Packelerra, An Idea
November 23rd, 2005 by Jason
Here’s an idea I’ve been bouncing around in my head for a month or so. I’m a frequent user of the open source video editor, Cinelerra (the Official Version and the Community Version). Working on the same project on multiple machines has always been kind of a pain (sometimes I like to pack things on my notebook and edit at a cafe or diner for a change of scenery). The problem I always have is that simply copying Cinelerra’s XML project file doesn’t do much to help me keep editing, since the source material is merely linked to in the file. Then it hit me.
Print layout programs like InDesign and Quark are similar to video editors in that they maintain links to source files… often only importing a low resolution version for working on the file. However, they also have an option to package a project. That is, the app will chase down the links to all the source material on your hard drive, copy it to a separate directory and save it with a new, properly re-linked project file. Why couldn’t the same thing be done in (or at least with) Cinelerra?
It could be done with a bash (or python or perl) script. Parse the XML file, hunting down source movies and graphics to copy them to a chosen directory, then fix the links to the new files and save a new XML file there as well. Options could be added to automagically create a tarball (gzip or bzip2, based on your preference) for backup, or re-encode the packaged video to a low-resolution proxy for offline editing (helpful as HD takes more hold), or remove the original source material after copying (quick project clean-up), or just check the amount of hard drive space the project is taking up in totality.
I think I’m going to play with this idea. If the script works out, maybe it’ll be something worth integrating into Cinelerra itself.