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Clip speed overwrite or replace?
Is there anyway to adjust the speed of a clip without it destroying my timeline?
If I have a built timeline and realize that I want to change clip speed (say 50%) on something in the middle of my timeline, currently FCP would double the length of my clip and push (a la insert) the rest of my clips down the timeline. This is annoying when you are trying to preserve edits and/or the length of your timeline.
Does anyone have a method to get around this?
Currently I either lock tracks (annoying when you have 10 tracks of video and 6 audio tracks, and it still screws up the track that the clip resides on) or move my clip to the end of the timeline or another timeline to create the effect, trim it down (if slo-mo’d), and bring it back to it’s original location.
Ideally (for me at least), a 50% slow-mo of a 5 second clip (on the timeline) would result in a 5 second clip, not a 10 second clip. I don’t even care what frames show up in the 5 seconds, I can slip the video into place.
Any ideas? Thanks for the input,
Mike -
3 Replies
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This is how FCP works and, yah, I hate it, too. It treats all speed adjustments as Insert Edits. Some folks like it that way, go figure.
Open an empty sequence and do your time remapping there, copy and paste back into your main sequence. It’s not as tedious as you think but it’s still lame in my opinion.
bogiesan
This is my standard sigfile so do not take it personally: “For crying out loud, read the freakin’ manual.”
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Your dilemma is what they refer to on Star Trek as a “Time Paradox”.
FCP preserves the In/Out points that you chose when you first inserted that clip in the timeline, hence the stretch when you slow it down. I’ve heard that some NLEs will preserve the length of the clip, but change the In or Out point to do so. As an editor, I’d like to think that it’s my prerogative to mark the edits, not the prerogative of a group of programmers who’ve never seen my footage or met with my client. But, hey, that’s me. Your needs may favor the other thing.
There are any number of workarounds. Doing your speed changes before editing a clip in the timeline is one. Locking tracks & trimming back is another. It speeds things up if you use the F4 key to lock the video tracks & the F5 key to lock the audio tracks. You can also use match frame & replace edits, etc.
Arnie
https://www.arniepix.com -
Thanks for the helpful hints everyone!
Mike
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