Make Film Work — I make videos. Sometimes I write about it.

The most publicized feature in Mac OS 10.5 Leopard can also be one of the most useful for your Final Cut Studio workfow. This, of course, is Time Machine.

My setup right now consists of two external hard drives. Both are 500GB FireWire 800 drives. One is for capture and all of the extra goodies that come with Final Cut Studio, and the other is for backup via Time Machine.

I previously mentioned how using Final Cut Studio’s Media Manager can be useful while needing to stay mobile. Another option is to use Time Machine to store your current, but not quite active, projects for later while you focus on what needs to get done immediately.

Here’s how it works. When you import your tape go ahead and capture it right to your laptop’s internal drive, instead of your external. I usually keep about 30GB free for this kind of thing, but that sort of flexibility may vary wildly depending on you and your lifestyle.

Once the capture is complete let Time Machine grab it. If it’s something you anticipate working on immediately, go for it. If not, delete it from your internal drive and move on to something else. Time Machine will save it for later, and since it’s always going to be captured under Final Cut Pro Documents > Capture Scratch, you’ll know exactly where to look for it.

I recently did a lot of work for a Web-based promotional company that required juggling five projects simultaneously. Three of which were awaiting final approval, but the other two hadn’t been started. I trashed the first three projects after ensuring a successful backup, and just kept on trucking. When the time came to burn the projects to disks I trashed the current projects, restored the old files, burned the discs, trashed them again, and restored the projects on which I was currently working.

This sort of workflow can take some time to get used to. Deleting your source files is kind of a big no-no in the world of non-linear editing. So it’s not going to be for everybody. Especially if you’re a bit squeamish. But if you find yourself in a pinch, this is a useful technique that’ll keep your workflow moving even when working with limited hard drive space.