Display Media To Start At 00:00:00:00 in FCPX?

[Bill Davis]

Just dump each clip into it’s own project and apply a Timecode generator to it. Share that project and the TC will start from zero.

If you’re saying that ALL the clips are in one long video clip, then you’d need to separate them into individual projects if you wanted to do window burns of the ranges starting from zero. But it’s not hard.

Just make as many duplicate projects as you want (one for each new Zero point) and then range select and delete the content you don’t need from each project.

If you then slap a Timecode generator on each project, it will output that specific range starting at zero.

Remember, when you copy projects you’re just copying references. Not footage. So there’s no system overhead penalty to speak of.

My first thought – but somebody else might have a more direct way.

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[Brett Sherman]

Right click in event somewhere and select “New Compound Clip”. In custom settings, make sure timecode is 00:00:00:00. Double-click to open in timeline. Drop clips in. Now use that Compound Clip to edit with. Break Apart when you have your clips in place if you like.

[Marlo Mckenzie]

Thank you Brett and Bill! I’ll try that out. And… maybe i’ll find that when I look for the producer’s “selects” I’ll be able to guestimate well enough to find things.

[Bret Williams]

You can also just use duration. Mark in at the start of a clip in the event, and drag out the out point, looking at the duration at the bottom of the screen.

I suppose you could also place the playhead at the start of clip, then type in the time you want to navigate to. Like 10.02.0 to go to 10min 2 secs.

[Bill Davis]

[Brett Sherman] “Right click in event somewhere and select “New Compound Clip”. In custom settings,”

This is probably just me, but while this works great – I’m not a big fan of the over-use of Compound Clips in FCP-X Storylines. Primarily because since CCs are reflected back to the Event Browser, overuse of them needlessly clutters up the EB with not only the source clips, but potentially multiple compounds created for who knows what purposes.

I’m kind of protective of my Event Browser, wanting to keep it organized and streamlined.

To my mind the best use of Compound Clips is to “marry” elements such as video and second system audio – then remove the source elements via Rejected tags, leaving only the compound in the EB as a sole source. Similarly, building a title sequence in a compound so that you can pull it out at will, change the text, and re-use it in multiple projects is an excellent use of compound clips.

But I’m hesitant to use them simply like “nested” clips in Legacy, since they have a “connection overhead” that adds complexity back in the EB that then also has to be managed. Projects can be dumped at will. But “looping” back upstream via compounds is something I do as little as I can.

YMMV.

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[Mathieu Ghekiere]

Hi Bill,

as long as Apple does not provide us with a TC overlay in X like we had in 7, at our company we are ‘forced’ to use all sources in Compound Clips. For our kind of editing, there really is no other way, except maybe first indeed rendering them out completely again with a different timecode.

We don’t have THAT many clips generally in an Event for a given project, and it works okay for us. It has its advantages and disadvantages (more advantages then disadvantages, X having a modern render engine helps). But all this compounding or putting clips in a seperate projects, all because of limited timecode stuff, is exactly the reason why I’ve been sending feedback to Apple for over a year to talk about more and better display options for timecode in X.
And it’s really something we *need*. Untill then, for a lot of our projects, we first have to put everything in seperate compound clips.

[Bill Davis]

Matthieu,

I’m a bit confused. The timecode generator in X easily displays a TC overlay on any storyline you apply it to. That there’s no fixed zero point in the “floating” nature of an X timeline is something I find truly useful, since I don’t always know the length or nature or even “if” I’ll be using an opening sequence. I think having the option to work “middle out” is very liberating. I doubt there’s anything I did with time code display in my 12 years working with Legacy that I can’t also do in X. Even if the steps or path might be different. What are you saying an X editor can’t do to get a properly useful window dub now, that you could do before?

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[Bill Davis]

Bummer that the producer isn’t running X on his or her laptop as well. You could have gotten a nice keyword collection of Producer Selects -to which you could have added additional material as Editor Selects – then have had a hugely productively meeting at a pub to raise a glass and discuss the similarities and differences.. Modern civilized edit prep that ends u with actual progress having been made on the edit, rather than you having to go back to your desk and waste time recreating all the the stuff that was discussed.

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[Mathieu Ghekiere]

You have a timecode generator in FCPX, but it reads the timecode of a timeline.

You don’t have a timecode overlay like in 7, where you could see for instance, if you paused, all the timecodes of the clips in the timeline, so you could see if they were in sync or not.

I could give the details about why I would need this, but we already discussed this in a thread about TC options in X. It has to do with editing images from medical monitors, where it’s not always easy to see if something is in sync or not.

We have a work-around, namely, working inside compound clips first. This allows us to put for instance, 6 layers of images on top of each other, all in picture in picture, and all with their own timecode generator on it and their own label. It works, and to X’s credit, it can play all these 6 compound clips at the same time, all with an unrendered timecode generator on it.
It works great in that we can give, trough the timecode generator, each image it’s own label, use it trough the complete editing stage, and just before export, just go trough the compound clips, put the timecode generators on invisible with a fast V click, and just export. If we need it again to check stuff, just click V trough the compounds again, and it updates in every project again.
It’s a work-around but it works, and it has its benefits. And for the amount of clips we have, it doesn’t add that much extra work.
We could also put it in the Event Browser on the clips themselves, by Opening them in their own timeline (without compounding), but then I’ve noticed, for every clip in the timeline (if you work with 6 hour clips, which you use small portions of in a 40-minute timeline), you have to open EVERY clip in the timeline again in its each timeline, and remove the Timecode GEnerator. With Compounds, we just remove them on the master clips in the Event Browser, and it ripples trough in all the edits. Very handy.

Again, I can give the complete details about why I would need this, but I already did in another thread, and it’s a pretty long explanation. Point being is: X’s options with timecode really could be better. Out the top of my head, it would be great to have a timecode overlay canvas like we had in 7, or maybe as a hud, I don’t know. It would be great to be able to COPY and PASTE timecode in the Dashboard. It would be great to be able to give clips a second timecode without compounding them first. It would be nice to have a timecode reader and a timecode generator. And AUX timecode.
So, yes, I think the TC options in X could use some extra work and features.

My complaints don’t have that much to do with the magnetic timeline, which for certain work is great, and for other work we just work-around it by putting clips as connected clips in the timeline. Works.

[Bill Davis]

Thanks for the explanation. If I understand you, X actually does what you need it to do – just not the way you would like it to do it. It’s a matter of convenience rather than capability. Which I get.

Did you investigate doing your sync time coding in the Angle editor? Did that help or create more issues?

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