best way of sharing projects with different editors?

So I will work on one project with different editors. They don't work in house so I will hand the material to them. I've to admit I have never done this before using Final Cut Pro X so I would be VERY THANKFUL if you could give me some advice how to tackle this task the most elegant way and how to hand over my material to the other editors.

We are shooting 30 short films (1/2 minutes each). Each editor will work on X of those films. I have all the footage so I will hand the material of film A, B,C to editor 1 and so on. We film different footage on different days SO filming on day 1 won't be all the footage for film A. Film A might consist of footage from day 1,4 and 9.
I've got lists of what was filmed what day and I know what final films we need (ie film 1: Horses).

Now how to I tackle all this?

I would create 1 Library and create 30 (30 short films) Events inside that 1 Library labelled Film 1, Film 2... and put all the correct footage inside the corresponding days.

Now how do I hand Event Film 1 and just the footage of Event Film 1 (transcoded and original media would be the best I guess?) to other editors? Would it really be find the correct clips inside of the finder and copy files around I find in the finder or what would be the most elegant way / how do I share other Events with other editors (we trade files via portable hard drives). What would be the best way to "load" their edited films into my "master Library" once they are done? Should I use smart collections for a reason I do not know yet? Any other advice?

Thanks a million.

Hi Michael,

There's a lot of way to do this.
Here's one you can use : you can effectively, make a Master Library with all the footages and an event per film. In each event you put the footages of each film and you export the xml of the event so you'll have film1.fcpxml.

Then you create an other library in the external drive for the other editor, you name it Film1 Library, and you go in the inspector of the library to Modify the settings to be sure that the media will go in the Library (easiest for the other editor for not having to relink the media ).
After this you import Film1.fcpxml and go in the Library Inspector and click "Consolidate".
The Film1 Library will have just the media for film 1, and after the edit, the editor will just send you the XML export of the Film1 project by mail.
You import this project XML in your master library, relink the media and it's done for the first one !
Do this 29 time more and it's done !

I was post supervisor for a reality TV series with three editors (including myself). We got 3 RAID enclosures, and I did DIT work and organized all media. Duplicated the Library onto all three RAIDs. Each editor got a RAID.

As they worked on Project timelines, we simply exchanged XML files. We all worked with custom Motion content created specifically for the show, so that wan't an issue. (I sure miss the Themes browser which made that so much easier.) But for that, XML worked just fine for us. Since all drives, Libraries, etc. were named the same, same set up, there was never any relinking of media.

There was a hard rule, you can't change any media management without consulting the post supervisor. And as supervisor, the other two editors sent only me their XMLs. I sent them each XMLs. They never exchanged XMLs between themselves. There was no need, and you don't want that much confusion in a production.

That was 10.2, when importing an XML made a whole new Event. 10.3 would make this MUCH easier because you can import an Project XML directly into an existing Event. Wish we had that feature a year ago.

On a couple of occasions when we had issues, we actually exchanged Libraries via Dropbox. The key was keeping all media External, not inside the Libraries. So the actual Library, once you delete all render and analysis files, was pretty small.

I would highly advise if you are working collaboratively over distance, keep all media External. Makes fixing issues later down the road a LOT easier.

We also had a two hour consult with FCP Exchange (Sam was great) before hand, which helped us avoid some major pitfalls.

I'll be going through all my notes from that experience some day and doing a write up about it. If I ever find enough time to breath...

Ponponpostprod : that sounds like some great advice and I think I will tackle it like this. I will think about it for a while and maybe test it out and post further questions here. For now I just wanted to say thanks:

FCPX.guru:
The footage is WAY TOO BIG since it's all 4k and way too much material so the other editors can't have all the material I've got like you had with your 3 RAIDS.

"That was 10.2, when importing an XML made a whole new Event. 10.3 would make this MUCH easier because you can import an Project XML directly into an existing Event. Wish we had that feature a year ago."

Sorry for the stupid question but a "project XML" is just a normal XML and you named it that way like it's the XML for the project or is this a term that I don't know? Also how do I do this? I just select an XML file in the import window and import it right into an event and all the clips will be there or how does it work? What should I google up / look into?

"I would highly advise if you are working collaboratively over distance, keep all media External. "

Since it's all 4K I would let FCPX create Proxies in order for me to work fluently with those files. You suggest to keep the files external. So how should I tackle this?

Yes Project XML is just an export xml with the project selected.

Hi Michael, welkome to the forums.

Just adding one more method to the excellent advise that has been given.

1. Make a Master Library with all the footage, and one Event per film. In each Event you put the footage for each film.

2. Create a new Library for the other editor on the external drive, and name it Film1 Library. Go in the inspector of the Film1 Library to Modify the settings to be sure that the media will go into the Library.

3. Select the Film1 Event in the Master Library and choose File > Copy Event to Library > Film1 Library. This will copy the Film1 Event with all the media into the Film1 Library on the external drive.

4. After having edited Film 1, the editor exports a Project XML of the Film1 Project and sends you the XML by mail. You import the Film1 XML in your Master library and relink the media.


- Ronny