[ This article was first published in the December, 2009, issue of
Larry’s Final Cut Pro Newsletter. Click here to subscribe. ]
Michael Maller writes:
I have just purchased your book Final Cut Pro Power Skills and I wanted to let you know that it is a great reference. Thank you for providing such a valuable resource. I have read it cover to cover and now I am re-reading it again!
I have a question for you regarding the suggestion (tip) you make about periodically doing a save as for your project file. I understand the ramifications for this and I would like to do this as you suggested, but when you do this and then capture or log and transfer new footage, that new footage is now stored in a new project folder inside the capture scratch folder. So now you will have multiple folders for each time you do a save as, and this can accumulate and obviously make your media organization into a confused multitude of folders, not to mention if you by mistake bring other elements in and put them in an older folder.
Would the only way to avoid this be to move the files from the previous projects name into the newly created saved as projects folder and then have to relink?
Is it really worth this trouble in regards to keeping the actual FCP project file clean and functioning properly?
Larry replies: Yes, it is worth the trouble to do a Save As.
However, you are correct that if this is ALL you do, then you are going to end up with multiple folders in Capture Now.
Instead, do a Save As on your project, as a way to prevent problems.
THEN, rename both the old and new project files. The new file should have the same name as your existing project and the old file could have v1, v2, or the last edited date.
Either way, renaming two files is an easy workaround to this problem. As long as your new file has the same name as the old file, there won’t be any new folders created in your Capture Scratch folder.
