really important because I need to have access to unused stuff over the years. Biggest problem was always what is actually unused and where to find it? Plus because we shoot about 100 hours per project it is impossible for the archive to keep full res versions online we need some sort of proxy system to be able to go through old stuff without days of restoring. Only solution so far was 3rd party like CatDV to create the archive. Problem with that is you have to translate between softwares which always has problems. Secondly CatDV is made for many media applications and has a complete different concept how to work with metadata. E.g. Keywords become marker ranges and therefor behave very differently. Other archive solutions might work but are too expensive for a little shop like us.

Then came FCPx. Brilliant concept of having Events and Projects separated. Because now I have a self contained Event unit for a given shoot which contains all media and proxies. Back that up (just one folder to archive) and I can restore only the proxies with the event and have full access to all metadata I created (keywords, favourite, etc, etc). If I want the full res version of something, after I selected what I want I restore just that original media (only needing to look into a small subset of all the media of a film).
So far so good. I can do all this with a library too. One little nitpicking though is that I have to create one library for one event to avoid to load all proxies for all the other events (if a library holds all events for a film) that I don't want to look at. One extra triangle to open

But here comes the catch why I'm so unhappy.
Because projects were separate I could have separate Events. Now that Projects are inside the library and a library has to have all media within (either physical or linked) everytime I make an edit using clips from a different library FCP now tells me for every edit that it needs to copy the media to the library the project is in (every time the window pops up and you can't select not to see it).
Several implications: I do not have one large media drive to store all media on one physical unit. So if I would edit clips in an event from library 1 on drive A to project in library 2 on drive B, FCP would need to copy the media if I want original media to be contained within a library. Not good. Only solution is to have all original media in separate media folders and have links inside the library (which could break). Which means I have to now at least backup 2 folders which I manually have to select to archive my footage (and I actually would need to create folders inside my media folder not to get lost - remember the capture scratch folder with the subfolders...). Manually is not good!! I'm human and I make mistakes and can forget things... Next problem is when I want to recreate a project. The lib tells me which clips I need (and yes proxies are contained within so I can start BUT if I want to restore the necessary original media I now have to manually search for it in one of the separate media folders. If they are now on LTO tape it'll become a very slow process.
Problems continue. I start putting the film together by doing scene assemblies/edits. Easy in the new library if a given scene is only from one event (assuming I make one event per library). But I might decide that I need to create a scene from several events/libraries. Ok you say just put those in one lib. But what if I change the scene and now suddenly need footage from a different event/library again. And this Event is also used in another sequence. I also have stock light effects and sound fx and music which I use everywhere but do not want to store 100 times in all the different projects/libs I need it for. You know where this is going. I actually HAVE TO create a large lib like in the FCP7 days where all is within. I will maybe have a music and sound lib but they are going to be duplicated many times over.

With Events and Projects separated I had a choice to 'collect' clips for an edit by 'copy to new event'. I could then archive the 2 and be done (helpful if you want to be able to e.g. get the RoughCut back online without restoring all events).

What was neat is suddenly the old mess again...

The day before 10.1 was released I just finished a 1 hour doc. 1 year edit, 12888 or so clips. 50 events. countless projects neatly organised into folders (my own Lib system that was working the way I needed it too). I was so happy )

Why don't you stay with 10.0.9? Because I want the editing and other improvements that are normal in the development of any software. I'm starting to fear that Apple is buckling under the public pressure of bad press. I had Avid #25 back in Germany. I got one, if not the first resale copies of FCP 1 here in Sydney. I straight away got into FCPx and after just finishing this huge project I told a colleague that I think FCPX is the biggest leap forward since the invention of NLE (there are so many huge improvements that I was brave enough to say that For the first time now I fear that FCPx is going t try to be everything for everybody and will get complicated..

Rant over Maybe I figure something out over the next days (right now trying to reorganise our film into libraries) how it can work.

But of course I understand if you are a facility or freelance with many clients that come in the door, do the job and are gone, maybe come back for a change, but never expect you to manage their archive because you wouldn't have the time to do it for all your clients, or you do drama and never need to access old footage because every story is new the new library system is actually brilliant

Happy editing
Carsten

Hi Carsten,

Another user referred to this interesting article. Might be worth reading.

Vann wrote: FYI...FCPX 10.1 in a shared environment...made possible by the new Library set up...

www.10dot1.co.uk/content/FCPXInASharedEnvironment_FINAL.pdf

Cheers,
Robbert-Jan

Carsten,

Have you taken a look inside the library yet? Control click on the Library and 'show package contents' - once you've done that and had a good look round, can you do what you've always done? I don't know as I'm not in your situation, but having had a peek under the hood (for my own curiosity) it looks like it's not that different, just in a pretty wrapper... I'd be interested to hear your thoughts as I often use finder level backups of events etc. so can see where you're coming from.

Hi Jason,
Many thanks but unfortunately this will not work because you can only access the library contents from outside of FCP BUT not within. A library is NOT just a folder it is now to base unit for FCP meaning you can't bypass it to access events separately. Secondly projects are now part of the event so you would never be able to manage them separately. And if you put just one project into an event FCP creates all necessary clips in that same event. Always.

"And if you put just one project into an event FCP creates all necessary clips in that same event."

I'm not seeing that behavior. I can edit media from any event into any project and there is no duplication of clips as long as the events are in the same library.

Tom Wolsky wrote: "And if you put just one project into an event FCP creates all necessary clips in that same event."

I'm not seeing that behavior. I can edit media from any event into any project and there is no duplication of clips as long as the events are in the same library.

Sorry Tom if I was not clear enough. This of course only happens when you edit between different libraries