Premiere Pro CC: Archive Projects with Project Manager

There are two big questions you need to answer when the time comes to archive your project:

• What should I archive?
• Where should I archive it?

As we’ve discussed before, the “where” is pretty confused right now. Options include LTO tape, hard disks, DVDs and The Cloud.

But, if you are using Premiere, the “what” is getting easier to answer, thanks to the Project Manager. Let’s take a look at this powerful feature.

THE BASICS

Choose File > Project Manager to display the window. Project Manager has two key functions:

• To collect all the different files in your project and copy them to a new location. This is the best option when you want to archive a project. Collecting files copies the current project and all of its associated media files to a single storage location. There is no conversion of files when the files are copied.
• To consolidate all the different files in your project and transcode them into an intermediate codec for editing. This is the best option when you are prepping files for editing.

In this article, we will look at the first option.

NOTE: Collecting files into a single location is also a good idea if you plan to share these files between editors.

ARCHIVING

At the top of the window is a list of all the sequences in your project. Check those that you want to consolidate and archive. While conserving storage space is important, remember this it the long-term archive of your project. Don’t exclude media that you might find useful if your project becomes a wild success and you need to create a Tenth Anniversary version.

NOTE: Nested sequences are not automatically selected. If the sequences you are selecting contain nested sequences, ensure that you include these nested sequences in your selection.

Next, check Collect Files and Copy to New Location.

This option, as you might guess, finds all the files in your project and copies them into a new location. There are several notes here:

• Existing files are not moved or altered
• This will require more storage space to hold
• Ideally, create a new folder specifically for this project. This makes archiving or sharing easier.

NOTE: Project Manager does not collect and copy After Effects compositions that are dynamically linked to an Adobe Premiere Pro project. Project Manager does save the Dynamic Link clip in the trimmed project as an offline clip, however.

In the Options section:

• Exclude Unused Clips. Specifies that Project Manager will not include, or copy, media you did not use in the original project.
• Include Audio Conform Files. Ensures that the audio you conformed in the original project remains conformed in the new project. When not selected, the new project occupies less disk space, but Premiere Pro conforms the audio again when you open the project. This option is available only if you select Collect Files And Copy To New Location.
• Include Preview Files. Specifies that effects you rendered in the original project remain rendered in the new project. When not selected, the new project occupies less disk space, but the effects are not rendered. My recommendation is to NOT check this. If, in the future, you need the Preview files, Premiere will recreate them. This saves space initially and, when you need them again, uses the latest technology to recreate them.
• Rename Media Files to Match Clip Names. Renames the copied footage files with the same names as your captured clips. Select this option if you rename your captured clips from within the Project window and want the copied footage files to have the same name. (Captured files that you import, especially those captured using scene detection, may not have intuitive names, so you may want to rename them from within the Project window.) This option ensures that the filename of the actual captured footage is updated to reflect the new name in the Project window, greatly simplifying the organization of your footage files. Selecting this option for an MXF file will not change the User Clip Name in the file’s XML; however, it will change the filename of the clip copied for the trimmed project to match the clip name shown in the project panel.

Next, set a Destination Path to a folder specific to that project. Yes, you can store projects anywhere, but, especially when archiving, putting everything related to one project in one folder is a great way to keep things organized.

Click Calculate, at the bottom, to make sure you have enough room to store the project. Then, click OK.

SUMMARY

Some projects never need to be archived. Others, though, have a life far beyond their original release. By taking the time to collect all the different project files and put them into one place you can assure yourself they will be around when you need them again in the future.

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