In a bit of a muddle with compound clips

[Ronny Courtens]

I have effectively lost the original project timeline.

No, you haven’t. As you have turned your entire edit into a Compound Clip your original edit has been replaced by one single Compound Clip on your Project Timeline, that’s all. If you want to restore your Project Timeline to its original state you can easily do this:

1. Open the Compound Clip in its own timeline and copy the content of the CC timeline
2. Go back to your Project Timeline (you can use the Timeline History arrows to do this), delete the Compound Clip from the Project Timeline and press CMD+V to paste the content of the CC into your Project Timeline.

Now you have restored your original edit in your Project Timeline and you still have the CC in your Event Browser. As the CC has been removed from your Project Timeline you will now be able to delete it from the Event Browser if you wish so.

– Ronny

[Jeff Kirkland]

Or slightly simpler is to create the compound clip, then immediately shoes to break the clip apart again. The compound clip you created is still sitting in your event browser and you can get on with your edit.

Jeff Kirkland | Video Producer | Southern Creative Media | Melbourne Australia
http://www.southerncreative.com.au | G+: https://gplus.to/jeffkirkland | Twitter: @jeffkirkland

[Don Smith]

Jeff. Brilliant idea! I mean, I was about to suggest that the OP simply break the CC apart to get his timeline back but your two-step with the CC is genius. I haven’t tested it yet but it seems that I could easily save versions of my edit by selecting all, making a CC with a backup name, then breaking the CC on my timeline apart and continue editing knowing that the current version is safely tucked away in my Event Browser. If it works the way I think it does you’ve just changed my workflow.

Don Smith

NewsVideo.com

[James Ewart]

But any changes you make in the broken apart clip will affect the cc in the browser no?

I think better to create a new CC each time and copy and paste timeline contents into it rather than do what I did which was to select all the items in the timeline and then create a CC.

Subtle difference.

I like the concept of keeping different versions as CCs in Event browser but not sure how many you can do before affecting performance as you read about too many CCs slowing things down rather.

[Bret Williams]

I prefer to avoid all the mess and make a project folder in the library and do your versioning in there, the way it was (somewhat) intended. I treat the folder as I did my “sequences” folder in 7. To me having the events and projects separate is just a common sense improvement. Your media, I’m many cases, chould apply to many different projects. Especially in news, sports, or any other production where you’re continually documenting and the footage for a project might come from a multitude of events, or a number of events might spawn multiple related projects. Of course when a project is complete it’s nice to be able to create a new event/project just for the final archiving. All I would like to see in that regard is clip trimming/handles when duplicating a project/creating a new event and some sort of backup/attic for the library. Events can always be recreated from the camera originals EXCEPT for the compound clips. And since the compound in the project links directly to the compound in the event, there is a danger if the event corrupts. So I use compounds sparingly. Just for motion graphics and repeated elements.

[Jeff Kirkland]

If you break apart a compound clip, you are essentially doing the equivalent of copying the contents out of the clip and pasting them to the timeline, just in one step.

When you select clips on the timeline and create a compound clip you are basically stuffing all of them into an easily managed container. The compound clip is created in the event library and a copy of it replaces the selected clips on your timeline.

Breaking apart the compound clip is essentially the reverse process. It replaces the selected compound clip with copies of the clips inside it. The clips on your timeline no longer have any relationship with the compound clip they came from (which continues to exist in your event library for later use).

For convenience I usually create an event to keep all these snapshots in so they’re separate from the rest of the project’s media.

I just find it a great way to have snapshots of the progress of my edit and know that I can either restore the complete compound clip or open it up and copy/paste just part of it back to my project.

Jeff Kirkland | Video Producer | Southern Creative Media | Melbourne Australia
http://www.southerncreative.com.au | G+: https://gplus.to/jeffkirkland | Twitter: @jeffkirkland

[Jeff Kirkland]

And I’ll add that I also sometimes do it Brett’s way but that only makes a copy of the complete timeline while my method also lets me make versions of just parts of it.

As always, there’s always plenty of ways to get where you want to go…

Jeff Kirkland | Video Producer | Southern Creative Media | Melbourne Australia
http://www.southerncreative.com.au | G+: https://gplus.to/jeffkirkland | Twitter: @jeffkirkland

[Dave Gage]

[Bret Williams] “I prefer to avoid all the mess and make a project folder in the library and do your versioning in there”

One “thumbs up” for Bret’s method. I’m likely still a bit paranoid from the early days of Compound Clips, so I do as he does. Also, because I just edit for my business, I do a lot of the same types of edits over and over again. So, I created Template Projects that when I begin a new edit I click on the Template, Duplicate it and then begin with the new edit.

The template is primarily a 1-2 minute Gap clip with my standard intro and outros attached, my most commonly used lower 3rds, plus a small video clip with my typical audio and video effects and color adjustments that I just copy and paste onto my new project clip and it gives me a good starting point. I believe I originally started doing this based on the way I use saved templates in Logic.

I get that this method of using templates won’t work for most editors with clients and very diverse types of edits to deal with, but this saves me a TON of time.

[James Ewart]

“Breaking apart the compound clip is essentially the reverse process. It replaces the selected compound clip with copies of the clips inside it. The clips on your timeline no longer have any relationship with the compound clip they came from (which continues to exist in your event library for later use).”

Okay that’s interesting. So when you open the CC in the timeline you are NOT affecting the CC in the browser which remains there?

When you select all and create CC that effectively backs it up.

When I select new CC with the event browser highlighted to create a blank one into which to physically paste the contents of the timeline I create a CC I can delete whereas the other method I still m struggling despite trying Ronny’s method. I think I have confused it so much.

That said I think I’m with Bret!! Project Folder, duplicate project, nice and simple).

My brain clearly cannot quite cope with the concept.

I don’t think I’ve quite got my head around those little left and right arrows above the timeline index.

Thanks chaps.

[Jeff Kirkland]

Hi James,

Not quite. There’s a difference between opening a compound clip and breaking it apart. Each compound clip has its own internal timeline. Opening a compound clip takes you to that internal timeline. Any changes you make are global.

When you break a compound clip apart, you are copying the clips from its internal timeline onto your current timeline and so are no longer working with the compound clip at all.

Anyway, the workflow that works for you is the right workflow but compound clips can be incredibly powerful tools once you get to grips with them so they’re well worth persevering with.

Cheers
Jeff K

Jeff Kirkland | Video Producer | Southern Creative Media | Melbourne Australia
http://www.southerncreative.com.au | G+: https://gplus.to/jeffkirkland | Twitter: @jeffkirkland