Collaborative working

Hi All,

Firstly I know this has probably been asked a million times and I have searched the forums but only found a couple of links that help.
Myself and partner both use FCPX and we would like to be able to edit the same library (at different timesNOT at the same time)
We have used the Export XML option to get his edits into the library I have on my machine but we now need to start editing different aspects of the timeline. I have also seen the Library opener app.

What is the simplest way to achieve this. Is it drop the original footage on to an external source (Cloud etc), create library in FCPX....Import media from cloud to library choosing the option to leave media in place so it only creates links......Then what????? How can we edit the same library without having to drive round each others houses LOL

Sorry if it's been covered before but I am newish to collaborate based editing.

Many thanks

(1) You and your partner both need identical local copies of the media. This is a one-time setup which you can handle various ways such as mailing a portable hard drive.
(2) The library should be "unmanaged" IOW use only external media. Also the cache, proxies and optimized media (if any) should be outside the library. This is sometimes called a "lean library".
(3) Your hard drives must either have the same volume name or you can relink the media (one time only)
(4) You do edits on your project, aka timeline.
(5) You create a "transfer" library (on the same drive) which is a temporary container to copy your project to for sending to your partner. You both keep your own regular libraries, and just use this transfer library to move the project back and forth.
(6) Give your project a unique name such as "Darnum V1". Drag your project to the transfer library. Since it's on the same hard drive the content will not be copied but use hard links.
(7) Shut down FCPX and compress the transfer library with Finder: right click on library, pick compress
8. Email the compressed transfer library to your partner
(9) He opens the ZIP file and then the transfer library
(10) If drive volume names are different he'll need to relink the files. If drive volume name is the same this won't be necessary.
(11) He drags/drops the project Darnum V1 from the transfer library to his production library.
(12) He opens Darnum V1 project and it will automatically relink to the files on his volume. He can then open your edited project and inspect it.
(13) He can repeat this process to send his edits back to you. He should use a unique project name with a version number.

However this focuses only on timeline editing. I am always a little suspicious when people ask how can multiple people edit the timeline concurrently. In FCPX more of your work is spent organizing the material -- keywording, rating, etc -- BEFORE timeline editing begins. Yet I never see people ask how multiple editors can keyword and rate material concurrently. In many cases THIS is the bigger issue, not editing the timeline.

To organize material concurrently, one way is having it in different events. E.g if it's a wedding one event could be the ceremony and another event the reception. Two different editors could be keywording and rating each concurrently, assuming they both have a copy of the media and the same initial library. Then they can exchange that work by exporting and emailing an Event XML of each event. You must coordinate that each person knows what event they are working in. There is a 3rd party utility called MergeX which can combine metadata edits from two different editors: www.merge.software/

There is a bug in FCPX XML management so all camera files must have unique names, else it may create spurious duplicate clips upon loading the XML. If your cameras do not allow filename customization, you can rename the filenames before import. A good tool for this is "A Better Finder Rename": www.publicspace.net/ABetterFinderRename/

For more info see the Ripple Training course Media Management in FCPX 10.3: www.rippletraining.com/products/final-cu...-final-cut-pro-10-3/

Wow, I can not thank you enough for that. A fantastic read and something I will try straight away.
As for your comments on the work going in before the editing, I agree totally. The folder structures, file structures, file names, tagging etc etc I am quite anal about that and that is done way before any editing takes place but I have always worked on my own and now I am going in to editing with a friend, as a joint venture, hence the collaborative know how being low for me.

We already have started to use the MXL export for clip edits etc but it was the timeline that we really needed to get our heads round.

Thank you for this joema