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Useful Tools for FCPX Editors: Event Manager X

By Scott Simmons   /   Aug 2, 2011
One of the stranger things that Final Cut Pro X does during an edit is leave all your imported media online, all the time. Unlike most other NLEs out there FCPX keeps media (as in Events) separate from the editing project. That means you might be working on job X but all the while media from job A is still online and available. Though this might be handy from time to time there are many reasons why editors don’t always want to work this way. Apple didn’t provide any type of tool to unmount Events directly in FCPX but they did publish a support document that describes how to do this at the Finder level. That’s a rather pro way to move media offline, and if Apple is aiming FCPX at a broader market, you’d think they would make this easier. Event Manager X to the rescue. Event Manager X is a small $5 application that picks up where Apple left off. Launch the application and you’ll have the ability to select and show or hide both Events and Projects from within the Event Manager X window. The bullet points from the Event Manager X website say it all:

• Manage which Events and Projects are visible using simple check boxes • Keep track of invisible (but mounted) Events and Projects • Keep track of unmounted Events and Projects • Check that all drives that hold needed Events are correctly mounted • Never suffer the embarrassment of an Event or Project showing to the wrong client

There’s a strong change that Apple will negate this tool in the future as FCPX matures but at $5, it’ll easily pay for itself in time saved right now. It’s the first tool to address one of FCPX’s many shortcomings. Not bad for such an inexpensive app.

 

8 Comments

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  • Doug

    Can you search offline events for keywords? I’d like to have an Aperture like system that allows offline media to be located (though I realize I can’t preview it).

    Example, I want to search for all clips with the keyword “apple”. Will this (or FCPX by default) search offline Events/clips as well?

  • http://www.timunderhill.com Tim Underhill

    I expect we’ll see a lot of these third-party applications “fixing” what editors were used to before FPX was released.

  • http://fcprox.wordpress.com Gerald King

    Interesting.
    As I read this I was actually hoping it would also allow to simply reconnect media. But I guess this is not the case right?

  • http://www.orangestudio.ca Ben Lu

    I suspect this is Apple’s business model now for FCP. Using FCP X as a platform so folks can develop apps around it to address its ‘shortcomings’, which are intentional. Little apps will cost a few bucks a pop so no one will bother to find cracked versions and they can keep their 30% and at the same time, utilizing a lot of smart brains out there to develop specific apps so an eco system based on FCP will development. Don’t be surprised to see a FCP SDK out soon.

  • http://progressivecds.com Ken V

    Yet another good reason to hold off on making Apple’s “gift to the everyman” high on your things to buy list…

  • Joe Estes

    As a satisfied FCP 7 user, it is disappointing to realize that in FC X, Apple is so lacking in its ability to provide a usable, compatible editing platform for the professional user, that it is forcing us to look elsewhere. It appears that “X” stands for unknown or X-cessively in need of workarounds. Even on its website, Apple suggested that third-party companies were developing applications to allow FC X to work with professional products. (Please note that the “P” is left out intentionally). With all the hype going around, FC X reminds me of the Hans Christian Anderson story – “The Emperor’s New Clothes” – not much there.

  • http://assistedediting.com Philip Hodgetts

    @Don – unfortunately we currently have no access to the project or event information so we can’t search.

    @Gerald – pretty much the same thing – with no access to the content of the Event or Project we can’t even contemplate whether or not we could do a relink. But we wait.

    We’ll reexamine this when we get XML access to the Events and Projects.

  • http://allanwhite.tumblr.com/ Allan White

    That’s ridiculous. It dials home to check your serial number – hardly malicious.