There are three ways to manage
your imported media files in Final Cut Pro.
You can have Final Cut do all the heavy lifting for you
and store all your media inside a self contained library,
you can have Final Cut Pro manage all your media,
but store it in a specified location,
or you can manage all your media manually.
Today, we’ll take a look at all three media management options in Final Cut Pro,
and the pros and cons of each one.
Hey guys, what’s up.
My name is Serge, and welcome back to my channel.
Before we dive into todays topic,
let just briefly discuss the non destructive nature of Final Cut Pro.
What this means, is no matter what you do in your timeline,
the original files remain untouched.
When you import media into Final Cut Pro,
your media files get stored in a specified location,
and the clips you edit are just reference clips,
being referenced from your original media files.
You can cut, copy, delete clips, apply effects,
pretty much do anything in your timeline,
and your original media files will still remain the same.
This lets you to get creative and experiment with your project,
without having to worry about permanently altering your original clips.
Thats non destructive editing of Final Cut Pro.
Now, let’s take a look at the three media management options in Final Cut Pro.
We’ll first take a look at the most convenient method,
and thats by having Final Cut Pro manage all your media for you.
Make a new library in Final Cut Pro,
and choose a storage location for that library.
You can leave this in the default location,
which is in your movies folder, or you can choose to store it in a different location,
or even on an external drive.
When you import media into Final Cut Pro,
select the option to Copy Files to Library.
Final Cut Pro will make a copy of all your original media,
and store them in a self contained library.
The advantages to this method,
is you never have to worry about your media being offline,
since everything is being stored inside the library container.
You can move, re-name, or even delete your original files,
without affecting the clips in Final Cut Pro.
If you move your library to another drive,
or even another computer,
since all your files are inside this library, everything goes with it.
Another advantage of copying files to library,
is your media gets duplicated,
so now you have two copies of your media files.
This isn’t a perfect backup solution,
but if you’re in a bind, this could be very helpful.
Self contained or managed libraries in Final Cut Pro are very convenient,
but they do have a few disadvantages.
One, when you import files and copy them to library,
especially for larger libraries,
the import time can be significantly longer,
and since Final Cut Pro has to copy all your media,
the storage space required is considerably larger.
Another disadvantage to this method,
is the media files stored inside your library
can be a little tricky to find outside of Final Cut Pro.
If you need to use one of these files in another app,
and don’t have access to the original media,
you have to navigate to your library container,
right click on it, and select Show Package contents.
Navigate to the folder with the same name as your event in final cut pro,
then original media.
Do not alter the files in this folder.
If you re-name, move or delete one of these files,
they will show up as missing media in final cut pro.
If you need to use one of these files for something else,
the safest way to do it is to make a copy of it in another location.
The second media management option in Final Cut Pro,
is to have Final Cut Pro manage all your media,
but instead of storing it in the library container,
store in a specified location.
First, make a new folder to store all your media.
Next, make a new library,
and select the location you want to store this library.
With your new library selected, in the inspector window,
click the Modify Settings button for storage locations.
Open the Media dropdown menu, select choose,
and navigate to the Media folder you made in the previous step.
Now, whenever you import media into final cut pro,
and choose to copy your media,
all your imported media gets stored in this folder for easier access.
Final Cut Pro still manages all your media,
but you decide where the copies are stored.
The advantage here, is all your files imported into Final Cut Pro,
are copied to this location,
so you have a backup of your original files,
and you can easily access your media.
The disadvantage is, if you need to move your library to another drive,
since the media files aren’t in the library,
you will end up with your media offline.
You’ll also have to move your media folder to this drive,
and re-link all your media files.
The last media storage option we’ll talk about today,
is an external media library.
With this method, you have full control of where your media is stored.
To set up an external media library,
move all your media files from your memory card
onto your macs hard drive or an external drive,
and select Leave Files in Place when importing your media.
Selecting this option, leaves all your files where they are,
and Final Cut Pro just references your clips from that location.
There’s a number of advantages to leaving files in place.
First, since Final Cut Pro does not have to copy any media,
the import time is much faster, and you library size is much smaller.
This option is also very useful if you have multiple people
using the same media for different projects.
You can store your media on a network drive,
and have multiple people access it for their projects.
Choosing to leave files in place in Final Cut Pro,
eliminates the need for multiple copies
of the same original media files for every person.
There’s also a few disadvantages to External Media libraries.
One, is you have to organize all your media before importing into Final Cut Pro.
Deleting, moving, or re-naming your original files,
will result in missing media.
If you re-name or move your files, you can still re-link them,
but if you delete one of these files,
since Final Cut Pro never made a copy of it, it’s gone for good.
And since Final Cut Pro doesn’t make copies of your files,
you need to set up your own backup system, just in case.
As you can see, there’s advantages snd disadvantages
for all three methods of media storage in Final Cut Pro.
If you just want to edit your video,
and have Final Cut Pro take care of all the media storage,
a self contained library is your best option.
If you want a little more control of where your media is stored,
a managed library with a custom storage location for you files
might be the best way to go.
If you want to keep your media files on a network drive
and have multiple users access them,
or your hard drive space is limited,
an External Media Library might be what you need.
It all depends on your specific use case.
If you enjoyed this video,
let me know by hitting the like button or in the comments below.
thanks for watching, and I’ll see you back here next week.