Little FCP quirk

[Bret Williams]

This is correct and behavior. Since you only need 3 marks for an edit, the record deck (read sequence) is given precedence since it’s the master. Your problem could just as easily occur the other way round. One or the other has to be the default. It’s simply not an option for the system to use the “last 3 marks.” You may have made the clip marks the day before yesterday. Maybe the in before the out. Maybe the out before the in. Who knows? So not a possibility. The way it works is that if there are 4 marks, the outpoint of the source clip is ignored. Some mark has to take one for the team and it always needs to be the same mark.

This would be your quick fix when you see it happen.

cmd+z (undo)
option+o (clears out)
F10 or F9 to either overwrite or insert

Or you could do it the way I tend to do it. I mark an in/out in the viewer and drag it to the timeline. Much more visual. I may even mark an in in the timeline to snap to. Everything depends on the situation and my mood. 🙂

[John Davidson]

Yeah, I’ve already remapped the keyboard to make those quick keys you referenced faster.

I was kind of hoping for some advanced hack to provide me with an option to reference the last three marks, or at least give some visual clue when this happens before I make the edit. It’s easy to cmd z, but every time that happens it throws me off and I end up saying “yes, @#$@, that’s exactly what I wanted when I set the in and out on the viewer – clearly by doing that I really meant to wipe an entire track of edits out with one clip.

I wonder if the new octo macs have an experiemental “sarcasm chip”.

In/outs probably work differently in Avid because FCP can have multiple viewers open simultaneously in which each could have different in/outs. Still, it might nice to have a combo quick key that, when adding a new 4th clip, deletes the out on the sequence if you prefer rather than ignoring the brand new out in the viewer. I wouldn’t want a pop up blocking the edit or alerting me to the fact that my in/outs are different lengths, but a choice between sequence vs viewer priority would be nice.

[Steven Gonzales]

“or at least give some visual clue when this happens before I make the edit.”

There is a visual reference, which is the in and out marks showing in the canvas window.

Also, if you drag from the viewer window to the timeline, you get the viewer source’s marked length regardless of in and out in the timeline/canvas.

[John Davidson]

Thanks for the input guys.

I’m 99% positive Avid shows you a marker where your clip would end as well as your outpoint in the canvas. So in this scenario you actually have 3 points marked in your canvas window. 2 normal ones, and a 3rd that shows where your outpoint is really going to be – hence – a visual reference.

Am I seriously the only person in the world that thinks this is a slightly annoying issue? With all the options, settings, and menus available to us in FCP, am I really that far out of line for suggesting an option to give viewer markers priority over sequence markers? It may not be an option useful to everybody, but in promos that have hard outs that can’t be changed (or extended with insert editing), sometimes a tiny slice of a clip is all I have room for. If I save two keystrokes to do it, then that’s a workflow improvement.

I’m just not a mouse drag/drop kinda guy when it comes to editing into a sequence. Too many times it inserts instead of overwrites, wrecking timings.

[Bret Williams]

I think you may be. And having been an Avid editor and linear editor in the past, I have found no difference between the way all 3 systems work in this matter. Avid may have more visual cues nowadays or something, but this seems like such a minor preference with a couple methods to get the result you want. Can’t make everyone happy.

[John Davidson]

Oh well, I’m pretty inexperienced at this whole TV thing, so I’ll take your word for it. :-).

[Michael Hancock]

What you’re thinking about in Avid are Phantom Marks, available on Media Composer and Symphony (maybe DS too, not sure). If you have an In and Out marked in your sequence, then mark an In or Out in your source monitor, a different colored In/Out (depending on whether you marked an In or Out in on your source clip) will show up to give you a reference of how much of that clip will be used.

I don’t believe FCP has Phantom marks, does it? I’m not really familiar with the program (I’m an Avid user). Otherwise, Avid acts exactly like FCP, or FCP acts exactly like Avid–either way, your sequence marks always override your source marks. I’m in the habit of hitting Clear In/Out Marks before I mark another clip. Keeps these mistakes to a minimum ,and it’s only one keystroke.

Michael.

[Steve Courtney]

No, John, it happens to me three or four times a day, too.

Another thing I’d like to see, (and maybe I just haven’t found it yet) is an option to _NEVER_ resize the windows in the Viewer of the Canvas. I can’t tell you how many times a day I try to expand the Timeline with an option-plus or option-minus, only to have my Viewer start swelling because I had last clicked up there to reposition something.

I think I’ve needed to expand my Viewer once, maybe, in my three years of editing on FCP. Everytime that window starts growing, I wonder why on earth that’s a default option.

Again, maybe it’s just me…maybe it’s something people use more in HD or something…I dunno.

Steve

[Steve Courtney]

Actually, I wish the keyboard shortcuts for to expand or contract the Viewer/Canvas windows were just different than the keyboard shortcut for the Timeline. I’m not seeing why those are the same keys.

Steve

[Andy Mees]

>I can’t tell you how many times a day I try to expand the Timeline with an option-plus or option-minus, only to have my Viewer start swelling because I had last clicked up there to reposition something.

Thats just your fingers slipping onto the Command key instead of the Option key (or you’ve remapped the keyboard)
In the default keyboard settings, Opt + and Opt – will always zoom in / out on the timeline regardless of the active window. (Cmd + and Cmd – will zoom in / out on the active window)