Save As

[BobBezier]

Imagine this scenario:

• You are creating a permanent 2-hour looping Watchout show, called "Show1," with a media folder of 15GB.

 

• Four art directors are in the room; each suggests a different tweak to the show.

 

• You "save a copy" of each of their ideas as "Show1a," "Show1b," "Show1c," and "Show1d."

 

• The main client walks in and says, "Ok, let's see what you've got. Show me all four ideas."

 

• Must you tell the client that each file will take over an hour to open? (While each new cache is built.)

 

Can anyone suggest a smooth, quick workaround where I can switch between shows--without creating a new cache?

 

As much detail as possible please.

 

FYI--a company rep told me, "So? That's the way it works. Just use an alternate timeline."

That may be the perfect answer, but he couldn't elaborate, and said he didn't see it as an issue.

(and there's not enough info to help.)

 

How do FinalCut, Logic, Premier, ProTools get by this limitation? You can save many versions of the main file without re-creating the media or cache.

 

Thanks!

[Mike Fahl]

WATCHOUT display software tracks shows by name. Each show is self contained, and manages its own set of media files. Hence, saving a show under a different name means it's a new show, with its own set of media. As I understand your question, you'd like to have four versions of a show that share the same set of media. There's no concept of "sharing media" between shows in WATCHOUT display software, so this isn't really possible. You may play tricks with renaming the copies to the same show file name, reload the show and go online. As long as the complete set of media is identical, you may get away with this. But as soon as you add/remove media to one of the "versions", WATCHOUT will get confused since the same show (i.e., a show with a particular name) isn't really the same show (since the set of media files is different).

 

Not sure whether this helps or just adds to the confusion. But, long story short, you can't share media across shows in the display software.

 

Your best bet to manage multiple versions therefore is to do so use auxiliary timelines. You can have four timelines in the same show (e.g. named Version 1 ... Version 4). This allows you to easily try different looks. Here, there's no problem sharting the same set of media, since its all within the same show. For minor alternative versions, you may also look into the Conditional Layers feature, which allows you to keep, e.g., multiple language versions in the same show file.