Writing XMP on mirrored drives

Question

I'm about to start on a production where I will have an assistant working on the same project at the same time. We will both have mirrored drives with all the material and I want to make sure any markers we create stay on for both of us. My understanding is that the best option is to untick 'write clip markers to xmp'. But I'm not sure about the other two options 'Write xmp id to files on import' and 'enable clips and xmp metadata linking'. My understanding is that having them on can make things more efficent and minimise issues with material being unnecessarily duplicated. But would it cause any issue the fact that we are working in separate drives? Please let me know

Thanks

John V Knowles · Answer

By "mirrored" do you mean both drives are just identical (same footage) or are they periodically being synced with each other?

If it's the former, then nothing you do with your clips/metadata will affect each other. Your drives are silo'd off from each other and unless you physically trade a clip with your assistant they won't see nany of your clip markers while editing.

Now if you're syncing the two drives then things get a bit sticky. If you write a clip marker to XMP then the creation date on that clip will be new and the updated clip will be pushed to your assistant during sync. BUT, if they erase or move that marker then THAT clip is now newer and it will get pushed back your way on the next sync.

Where clips markers really shine is in a shared storage environment. If you were on a NAS or central media server then your XMP markers would instantly push to your assistant, or they could be adding metadata to clips that would update in your projects; this is because there is only one set of media.

FYI here's what those settings do:

Write clip markers to xmp: any markers you add to a clip will be written to the file's metadata. So if you mark up a clip and then import it into a new project those markers will be there.
Write xmp id to files on import: this immediately tags imported clips with metadata, starting with an 'id' tag. This tags your clips as being unique and can help with certain codecs like AVCHD which tend to come in with generic file names (Clip 001. Clip 002, etc.) which are a nightmare to relink.
Enable clips and xmp metadata linking: there's actually two levels of metadata - project metadata and XMP metadata. Basically internal vs external. Clip metadata is "project only" and you won't see that metdata if you import the same clip into a new project. But XMP is actually written to the file (or sidecar file) so that it travels with the clip. So by checking this box you can ensure that anything you add to the clip's metadata -- Scene, Take, Shot, Good, etc. -- will travel with it and also that you don't have to enter it twice.

HTH, JVK

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