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Best method to move clips enmass along a timeline
Hello there, I’m wondering if there’s a simple function I’m missing to move large amounts of clips along a timeline if a new clip needs to be inserted or previous one extended? At the moment I am highlighting all clips that need to move along, then painfully slowly dragging the whole thing the few frames or seconds along needed. However, this often results in things slipping out of vertical order, as in, my text boxes always seem to slip to the bottom, and interviews above the cutaways, creating a right mess which then requires dragging everything up and down again. This is driving me nuts.
The particular project I’m working on right now is set up as follows:
Primary storyline: music track
Next layer above: talking heads interviews
Next layer: cutaways
Next layer:text boxesI have the music in the storyline so that I could easily swap around the order of the interviews during initial edit to make a coherent narrative using the magnetic timeline, but now this is causing issues in this late stage of re-edits.
I’m fully aware that I may just be missing an incredibly simple technique, or coming at this from the wrong mindset, so would greatly appreciate any suggestions, or ‘you’re doing it wrong, do this’ type comments.
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7 Replies
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Kind of depends on the specific set of clips you’re trying to move. But you can nudge things with the keyboard- which can be more precise than mouse drags. The , and . keys nudge things left or right and holding down shift increases the amount of nudge.
If your selection changes around in order as you move it- you might want to make it into a compound clip to preserve that order.
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Hi,
if you want to extend a clip that’s in the primary, all clips downstream from it (with attached ones) will move downstream accordingly, wether you extend by trim or extend function.
if you want to extend by inserting a clip in the primary, well, just insert it and all clips downstream will move
if however you want to extend by adding a connected clip over some slug in the primary, insert slug with alt-W which by default will give you a 3 second gap. You can then select it and ctrl-D to change its duration. All clips dowstream will move. Connect new shot, trim to length and then trim slug underneath so as to bring back all following clips and close the gap.
in all cases I see no need to lasso and move clips, if I understood right the problem you mention.
hope this helps
Patrice Freymond
Editor Certified Trainer FCP7/X
Post ConsultantAlways learning…
Edited to apologize for missing the whole issue of the music being in the primary….duh
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Maybe this seems obvious to me, but there’s no advantage to putting the music in the primary. Useless you’re editing a music video where you need the video bits locked (connected) to specific beats of the music. In your case, the music is likely secondary background music and should simply be connected to the first clip in the primary. Since your audio bites are what holds it all together, they should be in the primary, because the broll and titles relate to where those audio clips are. The broll should be connected to the bites. The titles should be connected to the bites. In other words, if you rearrange the bites, you would want the broll and titles to move with it. The music is more or less irrelevant, and probably wouldn’t be finalized until the bites are in final order anyway. If you had placed your audio bites in the primary, all you would have to do is rearrange them and the magnetic timeline easily rearranges everything. The music wouldn’t move unless you happened to move the bite it’s connected to, likely the first bite. Then, if had the need to insert something in the middle, you just stick in a slug (opt w) and lengthen or shorten it if you need a gap of workspace. Or just do an insert edit. Having the interviews in a secondary, means you have to manually move everything above it, because they’re connected to the music in the primary. It completely negates the point of X and as you’re seeing, makes it pretty unfunctional.
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So, the solution would be to highlight the music and press cmd opt up arrow yo move music out of primary. Then highlight all the audio bites and press cmd opt down arrow to put bites in the primary. Then you’re set. Move the bites around at will and the titles and broll will move with them.
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Your music track should NOT be in Primary Storyline – your Primary Story should be. In your case talking heads. You can easily swap them around in the primary storyline anyway. If you do it this way your text boxes and B roll will stay connected to the clip in the primary storyline even when you move it. That’s the beauty of the App actually.
Learn to use Gaps to move stuff along.
Then it’s easy.
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Yeah that behavior is annoying. Remember that all your connected clips are connected to the primary story line not to the “layer” above it. So what got changed when it jumped around was where it was seen but not its location in relation to the primary. We’ll see what the next version holds. I hope layers in the more traditional sense evolves. Maybe they will come up with something like tracks and you could have as many of these tracks as you want. Just kidding. You could create compound clips to sections that you want united as is. You could create a secondary story line out of an entire “layer.”
But instead try playing back the entire storyline after you add this new “layer” Does it play back the way you want? If so, just relax. If not, realize that all is connected to the primary not to “layers” above it. Follow the Q tails carefully.
Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Camcorders: Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV30/40, Sony Z7U, VX2000, PD170; FCP 6 certified; write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.
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Hi everyone, thanks so much for your replies – and sorry for delayed response, had forgotten to set up alerts and hadn’t realised it had posted already (a new user).
I appreciate all your suggestions, and figured the answer would likely be, don’t have the music on the primary line. I do edit music videos sometimes, which is why I have it on there sometimes, and in this film, earlier editing of talking heads was on primary, but then I moved it as I was then fine tuning elements of the interviews/cutaways to be in time to the music.
So yes. Lesson learnt. Be a less messy editor. But loving the ., shortcut – I think that’s what I was really after – thanks!
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