Final Cut Pro 6 - Using the Media Manager

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Part I

Media and Project Management

Step 1:

Select clips or sequences in your project

Before you can use the Media Manager, you must select items that you want the Media
Manager to process. You can select an entire project, one or more bins, individual or
multiple sequences, clip items within sequences, or clips in the Browser. Whatever you
want to do, the Media Manager needs to know what to process before it can do
anything. See the examples later in this chapter for some ideas on how to use the
Media Manager.

Step 2:

Choose options in the Media Manager window

Once you’ve selected items in your project, open the Media Manager window and
choose options for processing your media. You can select whether clips, sequences,
and so on are duplicated into a new project, and how media is processed (moved,
copied, recompressed, deleted, and so on). Some options are unavailable, or
permanently selected, depending on what other options are selected. You can
also specify a destination for your new media files to be stored.

Step 3:

Start the media management process

After specifying your options, click OK in the Media Manager window. Final Cut Pro
displays a warning message before it performs any operation that cannot be undone.
A progress bar shows you the status of the operations as they’re performed.

To use the Media Manager:

1

Select the items in your project that you want to process.

 To operate on your entire project: Select your project’s tab in the Browser, then press

Command-A to select every clip, sequence, and bin in your project.

Note: If no items are selected in the Browser and the Browser is the active window,
Final Cut Pro processes all the items in the current tab. This may be a bin or an
entire project.

 To operate on one or more sequences: In the Browser, select the sequences you want

to process. If the Timeline is the active window, the sequence tab that is currently
selected is the one operated upon.

 To operate on one or more clips: Select one or more clips in the Browser.
 To operate on one or more clip items in a sequence: Clip items are individual clip items

placed on tracks in a sequence. You can use one of the selection tools to select a
range of clip items to operate on.

Chapter 8

Examples of How to Use the Media Manager

107

I

2

Do one of the following:

 Choose File > Media Manager.
 Control-click one of the selected items, then choose Media Manager from the

shortcut menu.

If one of the items you selected contains no media (for example, if an empty sequence
is part of your selection), a message gives you the option to continue or stop. If you
choose to continue, the items that don’t contain any media will be ignored.

3

In the Media Manager window, choose a method for processing media files from the
Media pop-up menu.

4

Select whether or not you want to create a duplicate project that contains copies of the
selected clips, bins, and sequences.

5

Select available options to include more or less media related to your selection, and
whether or not you want to delete portions of existing media files.

For detailed information, see “

Settings and Options in the Media Manager Window

” on

page 90.

Important:

If you chose the “Use existing” option from the Media pop-up menu, be

absolutely sure that you want to perform this operation before you click OK. Once this
operation begins, media files may be deleted immediately. Canceling this operation
once it starts won’t restore them and the operation cannot be undone.

6

Click Browse to choose a destination for your newly moved or copied media files.

7

In the Choose a Folder dialog, select a location, then click Choose.

Note: The Browse button is dimmed and the above dialog does not appear if you
chose “Use existing” or “Create offline” from the Media pop-up menu in the Media
Manager window. This is because no new media files will be created or moved to a
new location.

A message appears
if your selection does
not contain media.

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Part I

Media and Project Management

8

When you’re ready to continue, click OK.

If you chose to create a duplicate project, Final Cut Pro prompts you to choose a name
and destination for your new project file.

9

Navigate to where you want to store the items, enter a name for the file if desired, then
click Save.

Final Cut Pro scans your selected clips and sequences.

10

If you are presented with requests for additional information, make the appropriate
selections:

 Additional Items Found dialog: When you use the Media Manager to do a potentially

destructive operation, Final Cut Pro checks all currently opened projects to see if
there are any other clips that reference the same media. If so, the Additional Items
Found dialog appears.

 Add: Click this button if you want to tell the Media Manager to consider additional

portions of media files referenced by other currently open projects.

 Continue: Click this button to continue the Media Manager operation without

taking into consideration the additional portions of media found. This may make
some clips offline in projects outside the current one.

 Abort: Click this button to stop the Media Manager operation (for example, if you

want to change your original selection).

 Confirm Media Modifications dialog: If the Media Manager is going to permanently

change or delete media files, a final message appears to let you decide if you really
want to process your media files.

Decide what you want
to do, then click a button.

Decide what you want
to do, then click a button.