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Pancake timeline – sort of
Many editors like to use the timeline for organization. This is closely associated with Premiere and the “pancake” method of stacking timelines and editing between these sequences. However, organizing primarily in the timeline and not in the browser is something many FCPX, Premiere, and Media Composer editors do.
When FCPX first came out (10.0) you could skim through projects and view “filmstrips” of the various projects in the project browser. This function was lost with 10.1 when the Library came into being.
While I’m not advocating for stacked timelines in FCPX, I do think it would be a valuable feature to be able to editing directly from one sequence (project) in the browser to another in the timeline window. In order to do this, you would need to be able to have the “filmstrip” view of project restored.
Thoughts?
– Oliver
Oliver Peters – oliverpeters.com
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13 Replies
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Yes! I’ve actually feature requested this a couple of times over the years. I started using FCPX after they had switched to the library, so I didn’t know you used to be able to do that.
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Michael Hancock
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Really annoyed they got rid of this, I’m not sure why as it can’t be difficult to add back in.
Thanks for reminding me, will submit another feature request
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Why not use Compounds instead of Projects? There’s no tangible difference and it does allow you to see in filmstrip and edit straight into your final Project. It’s true that it’s not transferring original clips into the timeline, but that is easily solved by using the “Break Apart” command – Shift+Command+G.
Seems like a super simple, quick workaround.
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[Brett Sherman] “Why not use Compounds instead of Projects?”
True, it is a solution. Although, it does seem a bit inelegant to me.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters – oliverpeters.com
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[Oliver Peters] “True, it is a solution. Although, it does seem a bit inelegant to me.
“Once Apple sees your remark they will fix it 😉
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LOL!
– Oliver
Oliver Peters – oliverpeters.com
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Ugg.
I have a good client that is totally stuck on the mental construct of “park those clips at the end of the timeline so we can get to them later.” Which is just a variation of what pancake editing is all about.
I try not to do it, because tapping to simply temporarily mark them as a Favorite for instant recall is so much crazily more efficient.
(That’s in the context of the fact that I seldom use Favorite except during the early phases of my clip markup and organization, and after my keywords are set, I generally REMOVE those temp tags after the ranges are PROPERLY tagged — which frees me to use F for something else — like this.)
But I can TELL that the client is utterly uncomfortable not having that dumb tail of “clips” to drag around later. Sometimes I simply humor him and put in a Gap Clip and E key what he likes after the break just to humor him.
But then he always says “lets use the clip of Kathy we parked at the end here.” When he says that, I don’t ACTUALLY go to the clip rash at the end of my timeline (which is screwing up my running time display now, anyway – grrrr!) I just keyboard filter for favorite, tap K and insert the ACTUAL Kathy clip from the Browser via the keyboard in a third the time It would have taken me to mouse over and drag the clip into place.
I now wonder what goes through his head when he calls for a specific clip, and it appears in the storyline flow as if by magic in half a second? Oh well.
Expectations about the value of the techniques you KNOW, is one of the hardest things to overcome in editing, in my opinion. But you’ve GOT to if you truly want to become efficient at this stuff.
FWIW.
Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery. -
[Bill Davis] “Expectations about the value of the techniques you KNOW, is one of the hardest things to overcome in editing, in my opinion. But you’ve GOT to if you truly want to become efficient at this stuff.”
First – I would be careful about assuming features and functions that appeal to your own preferences are somehow superior to other methods. There are many editors who use the timeline as a “scratch pad” and that works quite effectively for them. FCPX does not make it easy to do this, while other NLEs do. Whether that’s “good” or “bad” is merely a matter of personal workflow and preference.
Second – the client shouldn’t really care how you get the results as long as you can get there quickly by whatever means suits your style.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters – oliverpeters.com
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i am guilty of sticking clips at the end of the timeline – even in FCPX. sometimes Ill put a clip in, decide it doesnt go there and then throw it to the rear to put somewhere else later because its quicker FOR ME to just grab it from there, then go back to the library or favorites. No need to leave the timeline, and I always see it dangling at the end there so I dont forget about it. Some dsys that “bank” at the end gets pretty long and messy but this works for me. I also still use stringouts – YES even in FCPX.. its crazy how I get any work done.
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[Neil Goodman] “because its quicker FOR ME to just grab it from there”
Seems like a good time to add this:
https://digitalfilms.wordpress.com/2017/06/07/bricklayers-and-sculptors/
– Oliver
Oliver Peters – oliverpeters.com
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