Archiving Pro Res?

[James Hollingsworth]

Just wondered how you guys are archiving. Obviously no trouble to keep the original AVCHD PRIVATE folder but the converted PRO RES LT files are huge. Do you keep everything or just the AVCHD files? I keep the FCP project file but if I deleted the Pro Res, I would obviously lose all the clips. Obviously, not suggesting to this until confirmation that the client is happy but in the long term are they really worth keeping? If I did need to do some alterations a year down the line, could we reconvert the AVCHD files for use in the archived project?

[Noa Put]

Allthough I do prefer to edit in a intermediate codec as well because scrolling the timeline is buttersmooth the space issue has forced me to edit with native files which is no issue either but less fluid (I use edius on a pc), can't you edit the native files?

[James Hollingsworth]

Hi Noa, Not with Final Cut 7, I believe you can with X but not made that move yet.

[Chris Medico]

Originally Posted by James Hollingsworth

If I did need to do some alterations a year down the line, could we reconvert the AVCHD files for use in the archived project?

I would suggest testing if recreating the media works seamlessly. I can say that with Media Composer if you delete the converted media and recreate it from the master media it is still treated as a new clip and doesn't automatically relink to any sequences. It takes a few gyrations to get everything working again.

If you figure out a reasonable workflow to recreate the intermediate files and have it work in the archived project it will be safe to delete those larger files. Do some testing first to make sure it works.

[Marlon Martins]

i did scripts for Vegas to change between original/proxy/intermediate on the timeline, in the "middle of the project", with no damage.

so keeping only the original files are the best option for me. if need to re-edit a project, i can open it, change the offline files for the originals or recreate the intermediate ones and everything will be in place

[Les Wilson]

Originally Posted by James Hollingsworth

... If I did need to do some alterations a year down the line, could we reconvert the AVCHD files for use in the archived project?

From a time is money perspective, you have to evaluate if the cost of the storage is worth the time it takes to reconstitute the FCP files from the AVCHD. If you originally converted the whole file, then the ProRes timecode *may* be the same allowing FCP to re-attach but I would test it before depending on it.

Otherwise, you would have to laboriously re-cut your prores files to recreate the clips used in your project.