Tutorial: Page (2) of 2 - 03/30/08

Freeing Up Space In Those Finished Video Projects

Let's take a look at a couple of ways to free up space in your recently finished project

You could select "Move Them to the Trash" but since we want to get rid of all the unused media, we are going to select "Delete Them from the Disk." Once you click O.K., you will have a lot more space on your hard drive, and a client that is happier coming into your room. This technique does not delete the clip information from your project. It only deletes the actual media files. When using this technique, if it doesn't free up enough space, what I would suggest doing is deleting the "Render Files" folder from your project. It will obviously delete all your rendered effects, but if your project is render heavy, you will free up a lot of space, and if your client decides they want to change something, you can easily re-render your timeline.

Method 2
Method 2 touches on something I mentioned above, which is that you can run into problems very quickly when you are trying to clean up your project, and you have a lot of long clips that you have used little pieces of. Final Cut, no matter how short of a clip you used, still considers those hour long clips you captured to be "in use", and won't show them to you, when you ask to see all your unused media.

What I would suggest doing is moving your project. This can be done quite easily in the Media Manager tool, which can be accessed by navigating your way to FILE>MEDIA MANAGER. Once inside the Media Manager, your default selection is to "Move" your media, and my suggestion is to make sure that you have at least one second handles, just in case your client asks for a dissolve instead of a cut.

In most cases "Method 1" should free up enough space for you to continue working. Next, I would suggest deleting all your render files, and lastly, I would suggest using Method 2.

I thought I'd throw a little bonus in here, and that is for all you Avid users out there. Believe it or not, this process works more or less the same in Avid as it does in Final Cut. Granted, the steps you take are slightly different, but the end result is the same.

Method 1
First, select your final master sequence. Then, open your Media Tool by navigating to TOOLS>MEDIA TOOL. Once the Media Tool opens, select the "Current Project," and the drive(s) you want the Media Composer to search for media in. As you can see at the bottom of the window, you have three options of file types you want to search for.

This is one of the most important steps, as you want to make sure you select "Precompute Clips" (aka - Renders) and "Media Files" only. Once you click OK, the Media Composer will think for a while, depending on how much media you have in the current project, and then show you all the media files and precomputes (renders) associated with your project in a new bin called "Media Tool." Next, make sure you click on your sequence so that it is selected (while leaving the Media Tool bin open), then navigate your way to BIN>SELECT MEDIA RELATIVES.

Once you let go of the mouse, you will immediately notice clips highlight in any open bin. What just happened is that the Media Composer has selected all clips that are associated with your current sequence, including those clips in your Media Tool bin. Now, select the Media Tool bin, and navigate to BIN>REVERSE SELECTION.

Now, you will immediately notice that the clips that were selected in the Media Tool bin are now unselected, and the unselected clips are now highlighted. What you are now looking at is all the media NOT associated with your sequence. You can now press the "Backspace" key to delete all the unused media and renders in your project. "Reverse Selection" is the most important step of the entire process, and if you do not do it, you will end up deleting all the used media in your project, which will lead to disaster, especially if the client is sitting next to you when you do it!

Method 2
Much like Method 2 for Final Cut Pro, Method 2 for the Media Composer involves creating a new version of your project, except in the Media Composer application, you will be using the "Consolidate" feature to do it. This process is very straightforward as well. First, select the sequence you want to clean up. Next, navigate your way to CLIP>CONSOLIDATE. Once you let go, you will be greeted by the
"Consolidate" window where you can select the amount of handles that will be left with your timeline, whether you want your video and audio to go to the same drive, etc.

What I normally recommend to people is that if you are going to use this method to clean up a project, or get it ready to archive, consolidate it to a drive other than the one the media is currently on. That way, once you are done consolidating the media (and you put a copy of the project on the same drive), you can unplug it from your computer, and then delete all the media for the old sequence, and get your system back to being nice and empty. Much like in the Final Cut section, I prefer Method 1 in this case, as it will most likely free up enough space for you to bring new clients into your suite, and not have to worry about full hard drives.

These processes might seem a little daunting to newcomers, but once you get the hang of what you are doing, it will become second nature to you, and a habit you will get into at the completion of every project.

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Kevin P McAuliffe is currently a Senior Video Editor working in HD post production in Toronto, Canada. He has been in the television industry for 12 years, and spends his days onlining on a Final Cut Pro HD. Kevin's high definition onlining credit list includes concerts for Coldplay, Sarah McLachlan, Barenaked Ladies, Snow Patrol, Sum41, Paul Anka, Il Divo and Pussycat Dolls, to name a few. Also, Kevin is an instructor of Advanced Final Cut Studio 2 at the Toronto Film College. If you have any questions or comments, you can drop him a line at kevinpmcauliffe@gmail.com

Related Keywords:video editing , editing workflow, NLE, vidoe editor