One Sequence Per Project?

[Russell Lasson]

So a FCP7 sequence is loosely equal to a FCPX project. As far as I can tell, the traditional FCP7 project has gone away.

So for one show that I’m working on:

– I see all the events from all of my other clients or shows
– There likely would be different FCPX projects open for this one show
– I should only use one event for the show and organize media by folders, metadata, ranges and keyword.

Honestly, I’m struggling with the idea that the media/sequences for one show aren’t organized by project, but seem to be grouped in with everything that I have on my system. This might be cool for a home video library, but I don’t want to see all the events for all of our shows that we keep on our san in every project I open. If I want to share footage (which we rarely do) I’ll just copy it over to the other project media folder, but I don’t need or want access to all media from all projects all the time.

And organizing sequences by compound clips in a project doesn’t seem realistic either. So if I have a feature film, I would have one project with a ton to compound clips in it? Some compound clips would be scenes. Some would be outtakes. Some would be different versions. Some would be titles or different languages. This would get confusing fast.

Russ

Russell Lasson
Colorist/Digital Cinema Specialist
Color Mill
Salt Lake City, UT
http://www.colormill.net

[Simon Ubsdell]

[Russell Lasson] “And organizing sequences by compound clips in a project doesn’t seem realistic either.”

I don’t think this is something that you are meant to do – think of “compound clips” as FCP7 “nests” and you have a very close approximation of what they are. Yes, you could use nests in FCP7 to organize stuff but I can’t imagine anybody wanting to.

The whole Event library thing is possible the hardest part of the new paradigm to get your head round but it may well turn out to be the most powerful part of the whole app. On the other hand it might just be a shitty idea they ported over from iPhoto and hoped would do the trick. On balance I think the former, but you never know 😉

Simon Ubsdell
Director/Editor/Writer
http://www.tokyo-uk.com

[Jeremy Garchow]

I’m with ya, Russell. There has to be a logical explanation for how this works?

Or perhaps it’s just not possible with the current build.

Such a weird release.

[Stephan Walfridsson]

[Jeremy Garchow] ” There has to be a logical explanation for how this works?”

I’m going to go out on a limb here and risk being shot down by people mistaken me for a little chicken.

I think that the logic is pretty obvious. Just put your self in the shoes of let’s say a DSLR shooter making cool skate movies. You would gather everything you shoot in Events, call one “Pasadena Skateboard Park June 21 2011” and another “Practicing at the mall”.

You decide that you want to make a short film where you intercut footage from the different Events. Easy, create a new project, let’s call it “Summer of Skate”. You start adding clips to your storyline, add b-roll and edit away. Use Compound clips to keep finished sequences (as in “parts of your story”) locked and Auditions to try out different jumps in one sequence.

A few weeks later you want to create another film focusing on just the Pasadena stuff so you create a new project and edit away.

Basically I don’t think that the logic is aimed at handling complex projects (in the old nomenclature). Not saying that it can’t be done.

Stephan

[Simon Ubsdell]

[Stephan Walfridsson] “Not saying that it can’t be done.”

You could be right – but it’s not remotely clear what you’re saying “can’t be done” so it’s hard to know where to look for the solution!

Simon Ubsdell
Director/Editor/Writer
http://www.tokyo-uk.com

[Stephan Walfridsson]

[Simon Ubsdell] “but it’s not remotely clear what you’re saying “can’t be done””

In my head it is… 😉

To be clear I specifically didn’t say that anything can’t be done. Just that the logic behind the design is better suited at certain types of workflows. So when Jeremy asked “There has to be a logical explanation for how this works?” I tried to answer that question.

To clarify even further:
I don’t think that the logic behind the design is aimed at streamlining workflow with separate jobs (projects) containing multiple timelines, based on a limited set of media. It seems to me to be more focused on efficient handling of large quantitys of media that you need random access to at random times, to create one off “storylines” that build from the entire base of source media.

It’s not a design flaw, it’s a design choice.

Stephan

[Russell Lasson]

This doesn’t seem to work for me as a professional, but as a home video user, events are great! Very excited to edit avchd and h264s of my son! This is great! But then for work, it doesn’t work.

Russ

Russell Lasson
Colorist/Digital Cinema Specialist
Color Mill
Salt Lake City, UT
http://www.colormill.net

[J Hussar]

If I asked my customers what they wanted they would have said a faster horse—

Henry Ford (?)

That is a bad analogy as Henry Ford was a “pro” car maker who REALLY understood cars. I doubt any of the coders at Apple are professional Editors or run a post house. It seems that they asked the hobbyists and book writers for input and got their inspiration from iMovie, which Grandma uses.

This is a cluster f *** – I just sent feedback saying I am impressed that Apple has decided my old projects shouldn’t be available to me anymore and that everyone’s tape libraries are now dead. And these are just a few things they screwed up.

Absolutely unbelievable FUBAR move on apple’s part. This is the IOS arrogance running rampant of the company now.

[Larry Asbell]

I haven’t got my hands on FCPX yet but could a professional editor with lots of clients and projects get along with the FCPX paradigm in this way?:

On an external RAID you have a folder for each client and within each of those a folder for each job. Whichever job your working on at the time you move (at the finder level) that folder into the Events folder at the top level of the RAID. FCPX will only see that job’s media (Events)* and sequences (Projects) because it only sees what’s in that folder. As you work you create as many Projects (sequences) as you need for different shows and different versions. It’s your choice whether to remove a job folder from the Events folder either every time you change the job you’re working on or when that job is totally done. When you do, FCPX is blinded from seeing that material.

*FCPX term capitalized.

[George Manzanilla]

And this is supposed to be a better way to work? I’m confused. Wouldn’t that become increasingly sloppy? I’m still trying to wrap my head around what is the best way to organize yourself when you depend on multiple applications (AE,PS,IL, Protools, C4D) to finish a video. We all have learned how to organize projects at the Finder level, i never really heard anyone complain about that.

I was perfectly fine the way things were organized before. Still don’t understand why they tried to fix something that was never really broken.

george manzanilla
rundfunk media
http://www.rundfunk.com
myspace.com/rundfunkmedia