Proxy workflow for large amount of media

Hi all

I'm thinking about the best workflow strategy for an upcoming documentary series editing, and yours suggestions are welcome.

There will be a large amount of media, let's say about 20TB or more of Apple ProRes 422 files.
Those files will be digitized from tapes on several hard drives (no large capacity RAID drive).

I want to create proxies for editing, and also for giving the producer, who will be on a different location, a copy of the project so that he is able to work on his side.

I've already successfully used the transfer library method for sharing proxy projects, but there was only one hard drive involved.

Here, we should have about 6,5TB of proxy media generated from FCPX, so we'll likely need 3 or 4 HDD.

How would you manage the proxy creation, keeping in mind that I have to duplicate the project for the producer ?

I would have preferred to create only one library for this project, but maybe I will need several libraries ?

Thanks for your input.

Of course the easiest would be to have one drive that can hold all the proxies. But since this is not possible you will indeed need to split your documentary into different parts. Proxy media for a Library need to be either inside the Library or in one and the same external location.

An alternative would be to create the proxy media externally and import them into your Library using Leave Files in Place. In that case they can be spread over different drives. The downside of this workflow is that you will not benefit from the seamless Proxy/Original media workflow that us unique to FCP X, and you will have to relink all your poxy media to the high-quality files prior to exporting.

- Ronny

Thanks Ronny for your reply, useful as usual.

We've got a 10TB Raid Drive which can hold all the proxies for the edit bay, but I still have to spread those proxy files over several drives for the producer's project. And we must be able to share some rough cuts and/or keywordings.

I think I found the workflow after some testing so here's what I plan to do :

Set the storage location for my "Edit Library" to an external folder on the Raid Drive ("Edit Drive").

Transcode original media to proxy within FCPX, disk by disk.

I've now got a single Library with all my proxy media on one single drive.

In the viewer options switch to Proxy.

Disconnect all source drives (with original media).

I've got 3 Portable Drives for the producer.

On the 1st Portable drive, I create the "Producer Library", setting the storage location to an external folder.

From the Edit Library, I drag and drop 1/3 of the clips to this Producer Library (so to speak, I just check the total size of the files to be sure there’s enough space the on the destination disk)

Check "include Proxy Media" when prompted.

The clips I moved are now in the Producer Library, but still no file has been moved to the Portable Drive. They're still on the Edit Drive.

Right click on the Producer Library, then choose Consolidate. When prompted, check include Proxy Media. As original files are disconnected, only proxy files are copied.

On the 2nd Portable Drive, I create a "Transfer Library 2", and again set the storage location to an external folder.

From the Edit Library, I drag and drop the 2nd 1/3 of the clips to this Transfer Library 2, including Proxy Media when prompted.

Consolidate, including Proxy Media.

On the 3nd Portable Drive, I create a "Transfer Library 3", and again set the storage location to an external folder.

From the Edit Library, I drag and drop the 3rd 1/3 of the clips to this Transfer Library 3, including Proxy Media when prompted.

Consolidate, including Proxy Media

Now, I can close my Edit Library and disconnect my Edit Drive.
With my 3 Portable Drives plugged, I've got 3 libraries and all my Proxy Media is "online".

Drag and drop clips from Transfer Library 2 and Transfer Library 3 to the Producer Library.

Don't consolidate.

Close Transfer Library 2 and Transfer Library 3

Now I've got a single Producer Library, with all my Proxy Media being spread over 3 different disks.

The Producer can keyword the clips, create rough cuts.
Then he clicks on his library and exports XML.

On My Edit Library, I import his XML and a new event is created, with the rough cuts and all the keywords he added.
No relinking needed, everything is seamlessly linked to my Edit Library.

And in the end, I just have to plug the source drives to online original media

(Not native speaker so forgive me)

Hey Fabien,

That is truly an impressive workflow. I will have to read it in detail but on first sight I think this will definitely work. Great job and thank you for posting this!

- Ronny

Thanks Ronny, I tested it with only a few clips, but it should work the same with more.
I’ll report after the real life experience !

Fabien

Interested to hear results. I'm starting a feature-length doc in FCPX, but for now it looks like the only edits will be coming from me so I'm not too concerned about sharing. Yet. Never know though.

I'm leaving all original 422 media in place as well, and only creating proxies via FCPX. I'm having those proxies directed into another external folder though, so backing-up the Library to onsite and offsite(cloud) locations is fast.

Wow, good job finding your work around.

I set up a feature length doc for another editor and the director. We only have a total of 4.5TB of material (ProRes 422 masters, Pro-Res Proxy and photo and music library). For this purpose I bought 3 6TB seagate Enterprise drives and one OWC 2-drive thunderbolt enclosure for the editor as well as one USB3 enclosure for the director. So we are working with much less media than you are. The director will be working in PROXY because she is working on an early MacBook Air. The editor will be working ProRes 422 but I want them both to have masters and PreRes to make sure there are off-site masters. The editor has the two 6TB drives set up as Editing Drive and Back-up. All the media is external to the Libraries.

Thanks to both of you for sharing.