Media Storage Duplicated?

I imported my footage that was already on my computer in FCPX, I noticed it took up a lot of space. My original folder is 64GB, then when I imported it into FCPX, a original media folder was created with my footage and it's the exact same file size. There's also a Transcoded Media folder with a High Quality Media sub folder that is about 10GB less than the original.

I feel like this is way too much space to be taking up my hard drive. I'm sure if I imported off a card/tape I wouldn't have that first folder issue. Since I imported from my hard drive I would think I can know delete the original files since FCPX has a copy of them in the events folder?

Also, do you need to keep both the original media folder and the transcoded media folder at the same time during post-production?

Thanks for anyone's help in advance.

The "original media" folder is created if you choose in preferences to "copy events". If, instead you "reference events " then your media will not be placed in your events folder. Just an alias will be created to the original media.

The High Quality Media folder was created because upon import you chose to optimize media. The prores files exist in here.

You do not need both the original and transcoded media while editing. You will actually be editing from the prores material in the scenario you described. You can delete the original (if that's what you want to do and assuming you either have or don't care about a backup of your original media).

I usually import my media and duplicate to two other backup drives. If I need to optimize, I reference one of the file locations and optimize upon import. Some media does not require optimization, such as high quality DVCPRO footage and the like. H.264 and other highly compressed variations of footage benefit tremendously from being optimized.


EDIT: I should clarify....the original media folder itself will still be created even if you reference events. It will just contain a small file link to the actual media instead of the actual media.

See my edit at the bottom of the first post.

Thanks for the explanation, it makes a lot more sense now. I'll have to be aware of this when I'm importing footage from a hard drive rather than a card or tape. A lot of the media I work with is either avchd or h.264 so I'll keep the optimize media checked off.

Thanks again for your help.

You'll definitely want to optimize the H.264 footage as that is a highly compressed codec that will put stress on your system. Converting it to Prores 422 will be a larger file but your system won't have to go through all the decompression while editing.

Yes, I've noticed. After the background rendering was completed I noticed my video was playing a lot smoother. Thanks for the advice.