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seeking workflow / timeline tech tips for my interview fast edit project?
hi.
I have 20 interviews, with about 5 questions per interview. I’m trying to edit together the answers by subject, as opposed to by person.
so “what is your favourite colour?”
person A. “Green”
person B. “Yellow”
person C. “Black” and so on…I did a similar project in fcp7, but am now finding it tricky in fcpx because of the magnetic timeline.
Does anyone have any tips? I’ve read about making another layer above? Or, is there a way to drag clips as I edit them, from the timeline, to another bin?
Any suggestions are much appreciated!
Thoreau -
12 Replies
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Thoreau,
If you’re trying to edit this “in the timeline” – you’re totally missing the reason FCP-X was rebuilt.
Tag clips (or much better specific RANGES of clips) in the Event Browser.
Then use those keywords to create one or more story lines that are pre-edited to focus on only those topics.
What you’re describing is a perfect match for the X design.
But if you try to edit in X it like you edited in Legacy you’re going to be totally missing what X is all about.
“Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions.”-Justice O’Connor
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Bill,
Tagging ranges with keywords sounds fantastic! I guess I was in an old mindset, but what you’re telling me sounds really great.
Going to brush up on the event browser now,
much, MUCH thanks,
Theo
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I agree with Bill.
I did a project similar to this at the start of the year. 3 people, 20 odd questions each.
I went through person a and selected the clip for Q1, key worded that “Q1”, etc etc.
Then went through person two, and three using the same keywords. I had 20 plus bins (or buckets as my client called them) of all the answers for each question. Really did work like a dream.
Ahem oh yes – we had timecoded transcriptions as well which helped 🙂
Michael Sanders
London Based DP/Editor -
Just completed a similar project, 7 interviews, each speaking for approximately 30-40min. The aim was to skim through the interviwes, choosing sections that would build the story.
Personally what I do is first create keyword collections in my event. Example Bill Interview, John Interview, Tom Interview, then append Bill, John and Tom’s interviews in a project on the primary storyline. The reason I take this approach is this allows me to skim through these interviews on a ” horizontal timeline” rather than using the small event browser window. I should probably mention all my editing is done on a MBP where the event browser window is somewhat small.
After skimming and blading my in/outs, I’m left with the usable clips which I now need to get into their keyword collection folder. By selecting your first clip, right click and choose find in events browser. That then highlights that clip in the event browser, which you can now drag in the appropriate keyword collection folder, and if metadata is important, you can still add the necessary information to make it searchable.
Follow this step for the remainder of the clips, and there you have it, using FPX in a legacy way 🙂
I’ve never really been a fan of JKL, instead I’ve used the horizontal technique over many editing software and have personally found it much quicker to quickly scrub or skim through long recorded material.
One thing I’d like to add, I so wish it was possible to drag clips from a project back into a keyword collection in the event, this would make life a hell of a lot easier !
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hey Guys, thanks for chiming in! Cool to hear about more people doing similar projects..
I’m still having a little trouble actually, maybe you guys can help?
In the event browser, I’ll be watching a clip and set my ins and outs, then try and drag that yellow selection to a keyword collection. But nothing happens. Do I need to use the yellow selection to crop the peice out (before I can drag it), and if so, how do I get back to the same clip for the second / third cuts (ranges) to make another tagged selection from the same clip?
Tony – when make an edit on the timeline, then ‘right click locate it’, does just that range show up in the event browser, or the whole clip?
Thanks guys!
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You’re making it too difficult.
Set your in and out in the Event Browser.
Hit Command K to bring up the keyword editor.
Type whatever tag (or tags!) you want to apply. Every time you hit return, you’ll see the cute animation as that individual keyword is applied to that range of the source clip – then if you want to append additional keywords, just type a new one and hit return again.
That’s it. You’re done. Command K again to remove the keyword HUD until you need it again.
“Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions.”-Justice O’Connor
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Thoreau, Bill’s suggestion is the “proper” way Apple intended FCPX to be used, however I believe boundarys are made to be broken.
When you’ve edited a particular way for 15 years, old habits die hard.
The suggestion I made previously might seem long winded, but when you edit of a laptop and attempt skimming through a 40min clip in the event browser, you’ll begin looking for alternative solutions to speed up your process.
Regarding your question: when make an edit on the timeline, then ‘right click locate it’, does just that range show up in the event browser, or the whole clip?
Absolutely, so if you have a 40min clip in the primary storyline and you blade a 2min section out of it, when you select the clip (in the primary storyline) and choose Reveal In Event Browser, only that 2min selection will be highlighted in the event browser.
You can then either drag/drop it in a keyword collection, or maybe create a shortcut key for your keywords, which again is a faster way to process clips to a keyword collection 🙂
Let me know if you don’t understand my workflow and I’ll try put together a video screen-case in the next few days.
Tony
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hi Guys, thanks for sticking with me on this thing.
I’m away from the editing suite right now, but from what the two of you have written, I think I know where I was going wrong.
I was trying to set my i/o points, and drag that range to the key word collection menu (on the left), which didn’t seem to work.
I guess when the yellow range selection is enabled, I just bring up the hud and tag it without clicking / dragging the clip.
And I did try the i/o on the timeline and the right click / locate in the event browser (range wise), so for really long clips, that will be a very handy tool.
I’m 99% sure when I get to my workstation tomorrow I’m going to be flying.. Much thanks again. Creative Cow is the best!
-thoreau
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hey Gentlemen, I’m still struggling here. I guess I’m pretty slow with this!
1. I’ve created a new event, and imported my footage.
2. I play a clip in the even browser, and set my in and out points.
3. I press shift+command+k (or sometimes just command+k?) to try various combinations of key words
My problems are the following:
A. key work collections don’t show up under my event
B. clips get tagged with multiple words (from previous attempts, none of which show up as collections under my event)
C. the button / hot key to remove all keywords doesn’t seem to be working
D. I’m not able to x out the hud (with the x or with the key combo).
Am I missing something here? Is my workstation buggy?
Thanks for the support 🙂
t.
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A. key work collections don’t show up under my event
Usually what causes this is the filter option. But looking at your screen grab, it seems to be set on the right setting.
Sounds like FCPX is having a hissy fit on you, I’d try trashing your preferences and see if that helps.
Best way to do that is download Preference Manager then report back 😉
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