FCP X Workflows

So I thought with the in action story about focus going up today it would be educational to have a thread going for everyone's workflow. I am a staff editor a large ad agency in Chicago. We have a 10 seat setup with 1 being a color room as well two full audio sweets for mixing a recording. All of systems are connected to a 240TB fibre channel XSAN. We often times have freelancers that come in so maintaining a consistent workflow and organization has been in an issue with legacy NLEs. Since moving to FCPX it has become a lot easier. Every project that we start starts from the same Library Template I created. The Library is filled with several smart collections that are based on an in house naming convention and media type. This ensures that organization within projects at least starts from a standard. When working we all use unmanaged media leave files in place when importing. This way we can have multiple editors working with the same media. We can also assistants organizing and syncing footage in a separate library, this is transferred easily with XML. I am interested to see all of your workflow solutions.

I just contract who I need for the project, fuss at them constantly, then take them out for drinks.

In reading Mike's workflow book about their job with Focus, they mentioned that they keep all their media externally managed on a RAID and their library on a local SSD RAID and have seen a huge jump in performance. Wondering if I got that right and if anybody else has a similar experience. I've been keeping everything in managed libraries on my Promise RAID, but have been less than happy with the results.

Best
-Matt

Hi Matt,

When you work with a shared storage system it is indeed much better to keep all media external. Wether you need to keep your Library local or you can leave it on the SAN entirely depends on the kind of shared storage system you use. The general consensus is that it is better to copy the Libraries on the client stations, but we have found that this is not always required. Not having to copy over the Library to the client stations is much more effective for media management.

I am writing a detailed workflow article for FCP.co about collaborating with multiple editors on FCP X projects over a shared storage network. We will be doing further tests on a large broadcast production this week but I can already assure you that FCP X reveals itself as being perfectly fit for these purposes, even in fast-turnaround broadcast workflows.

@Dan:

Really nice template. A consistent workflow and pre-defined organizational conventions are key when you work with multiple editors on the same projects.

- Ronny

Thanks Ronny! Great advice as always. I'm a single editor, but trying to find optimizations in my FCPX workflow since it seems to be getting a bit sluggish on me. Sounds like my Promise RAID should be fast enough though...

Thanks Ronny. The organizational features of X are really where I find a high speed boost in the workflow. We store all media and the library file on our SAN. While most workflows recommend having the lIbrary file local, we find that keeping everything on SAN works better for us in terms of making sure which version in most current and making sure that mother gets overwritten.

Sounds like fun BenB

BenB wrote: I just contract who I need for the project, fuss at them constantly, then take them out for drinks.