Archiving Your Projects: The Project Manager

Andrew Devis

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Archiving is really important as you can be sure that at some point either a customer will come back and ask for some footage from an old project or you will find you need to get a hold of some footage and you don't know where it is! However, good archiving of old material will help make this a far less painful experience. In this Premiere Pro video tutorial Andrew Devis outlines how to use the Project Manager to create both trimmed and full archived projects ready with all your footage to put on an external hard drive and save for when that day comes.

This tutorial is also available as a podcast.

Comments

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Re: Archiving Your Projects: The Project Manager
by Ann Baldwin

Thanks so much for your helpful reply, Andrew. Now I feel more confident about getting the new work station.

Ann Baldwin
http://annbaldwin.zenfolio.com/
'Art Changes Lives'

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Re: Archiving Your Projects: The Project Manager
by Andrew Devis

Hi Ann

In the new folder (trimmed or collected) you will find a new project that is linked to the clips in that folder. What will happen is that you will be asked to link a track when you try and open the project. Take a careful look at the top of that panel and make sure that the clip you select has exactly the same name as the name at the top of the pannel. Then, if you select the right clip PP will link all the rest of the clips without you having to do anything and so no 'off-line' problems.

Just one note, if some of your clips are in sub-folders, you may also be asked to link one of each clip or image in a sub-folder but then PP will find and link all the rest.

So, although not exactly one-click, it is just 1 link and everything else should link without any problems as long as you have used the collect or trim options in the program manager.

Hope this helps
Andrew

... because it's all about stories ...

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Re: Archiving Your Projects: The Project Manager
by Ann Baldwin

Thanks, Andrew. Believe it or not, I've been postponing getting a new computer because I was afraid I would lose all my Premiere Pro projects. One question: If I open one of these saved projects in CS6 on a new computer, will the clips still be linked to the original files, or will I get the dreaded Offline image?

Ann Baldwin
http://annbaldwin.zenfolio.com/
'Art Changes Lives'

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Re: Archiving Your Projects: The Project Manager
by Daryl Martin

I tried out the Project Manager this morning (after watching your video) and I selected a new folder that I created on my desktop to save the archived project to. When I open the folder and open the .prproj file, it asks for the location of my files. I can see files with similar names in the "Media Cache" folder, but their extensions don't match and PP won't accept them as video files. They are .pek and .cfa files. Did I do something wrong? I made sure in the "Resulting Project" section that "Collect Files and Copy to New Location" was checked. Does Project Manager also collect placed After Effects clips from my sequence?

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Re: Archiving Your Projects: The Project Manager
by Andrew Devis

Hi Daryl

Good question! When you do a collect and copy command it will collect and copy all the files that are in PP but if you have the 'Rename Media Files ...' box checked then it will rename all the files and the linked After Effects comp with the names you have for them in PP which in the case of the AE linked comp (unless you've renamed it) will be the link rather than the name of the original project ( eg. Comp 1/Link_Project.aep).

Also, the AE project is separate in that you would need to collect files for that separatly to what you do in PP as all that is remembered by the PP project is the link name and location.

When you next open up your archived project PP will ask for the files which should be saved in the same folder - ie the new collected and saved folder. If you link one file, all the rest will link.

However, with the AE project you will be asked for the name of a file which is actually the saved name not the original name (assuming you had that box ticked) so just go to the original AE project and simply click on that to link it as the correct file and the comp will come back into PP without any problems - at least that's the theory!!

Hope this makes sense and helps.

Andrew

... because it's all about stories ...

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Re: Archiving Your Projects: The Project Manager
by Daryl Martin

So the archived PP project when opened will be looking for the linked AE composition? The PP Project Manager is not somehow "flattening" and saving a finished version of the AE comp? Is there something like Project Manager in AE. What's the best way to archive my AE comps that are used in the PP project?

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Re: Archiving Your Projects: The Project Manager
by Andrew Devis

Hi Daryl

To save an AE project you use the File>Collect Files... command. Make sure you don't check the 'make report only' if you want to achieve the footage.

When you choose this command it will take all the footage items and all the fx and create a new folder wherever you want it to be with all the footage and a copy of the aep file so that it can be opened anywhere.

What I would do is a 'coloect files...' command on the AE project and put the folder inside the PP achieve folder. Then, when I open the achived PP project it will ask for the AE project file and I can take it from the collected files folder and easily re-link to the footage in that folder if needed.

Hope this helps
Andrew

... because it's all about stories ...

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Re: Archiving Your Projects: The Project Manager
by Daryl Martin

I think that's what I stumbled upon late last night. I googled how to archive AfterEffects projects but it wasn't until I put the resulting folder into the same folder that Project Manager created that everything worked together. Thanks for confirming this. I need to watch a lot more of the AE and PP podcasts because I'm largely self taught with these programs and I feel like my workflow could be a lot less sloppy! Thanks for you help.

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