Feature Film Org. Best practices?

Hi,

I'm about to confront my first feature film in this system, after some years between MC and FCP7, and I'm still trying to learn the new mindset.

I was pretty much used to the old a bin per sequence and key rolls procedure, but would like to embrace this metadata madness and get the best out of this.

What is your preferred / optimum way of organising the material in FCPX. I basically started with an event per category (shooting days / music / fx / titles / temps / cuts...) and keyword per sequence... I'm obviously not getting all the juice from this workflow, so any help will be appreciated.

PS. I'm just starting with Matzdorff and Wolsky books...

Thanks,

Jose

I break the film down as it is written logically, Library for the film, and an Event for each Scene. Then keyword and smart collections to organize into actors, angle (wide, cu, ots, etc). I put similar collections into folders, such as audio. I have an Audio folder, and in there collections to help me find music, VO, ADR, SFX, etc. I have a folder called Angles, in there I have collections for wide shots, OTS, CU, extreme close ups, etc. I also group specialized clips such as Compounds, Sync/Multicam, Auditions, etc. You can also group by dialogue (I usually put dialog hints in the Notes for each Clip/Range). I have one Project timeline for each scene. Every so often I make Snap Shots and continue working on the original (Snap Shot is time stamped automatically so I know when I froze it).

Metadata is vital! Camera names, Angles, Notes, etc. Pile on the metadata for each clip, you can't have too much.

There's no set-in-stone way to manage media, but you should totally forget everything you ever knew about media management in other NLEs first. Make it logical to you, it must make sense to you, and FCPX is flexible enough to do that for just about anyone. I'm sure others will contribute their workflows and ideas.

Good advice from FCP.guru, as usual.

Another approach:
If you are not just the editor but the filmmaker, you can use FCP for almost everything. You can search and archive locations, audition and cast actors, do test rehearsals of the scenes (edit them, of course), break them down to shots, reshoot the sketches, gather audiovisual material from anywhere for a video moodboard to define the style, plan the effect/composite shots (no matter where you execute and render them in the end), set up a library of sound events. Less planning on paper, more in the NLE (some last century's auteur said, the major misconception of film is in screenplays. Or: paper doesn't blush).

FCP can organize existing footage. It can also organize the not-yet-existing footage. It can also organize the ideas and help sculpting them.

FCPX.guru wrote: Metadata is vital! Camera names, Angles, Notes, etc. Pile on the metadata for each clip, you can't have too much.

Did anybody see the full doc Stanley Kubricks Boxes ? He had everything vaguely related to his films archived in thousands of cardboard boxes that were specially made for him. They are impossible to access for outsiders, a giant maze . If he only had smart collections and keywords, he perhaps would have made more films!

jose.eme de wrote: Hi,
…, and I'm still trying to learn the new mindset.
…

spend some time with the 'User Stories' here at fcp.co
www.fcp.co/user-stories