I've been using FCP since version 1 and have just made the move to FCP X. I'm currently editing a series of three videos that will be created from video and stills shot on two locations. I originally created 'Events' based on the name of the three projects as in:
Event A
Event B
Event C

and placed the files that were most likely to be used for each project in their respective event folder. I realized I would need to borrow clips and sound from different event folders to complete each project.

After doing this I discovered that:
1. You cant make smart collections that search multiple events
2. If you 'Favorite' parts of a clip for one project you have to unfavorite the clip to 'Favorite mark' an overriding segment of a clip used in another project.

So my question, is it best to dump everything in one Event and just edit multiple projects from it to get the most from the Event Browser search tools, or should I make three Events with duplicated material and just keyword and Favorite each event for the individual project.

...or is there a better workflow that I'm not considering since I haven't quite gotten my head wrapped around FCP X yet.

Thanks,

Richard
2K-Plus

There is no right or wrong more a favorite taste.
Me personally I keep the Events with Projects (Timeline) linked. BUt if you are using footage from three Events in one Projects then I would have all the footage in one Event organized with Keywords, Date Tags, Favorites and etc. linked to the corresponding Projects that are organized in Folders.
I have something similar as follows
Events

• Footage A
• Footage B
• Footage C

Projects
Folder A linked to Footage A

• Project 1
• Project 2
• Project 3

Folder B linked to Footage B

• Project 1
• Project 2

Folder C linked to Footage C

• Project 1
• Project 2
• Project 3
• Project 4

Your other choice you could have one Master Event where all the footage sits and have the other Events linked to the Master Event. Which I would not advice for archiving or sharing reasons.

Thanks for the reply,

Well, last night for the heck of it I combined all the events into one master event, and then defined a bunch of keyword and smart keyword collections to represent the parts of the project such as synchronized audio B roll, stills and multi cam clips etc. I then used a trick I learned from Ripple training to Mark selected sections of clips with keywords to define which project they went with and put them in their own keyword collections.

At that point it was too late to go on, so this morning I'll see how using one event and the database potential of Final Cut Pro X works to organize the three projects. To be honest, I haven't even thought about the archiving aspect but since this is my first project I suppose I could put the event foldeheard the project folder on the archive disk and just leave it like that. Of course this wouldn't be great way to archive if you were doing a bunch of different events and different projects.

"1. You cant make smart collections that search multiple events
2. If you 'Favorite' parts of a clip for one project you have to unfavorite the clip to 'Favorite mark' an overriding segment of a clip used in another project."

Actually, no, I've not seen any way to create a Smart Collection that searches more than one Event at a time. You get an error message the operation could not be completed.

Yes, Favorite ranges (be is the whole clip or a section) can not overlap, but will combine to be one range. Keyword ranges can overlap.

This is all based on Final Cut Server (same database engine that is native to Mountain Lion, in fact). When you archive, think about going into the Project Library, select a Project, Duplicate it, and specify your Archive Drive, and include Only Used Media. That way you can retrieve an archived Project in it's entirety at any time. Once archived, you can delete that Project.

Just throwing that out there.