montage workflow suggestions

[Loren Risker]

I would either use a secondary storyline for your clips, or connect the audio to a short gap clip at the beginning and edit your montage clips in the primary storyline.

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OutOfFocus.TV – Original series, music videos, and entertainment for your couch.

[Craig Alan]

Thank you. These were the exactly the type of things I was considering.

If I turn the connected clips into a secondary story line then it is connected at one point to the primary?

Can I go back and forth with these options?

For example, can I turn my connected clips into a secondary story line giving me the advantage of essentially two tracks, but then turn them back into regular connected clips so I can independently connect clips to the primary at specific points? (without undoing previous edits).

Also if I am happy with say the first 30 seconds of my project, can I turn that 30 seconds into a compound clip and then un-compound it if needed?

If I take your suggestion of using a gap clip as the primary story line, don’t I loose all the editing options that the primary has? For example trim tools and transitions?

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[Loren Risker]

If I turn the connected clips into a secondary story line then it is connected at one point to the primary?

Yes.

Can I go back and forth with these options?

Yes. Just right click and either lift to storyline or overwrite to storyline.

If I take your suggestion of using a gap clip as the primary story line, don’t I loose all the editing options that the primary has? For example trim tools and transitions?

I’m suggesting to use a 1 frame or 1 second gap clip on your primary story line that you can connect your audio to, so that it doesn’t move as you trim your montage clips in the primary storyline.

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OutOfFocus.TV – Original series, music videos, and entertainment for your couch.

[Craig Alan]

Thanks.
Just to be clear: this means that the music would be a connected clip and/or a secondary story line.

And the visuals are now the primary story line. With the advantage that since the music is attached to a short gap clip, the visuals can be edited without the music getting pushed around.

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[Loren Risker]

Exactly.

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OutOfFocus.TV – Original series, music videos, mini-docs.

[Craig Alan]

Got it. Thank you so much. I’ll give it a shot.

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[Bret Williams]

Another option – added in 10.0.7 I think. You want to move your primary (music track) independent of all the clips connected to it? Hold down the tilde key (one just below the esc key) and use the P tool to move your music (primary) track.

[Craig Alan]

Thanks. That was what I was originally asking for. And I’ll try it out. Enjoying the use of secondary timelines and compound clips as an organization tool on the timeline. I like being able to group and ungroup sets of clips in order to work with them in different ways.

One thing that confused me at first was why FC did not let me create a secondary timeline out of all my connected clips. Then I realized I could not highlight a clip on a third track. But that third track clip was a title that I wanted aligned with a clip on the secondary timeline. So I undid the grouping (break apart) and created a compound clip out of the title and the “parent” clip. Then I created the secondary. This worked fine though it seems like an extra step that is unnecessary. No reason that a secondary timeline should not be able to have their own connected clips.

If I decide to then break apart the compounded clip, the clip that was on the third track reconnects with the primary. I guess it’s no big deal since if I adjust its location I can then re-compound it. I did notice that unlike my first attempt, I was able to do so without the secondary being broken up first.

Does this mean I can always add a connected clip to a clip in the secondary by creating a compound of it and the new parent? And could have done this from the get go? I guess it keeps things neater.

Or is there yet another feature that allows direct connections to other than the primary story line?

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[Bret Williams]

A lot there in that post. You’ve pretty much got it figured out. Bottom line(s)- you can only have transitions on clips that are in the primary or in a secondary. Clips can only be connected to the primary. Secondarys can’t have their own connected clips. If you want a connected clip to stay aligned with a clip in a secondary, then I would just let them both remain connected to the same clip in the primary. You can change the point of connection by cmd+option+click on the spot on the connected clip (or the little frame around the secondary) where you want the point to be. Yeah, if you adjust stuff in the secondary you’ll have to adjust the placement of the connected clip to keep it aligned. But such is the case in any editor pretty much.

[Craig Alan]

Thanks Brett,

Kinda getting a feel for these new workflows (for me) for this montage. When I started in X with a few short form narratives and one documentary, I found the story line/connected clips way of working quite intuitive and didn’t run into any “how come I can’t” moments. So this has been a good exercise.

Not sure i got one part of your post.

[Bret Williams] “You can change the point of connection by cmd+option+click on the spot on the connected clip (or the little frame around the secondary) where you want the point to be. “

If both are connected to the primary story line why would you change where on the connected clip the point of attachment is? Isn’t the point of attachment at the beginning of the connected clip to a point in the primary? Or this is just a way to get the little Q tail attachment lines to be less cluttered and doesn’t really change where it begins in relation to the primary?

Isn’t it less informative to have the connection point not at the beginning of the connected clip? Or does it actually ripple the clip to a new place on the primary?

And is it just me or are these lines not really all that visible? I know I can zoom in just like in 7 but this is the part of editing that I find the most tedious: The visual strain of needing to see both the zoom in and zoom out view of the time line.

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Camcorders: Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV30/40, Sony Z7U, VX2000, PD170; FCP 6 certified; write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.