Sunday 12 January 2014

Dropbox and FCP7

Backing up and sharing projects is a constant concern for the professional editor. It's especially important for us freelancers who maintain our own suites.

My preferred solution when using FCP7 is to keep all my .FCP files in Dropbox.

Dropbox acts like a normal folder on your hard drive so you can open and save as normal, but it's also continuously backed up to the cloud as well as all your other computers.

This means you can edit on your studio Mac Pro, then go home to your loved ones safe in the knowledge that you have a copy of the edit on your laptop*.

If you client has all the media you can also log in to DropBox online and get the .fcp file anywhere in the world.

Plus .fcp files are only ever a few meg so you are pretty safe with a free DropBox account.

For me it is a great way of working for backup reasons alone.

So how does this all work with FCPX? What about all those stupid events and project folders? What's with the new library files in 10.1? Can you store them in DropBox? Or are there too many associated files hidden inside?

I have no fucking idea.

But I'm going to find out.


*Providing you have all the relevant media on you of course!

2 comments:

  1. I think this is easier than it was, to be honest. You just make sure your footage is in one Library and your cuts in another (so the cuts library is small), or you use externally-referenced media.

    What I haven't quite worked my head around yet is how the snapshot and library backup features might help. The document you need is probably this one: http://www.fcp.co/final-cut-pro/tutorials/1308-using-final-cut-pro-x-10-1-in-a-shared-environment

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  2. Pogoplug cloud looks like a good option. 5 gig free and automatic backup of selected folders. There's also unlimited online backup on offer for 35 quid a year. That sounds too good to be true, doesn't it?

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