Is there a button for…?

[Nick Meyers]

sorry, that function doesn’t exist.
unless it was introduced in 5.1.2

nick

[Adam Taylor]

thats a shame – it would be a much more useful feature than some of the included ones!

thanks for the quick reply. I’m busying downloading the update right now soif it has been added (doubtful) i shall report back.

Editor/Mixer
Character Options Ltd
Oldham, UK

[Tom Wolsky]

It’s not in the update news.

The simplest way to do what you want I think would be with I/O points in the timeline. One at the playhead and the other at the beginning or end of the clip and then ripple delete. Or you could Control-V at the playhead, select the piece to dump and ripple delete it.

All the best,

Tom

Author: “Final Cut Pro 5 Editing Essentials” and “Final Cut Express 2 Editing Workshop” Class on Demand “Complete Training for FCP5” and “Final Cut Express Made Easy” DVDs

[Walter Biscardi]

[lightning ad] “thats a shame – it would be a much more useful feature than some of the included ones!”

Since you’re just learning FCP, find out what the application can do before you complain about what it can’t do. There are ways to make the app do just about anything you need it to do. The entire keyboard can be mapped to keystrokes.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Food Network’s “Good Eats”
HD Editorial for “Assignment Earth”

“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters

[Adam Taylor]

i thought i was trying to find out what it can do!

And as for complaining about what it can’t do…well, it could hardly be described as a complaint, more an observation, and its only because I was trying to discover what can and cannot be done that i found this omission. It happens to be a function i have gotten used to using on a different system and one that saves a lot of time and keystrokes, thus helps prevent RSI.

Surely, if a product is being sensibly upgraded and maintained by the programmers (as FCP is), they would rather editors asked them for new and useful tools and help make an excellent package ever more user friendly, than for us all to sit and grumble quietly to ourselves about wishlists and how nothing is ever changed.

I’ve been editing 20 yrs, Walter, on a huge range of kit going all the way back to umatic three machine suites. I read the manuals and then experiment. I have a pretty good idea what can be done with FCP. When i ask for a little help from the more experienced FCP user I try to explain concisely what i need to know. That way, if you want to offer advice, it can be directed to the problem. To say things like “There are ways to make the app do just about anything you need it to do.”… is pretty pointless – it gives no information and is no help at all.

I appreciate all the advice i get, and i don’t want to waste busy peoples time asking inane rubbish. Like many – i work in a vacuum, surrounded by others who have no knowledge or insight into my own work, and i no longer have the pool of experience to call on that used to exist at large broadcast organisations. Forums such as CreativeCow are an invaluable resource that i don’t want to see squandered. Its the only place i could hope to get friendly advice from like minded pro’s, so please Walter, don’t take offense at my reply (as i appear to have at yours!). I just feel that as an experienced pro, i don’t need the babyish RTFM lecture. However, i also realise there are a lot of people who do need that lecture. Perhaps I should make my level of experience more obvious in future .

regards
Adam

Editor/Mixer
Character Options Ltd
Oldham, UK

[Ben Broad]

Hi,
I have 18 years post-production experience – mostly spent editing, with the last 6 years working only on Avid.
That said: I want to do a Ripple Delete and it seems (according to the manual) that all I have to do is shift-delete etc. This wont work (and neither will Close Gap) unless I lock all other tracks first. Oddly, this is a one button fuction on the Avid (not to mention it is used all the time). I have clips on other tracks. FCP 5.1.1.
Is there another way, or is it really that difficult?

Thanks,
Ben Broad.

[Walter Biscardi]

[Ben Broad] “This wont work (and neither will Close Gap) unless I lock all other tracks first.”

Close Gap works across all the tracks so if you have video on another track that fills the gap you’re trying to close, you need to lock off the other tracks first.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Food Network’s “Good Eats”
HD Editorial for “Assignment Earth”

“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters

[Debe]

It’s not going to work like Avid. There are some things I find frustrating about FCP that Avid does so simply. Then again, there are just as many things FCP does that Avid hasn’t gotten a frim grasp of, either.

Try using the All Tracks Forward tool, or “tttt”. This lets you select everything on your timeline from where you select to the end of the timeline. Pick up the entire selection and drag it back to overwrite the clip you want to delete, or if you’ve already deleted it, to close the gap.

If your tracks are staggered, you might have to play with snapping, shift & control keys, and which clip you actually drag from to get it to work smoothly, but it can be done. It’s a different way of thinking. Instead of wanting to ripple-delete, you want to move everything back.

If you’re a keyboard editor, it’s a bit of a drag, but I’ve learned to use the mouse, keyboard, and Wacom tablet in a way that greatly reduces the strain and fatigue on my hands at the end of the day. I really don’t think anyone should strive to be a mostly keyboard, or mostly mouse editor. A good mixture of both is better for your wrists, in my humble opinion!

debe

[Ben Broad]

Thank you Walter for your insight. That clears up how Ripple Delete and Close Gap work.

Thank you Debe for your work-around. I’ll have to be extra careful with multi-layered timelines.

Ben Broad.