Fcp x no sub edits?

[dan crouch]

As an editor I am always paranoid about losing great cuts, moods. Sometimes I need to refer to a cut that was recorded to DVD weeks earlier. I therefore keep loads of sub edits in a bin for safety.

I am halfway through a training DVD for X and I still can’t see how this can be done.

One sequence?! Am I missing something?

Any help will be gratefully received.

Cheers,
Dan.

[Mark Dobson]

[dan crouch] “As an editor I am always paranoid about losing great cuts, moods. Sometimes I need to refer to a cut that was recorded to DVD weeks earlier. I therefore keep loads of sub edits in a bin for safety.”

Hi Dan,

Could I suggest that you duplicate your projects on a regular basis. To save space don’t duplicate the renders. You can place these projects in a folder in your project library.

Another method would be to create compound clips of bits you want to save, maybe creating and saving them to their own event.

[Steve Connor]

Projects are exactly the same as sequences in FCP7, think of the project library as a ‘bin” for your sequences.

Steve Connor
‘It’s just my opinion, with an occasional fact thrown in for good measure”

[dan crouch]

Thanks v much for the post’s.
I can’t help thinking that Apple have completely overlooked the fact that editors need loads of alt cuts.
To create a compound clip to save off edits seems like a very long winded process.

To keep sequences as different projects may work I guess, but is it not possible to open the window up so you can see them all together? I use loads of sub edits and need to access them all the time quickly.

I’m sure I’m not the first to say this BUT… it is looking more and more like a complicated non pro application to me.
Clever ways of keeping a tidy timeline, but with no thought of the intuitive nature of editing, if you know what I mean.

Cheers
Dan.

[Craig Seeman]

I think it’s good the question is raised.

It highlights the difficulty people have in wrapping their heads around FCPX function and workflow. As Mark says, you duplicate your project just as you duplicate a sequence to “version” it. Of course depending on your approach, you could have lots of Auditions attached if you’re primarily looking to have alternate takes to a single project.

Another thing this highlights is that so much of training focuses on “how to” with various functions and very little of it focuses on workflow development.

Organizing a workflow for a documentary with nearly everything shot (think historical maybe) vs a documentary that will be getting material ongoing over two years, may be different. Certainly it may be different than an episodic series and even that may be different depending on how self contained vs related the episodes are. That would be different than a corporate video in which new versions may happen every few months from the same source video but with newly shot material added with each update.

Even the saving of “sub edits” gives you various choices. Mentioned already is duplicating the project. Another could be saving the project as a Compound Clip which would then keep the copy in the Event Library. You could then create a new project and make that independent (this is all new in 10.0.6 forward).

[Steve Connor]

[dan crouch] “I’m sure I’m not the first to say this BUT… it is looking more and more like a complicated non pro application to me.”

Once you are used to how compounds work, especially since the 10.06 update they will do everything you need. It’s one menu command after you have duplicated the sequence, it’s not exactly complicated.

Steve Connor
‘It’s just my opinion, with an occasional fact thrown in for good measure”

[dan crouch]

Thanks v much for the help.
I shall dedicate a few hours to creating compound clips and see how it goes.

Cheers,
Dan.

[Craig Seeman]

[dan crouch] “To create a compound clip to save off edits seems like a very long winded process.”

Just duplicate the project. Compound clips is just another alternative. Choice is good. Not overlooking but giving us more options.

[dan crouch] “To keep sequences as different projects may work I guess,”

I think you’re stuck in the terminology. Project more or less equal sequence. That’s all a Project is. It’s Primary, Secondary story line and connected clips.

[dan crouch] “is it not possible to open the window up so you can see them all together?”

Sure. In the Project Library. And you can skim each as well. All without having to “load them.” Way easier than FCP7 for example (IMHO). In my Project Library I have Client folders (doing mostly corporate stuff) and then within the Client folder I have folders which contain the Projects for each “job”

You need to understand the relationship between Events (where clips exist) and Projects (which is the Storyline) and the Event Library and the Project Library.

[dan crouch] ” is looking more and more like a complicated non pro application to me.”

Actually it looks like a professional database in which Events and Projects are relationships and Event Library and Project Library organize their respective data. Then there’s the third party tool Event Manager which can help you further by bringing stuff online or taking it offline as needed. Granted I think FCPX needs a really powerful management app/function that can function facility wide on a SAN for example.

[Bret Williams]

I definitely do not keep loads of alternate edits. Perhaps occasionally, but definitely not on a regular basis. I create a version 1, submit it. Changes are given, and I duplicate the sequence and call the new one version 2 and move on. I work exactly the same way in X except now we have auditions, which is a very clever way of doing versions of individual shots or portions.

Create folders in the project library. Organize your sequences as you always have in legacy. What’s the difference except how sequences or events are more easily accessible to other projects.

[Oliver Peters]

[Bret Williams] “Create folders in the project library. Organize your sequences as you always have in legacy. What’s the difference except how sequences or events are more easily accessible to other projects.”

The downside of the Project Library is that there is no true “list view”. When you open the library or a folder within the library, it has to generate the filmstrip view for each project/timeline, which can be quite time consuming. That filmstrip view is also not very useful if you have an “adjustment layer” clip at the top level. In the project window you only see the generic thumbnail unless you skim over it.

I also generate lots of “in progress” sequences as I edit. I just finished a commercial edit where the objective was a single :30 spot. We probably had 15+ variations and 3 finished options were submitted to the client for review.

Furthermore, loading projects from the Project Library into the active timeline is poorly handled at best. You have to open them one at a time. You cannot highlight several and have them open at once. The timeline window won’t hold a lot of open projects at once and frequently loses ones that had been opened as you move forward and backward through them. Then you end up having to reload ones you had loaded just a few minutes ago.

I realize “duplicate” is the way the software works, but the overall design of X does not seem to be convenient, when a “project” is anything other than a final, all-inclusive version.

– Oliver

Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com