Easy way to do a full project backup?

[Gox777]

Is there a way to backup a project in Premiere Pro 1.5 that will preserve all the layers, cuts, ect, AND the audio/video clips themselves? Most importantly, ONLY the media clips which are actually used in the timeline, not the entire video files from which those clips are used. (otherwise i'd be having to backup the the entire series of outlaw star + cowboy bebop). Preferably, I would want it to be able to do this without any re-encoding.

Somehow I feel like I'm asking a question to an impossible solution. Too bad Premiere isn't more like Virtualdub. I'm still asking just in case though.

[Scintilla]

As far as I know, Premiere Pro doesn't save copies of the clips in the timeline. When you demand a frame from a clip on the timeline, it gets the frame from the original source file, whether that was an AVI file or an AVISynth script.*


* Of course, I'm sure the program also stores recently requested frames in memory so that it doesn't have to keep going back to the hard disk every time, but that's irrelevant to the question.

[BasharOfTheAges]

Can you not save the project, change the file name of the saved project (in the folder) and then save the project again?

[Keeper of Hellfire]

I(otherwise i'd be having to backup the the entire series of outlaw star + cowboy bebop).

You should already have a backup for this - your DVD's.

[Kionon]

Is there a way to do as you ask? Yes, but not without re-encoding. In fact, even if someone wrote a script so premiere would do what you want it to do, it would still have to re-encode (it just wouldn't bother telling you, the user, that was what it was doing).

Is it EASY? Well, fairly simple steps, just time-consuming. And I'd recommend you have the harddrive space for it.

What I would suggest, since I have done this before, is that if you have chosen all of your clips already, and they're where you want them to be, and now you're just concerned about filters, layers, overlays, and effects, you could export each clip as it is on the timeline to a folder marked something like "video backup." Then you save a copy of the audio there. Then you save as the project file to the video backup folder. Then replace all of the clips in the timeline with the re-encoded clips and save the project file again.

Voila, perfect freeze-frame backup of where you are right now. The one issue with this now, is since you exported the same clips on the backup timeline, you will not be able to call up frames not in those exports. This should only be done if you have finished editing the source material and it is placed on the timeline where you want it with the frames you want it. Once you delete the avs/vobs/lossless copies (whatever you chose to edit with), you will no longer be able to adjust clip length. You may also do this if it is a safety net; an emergency backup you place an a seperate harddrive in case of harddrive failure, lost data, etc. That way, even though you have to rerip everything, you will be able to make lossloss copies of just the scenes you need and not worry about the entire series you are using.

Hope this helps.

[Gox777]

Is there a way to do as you ask? Yes, but not without re-encoding. In fact, even if someone wrote a script so premiere would do what you want it to do, it would still have to re-encode (it just wouldn't bother telling you, the user, that was what it was doing).

Is it EASY? Well, fairly simple steps, just time-consuming. And I'd recommend you have the harddrive space for it.

What I would suggest, since I have done this before, is that if you have chosen all of your clips already, and they're where you want them to be, and now you're just concerned about filters, layers, overlays, and effects, you could export each clip as it is on the timeline to a folder marked something like "video backup." Then you save a copy of the audio there. Then you save as the project file to the video backup folder. Then replace all of the clips in the timeline with the re-encoded clips and save the project file again.

Voila, perfect freeze-frame backup of where you are right now. The one issue with this now, is since you exported the same clips on the backup timeline, you will not be able to call up frames not in those exports. This should only be done if you have finished editing the source material and it is placed on the timeline where you want it with the frames you want it. Once you delete the avs/vobs/lossless copies (whatever you chose to edit with), you will no longer be able to adjust clip length. You may also do this if it is a safety net; an emergency backup you place an a seperate harddrive in case of harddrive failure, lost data, etc. That way, even though you have to rerip everything, you will be able to make lossloss copies of just the scenes you need and not worry about the entire series you are using.

Hope this helps.

I'm surprised I didn't think of that before.
(seems kinda obvious now, heh)
I'll probably try that, thanks
It's as you said, a safety net. I've been working on this AMV since July after all. (on and off of course).

And yes, I still have the dvd backups, but I was hoping I wouldn't have to worry about re-ripping and making sure the file path and structure of the whole project was the same again.

[Gox777]

I believe this is also a lesson to myself not to edit directly with .avs scripts of the full episodes, but to take out clips in Vdub. (as I've been doing half the time anyways).