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FCPX Importing Clips – Durations right but timecode not.
Hi All,
I sent a client 10 videos to look at and send me the timecode he wants included in the edit I’m making.
He gave me timecode for each video … so for example
Video A 1:03-1:10
Video B 3:45-7:20 … etc.When I import the clips into FCPX I start a new project from 00:00:00 but whenever I skim the mouse over a clip it reads something like 05:20:19:19 or something like that.
I can’t use that timing information to create my edits… can I just see the duration of each clip and skim with that?
If I highlight a clip and then use control D I can see the duration and change it, but that’s not the point… the point is to be able to skim and set I and O points and then bring it to my timeline…
Thanks!
JP -
6 Replies
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This is in the browser window? You’re probably seeing the clip’s source timecode. How did your client view the clips? I find it always pays to burn in TC on anything you send a client.
You could make a compound clip of each clip and set the start timecode of the compound clip to 00;00;00 then edit from those.
Jeff Kirkland | Video Producer | Southern Creative Media | Melbourne Australia
http://www.southerncreative.com.au | G+: https://gplus.to/jeffkirkland | Twitter: @jeffkirkland -
In the browser, just drag out a range from the start of the clip, and you’ll get a display of the changing duration (ctrl Y to see it At the mouse cursor) which is the same thing as a counter for the most part. When you get to their “in,” press I or add a marker. Then choose your out and press O or make a marker. Since your client is dictating in and out you’ll have to do markers then drag a Range between them. But in either case its simpler and cleaner than making compounds of all the clips.
But this is definitely the kind of lack of detail that leaves professional users underwhelmed. Whybcant can’t we have the TC window switch to just a counter?
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My client got a USB drive with the .mov files. Opened them in quicktime and everything always starts at zero…
He jumped the gun before I was able to merge them all into one video and give it to him… now I’ve got to try and make it work.
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I’m not sure if this is going to get me the results I had hoped for, but appreciate the attempt.
Are there any third party utilities that would allow me to edit clip lengths without having to learn something like Premiere?
Thanks,
jp -
Well it’s a pretty simple technique. The only tiny issue is that it appears your client gave you outs too. I’m usually just given a general counter number of the take that my client logged as a good one. Or the b roll shot to use. They don’t usually give an in and an out. That’s kinda my job.
But so they say it’s from sec 45 to sec 53. You can’t just drag the range out to 45 and mark an in and then type +8. and mark out? Or type cmd D 8. enter?
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Joe,
What you’re experiencing is pretty common.
You want it to work like you are accustomed to working – but X doesn’t.
The trick is that as Bret accurately points out, FCP X has a number of keyboard shortcuts and ways to set a specific range duration – enough that most of us who use it all day long simply have long since made the X way our default – so we don’t miss anything.
I use the Command D – then hit plus and type a figure – keyboard process that he described as well, but I know other editors who have a different favorite technique. Often one for keyboard, another for when a trackpad is present – a third for when a mouse is around.. The point is that before we all learned it the way we now WANT X to work, there wasn’t a universal way. So instead of needing it to work the way something else used to – just earn how it works now.
It’s honestly not THAT different.
Just a little different.
Which often, after the difference fades away, leaves it in the state many of us describe as “better” as well.
; )
YMMV.
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