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Trimming Issue
So here’s a problem I’ve encountered only once before on the same computer.
I capture a clip. I play the clip anywhere – preview, timeline, whatever. It looks great. It’s exactly what I captured.
I start to trim – and the video that I’m trimming doesn’t match up with what I want. This is kind of hard to explain, so bear with me (and I don’t have screen capture capabilities on my work computer, so I can’t demonstrate).
Say I have a monkey jumping through trees, and I want to trim it down to right before the monkey starts to jump, and then cut it when he’s done jumping. So I scroll to where he starts to jump, then go a few frames back, and cut with the razor. But then I realize I cut it a second too early, so I grab the edge of the clip to trim it down. As I start to trim, I see that the footage I’m trimming is NOT the footage that I cut. It’s 5 seconds ahead. So say I want to trim right when the monkey starts to jump. When I grab the handle, the video that plays is of the monkey finishing up his jump. When I simply play the footage, though, it’s the correct footage, starting and stopping where I cut it.
Therefore, I cannot trim precisely, I’d have to edit everything with the razor.
Does that make sense?
It’s only happened to me once before, but that was a few months ago.
I know could just recapture the clip (which is what I did before), but I’d like to determine and solve the problem itself if possible so that I can avoid it in the future. I’m usually capturing an hour of footage at a time, so having to recapture it all is a huge waste.
I think it must be a problem with the clip itself. I’ve started a new project and imported the file, and I still have the same problem. However, when I import it (as opposed to capturing), it tells me that the file isn’t optimized for FCP. Yet, a file I captured right after that (not the same capture session, but the same settings) will have no problem. When I look at the clip’s properties, they’re the same as all of the other clips.
Again, this is something I can work around, but if I can, I’d like to figure out what the heck is going on, because it’s really annoying.
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6 Replies
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Ah, sorry. Here are my settings:
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There are a few ways to trim in FCP. The first is the Browser window. In your case, this may be your easiest solution to your problem. Press F in your timeline to load the clip in the Browser and redo your in/out points.
The second is your timeline which you’ve discovered is a little tricky. The 3d is the trim window. To access this, double click between the edit points on your timeline.
Steve Eisen
Eisen Video Productions
Vice President
Chicago Creative Pro Users Group -
Thanks, but I’ve worked with FCP for 10 years, so I understand the various ways to trim. I’ve never had an issue before, and it doesn’t matter HOW I trim, I have the same problem. I was just hoping had an insight.
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I’ve run into this problem a few times and it’s always come down to a corrupt clip. I used to get this all the time using a MOTO capture device and I think what happened was that frame rate metadata wasn’t properly written which would confuse FCP. The clip played back fine but anytime the clip was manipulated (edited, effect added, etc.,) the edit points with the clip itself would shift.
My fix was to open the clip in QT Pro 7 and export it same as source. Recapturing is another option but using QT is faster.
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Thanks! I appreciate your input; I’ll give that a try.
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