How do I efficiently combine multiple projects for a huge documentary edit?

Question

I'm one of the many editors that has migrated to CS6 from Final Cut Pro 7. After a year of accumulating & organizing footage for a documentary, I'm ready to start cutting.
In the Final Cut world, I'd simply create a master project, open each project I need sequences from, and drag them into the master one. Premiere is here to rain on my parade...
My problem is straightforward:
1- I need access to all my media during the course of the entire edit, and I can't figure out how to combine everything without creating a massive, bloated project that even with my fast setup will move very slow, not to mention all my eggs will be in one basket.
Issues I'm facing:
- Dynamic Link Server takes so long to import sequences from my bigger projects to another that I'll never get any work done. One attempt took over 15 minutes today! I called Adobe tech support to see if I could make this happen any faster, but they said I can't do anything to further optimize the system.
- Copy/Pasting sequences from one project to another is also very time consuming.
- All my footage is organized into sequences with custom colors on each clip to classify its type. Needless to say it was a lot of work. When I use either method above to move these sequences to another project, the colors are all changed.
I refuse to believe Premiere is only leaving me with these options, but I'm confused as to what I can do.
My system:
Mac Pro 2x2.4 Ghz 6 core intel xeon
32 GB ram
Nvidia Quadro 4000 gfx card
Primary media house on G Speed ES Pro RAID via miniSAS
There is a shocking lack of literature online regarding the above issues. The only solution I've heard of is using CATDV, software that carries the load of massive media storage to Premiere doesn't have to, but I don't have the time or money to get into this, plus all my media has been painstakingly organized over the past year.
Little help? Thanks.
jesse

Answer 1

I'm far from an expert. But I do know that people cut major motion pictures on PPro. It must not be impossible, nor more difficult that other platforms. Just sayin'.
I suspect that the problem here is that you expect PPro to work similarly to FCP. From my reading (not experience) of FCP, this is probably not the case. They are different beasts, with different ways to work. Like most Adobe software, there are usually four or five ways to accomplish a given task, but some are easier than others. What one has to do, when learning Adobe, is to find and learn the easiest path. As you've found, that's easier said than done. I feel your pain -- the Adobe docs only teach you how the products work, not how to use them. A big fail, IMHO.
PPro doesn't seem to have a concept similar to "master project". That said, PPro seems to be perfectly happy to have as many sequences as you want in any given project, and as many bins (folders) as you want to organize your footage. I think of all my sequences as sub-projects, and work on them like that -- some shared clips, but usually not too many. In addition, these sequences can be nested, which allows a fair amount of flexibility.
I'm just thinking that maybe all you need to do is figure out how PPro wants you to work, and work that way, rather than trying force PPro to work the way you used to work in FCP. If you'll do that, your frustration level will drop and your productivity level will increase. At least, it has for me. But these programs are huge and complex, and learning them is like a lifetime experience.