getting rid of non usable footage

Is there a best way once i import footage and placed usable footage on timeline, to then delete or trim away the unusable footage? Not even sure if this is logical, but thinking in terms of saving storage space over time.
thanks

FCPX does not yet have this very important function. Not sure why.

Nope. Not yet.
Worx4X is a software solution that's still in development by Marquis Broadcast.
It looks promising enough that I'll be purchasing a license as soon as it's available.

Still, I would not be surprised if Apple incorporates a consolidation feature in future releases.

You can check out the Worx4X info here:
marquisbroadcast.com/worx4-x.html

owenpga wrote: Is there a best way once i import footage and placed usable footage on timeline, to then delete or trim away the unusable footage? Not even sure if this is logical, …

not meant offensive - but how should that work?
I would lose any 'beef' = handles for shifting edit-points or making a dissolve longer … not to speak of "hoops, take #2 was in review better"
And when I can not edit anymore, why a Project and a Lib anyhow? Then, a Master export does the same …
?

Aside the complete smartass advice, import only what you need

Karsten,
I'm just learning how to use the program, so your lingo is a little over my head. Maybe for an expert video editor it might be necessary to keep every GB worth of video. i am not. All i know is that if I happen to have a video clip that's 2g and i use 15 seconds of it and the rest is useless, what is the point of keeping it?
When i import the video and a take a snippet of it and drop into timeline, it would seem logical from a non-professionals standpoint, to be able to delete an unused portion of my original import. i can do that in another program before importing into FC, but thought there might be a function in FC to do this. apparently not based on other responses.

@owen,
apologizes, wasn't meant to confuse you! My lingo is sometimes over my own head LOL

in a simple example:
you add two selections from a longer import.
add a dissolve => the edit.app (any…) has to 'grab' additional material before and after the 'cut'. What is called 'handles'. (Clip#1 underlies #2, and vice versa)

Now, when you erase all 'unused' material in a first step, you can not lengthen such a dissolve anymore …

So, I fully understand the usefulness of such a 'purge' feature, but with my limited imagination no clue how this should be realized.

Karsten Schlüter wrote: Now, when you erase all 'unused' material in a first step, you can not lengthen such a dissolve anymore ….

I know the OP said clips in the timeline, but I think the idea here is having the ability upon import to select portions of the clip leaving sufficient handles each side. This would allow the user to get rid of a lot of excess unneeded media. This can be done now in FCPX when importing from a camera card structure but not when importing from media outside the card unfortunately. Saving only the used timeline media, as you say, would indeed trim any necessary handles that may be required in the future. I would prefer to have the ability to import any type of media using in and out points that I select regardless of where the media is stored.

dgwvideo wrote: … I would prefer to have the ability to import any type of media using in and out points that I select regardless of where the media is stored.

100%ack, fully agree!
or, to erase 'rejected' marked parts permanently …

Legacy FCP did this, PPro and MC do this, I think FCPX is the only NLE to still not have this important feature. Makes archiving easier and more affordable. We archive stuff, and waste a ton of drive space because we're forced to keep sections of clips we will need have use for.

Just some thoughts from the peanut gallery on this. The challenge is where the metadata is baked.

When you import from camera cards you can select and import portions of a clip. This is probably because the metadata exists within the folder structure rather the clip itself and, on import, the relevant translation can be done to the new shorter clip.

Once the metadata is baked into the clip itself it's a bit more challenging to extract and modify the metadata which might be baked into the clip's header (which you may be tossing away). While doing this might not be impossible, it might be difficult especially if you're dealing with many clips.

In the old FCP 7 legacy days, the clip was just media as far as FCP 7 was concerned so slicing and dicing when consolidating. Even in those heady days, it took Apple some time to master that without all sorts of headaches when media was processed (speed changes and freeze frames for example).

Every other NLE does it without headaches.

I have the same issue, would love to be able to trip mast clips in FCPX and discard the rest

I see this working quite easily at least on a manual base select the part of a clip to keep in clip viewer, then right click discard remaining footage

Importing parts of a whole QT clip, and retaining metadata is not a huge deal mechanically. In fact, GoPro footage, the metadata is in the video clip, not the THM or other extraneous files you see there. We trash those all the time when copying to hard drives, then import into FCPX, and all metadata is there.

Yet given the FCPX has no issue with partial clips from camera cards but not otherwise, seems to indicate they're handling clips with embedded metadata differently.

Compare importing from GoPro off its camera card vs an already externally trimmed clip. Can you import portions in both cases?

Has nothing to do with metadata. It is simply how Apple's dev team has decided to do things. Metadata does not stop anyone from selecting a section of a clip to import or save. The metadata can be written to a new header without effort.

Absolutely agree it can be done. I suspect they have challenges though either given how they're handling it or some intended future feature involving it that they don't want to be handcuffed by. Obviously speculative on my part but I don't think it's simply because it's a low priority given end user interest. If you look at the metadata fields still not being used apparently.

Look at Owen's question:
he has a clip (already ingested) split into parts. The parts should be used later.
These parts can be sent to Compressor - but each one has to be selected manually.
Okay not elegant - but it works pretty fast.

The others here talk about:
Ingesting parts of any kind of movie.
My virualCamCard offers this option nearly since day 1 of FCPX.
You even don't need this app - just a bit of fantasy.

Some here have in mind:
Media management,
That 's not here yet.
But works4x is announced.

Some other think about missing "reconnecting clips" options:
that never really had been a real problem - only unnecessary time consuming.

But who cares:
FCPX is a prosumer app with some excellent features :evil: :evil:

virualCamCard is an awesome and very useful utility.