Trimming multiple tracks forward to create a gap in FCP 7

[Andrew Kimery]

After you use the blade tool you can hit tttt and it FCP will select everything to the right of the playhead and the content of ever track that is not locked can be moved. If you just need to ‘reveal’ whats on a lower track you can select all the upper tracks, hit control+b to deactivate the clip(s) you have selected.

[Mark Suszko]

I just drag down to highlight all the clips in that razor-bladed stack, to the one above the target I want revealed, hit command-x, there’s my hole thru the layers down into the trackI want to see.

[Nick Meyers]

“Is there a way for me to select all the right or left edges on various tracks, and create a gap with a key command, or by dragging?”

answer is no,
so you need another approach,

the track tool will actually move your tracks out of sync, which you probably don’t want, although it is does read a bit like that’s what you are doing

you’re probably only left with 2 solutions,
marks suggests blading all (or control V to blade on the play-head)
so you blade where you want to cut to the other angle, and blade again where you want to cut back.
select the bladed section and delete, and drag back the angle you want if you’ve deleted all

my suggestion is to use in & out points to define the same section,
then delete,
and either recover the angle you want by dragging,
or lock that track before you delete.

marking in & out points really is the simplest way to define a section you either want to use (in & outs in the viewer)
or not use (in & outs in the timeline)
or copy, for that matter (in & outs in timeline again)

you probably know that once you have a gap, you CAN use trim functions on a selected edit point.
you can use the GROUP tool (g) to lasso a group of edit points, but frustratingly it always opens the trim window.

i remember now another approach i have used in the past, before FCP had multiclip.
it’s a bit like Dave’s suggestion, in that involves have your stacked tushes on track 1-x, then an edit track above them

mark in/outs
park anywhere within the marks
double click you chosen angle into the viewer,
and use F11 replace edit.

weirdly FCP can replace a blank section…. although sometimes it wont.. cant figure that one out!

cheers,
nick

[Thomas Friedmann]

Thanks for your thoughts, all!

A few things I should clarify:

I am not moving any track out of synch w/audio. I’m just dragging the clip edge forward–thereby reducing the clip length from the left.

It’s important that I leave the layers where they are, there are too many to make them top dog for every cut.

Here’s what I did find–if I doubleclick to select the through edit points (and command+click to select multiples), I can then press UUU to get the left side, both sides, or the right side.

But after that I’m unable to do anything with it.

This simple drag forward is so basic, I feel like there must be a way to do this with multiple tracks.

[Thomas Friedmann]

Nick,

Thanks for the discussion. The audio track is locked, and I’m not moving anything out of synch. I’m reducing clip length by dragging from left to right.

[Nick Meyers]

“I feel like there must be a way to do this with multiple tracks.”
but there isn’t!

“This simple drag forward is so basic”
on one video track, yes. on multiple video tracks, no.

personally i think the “dragging away to reveal” method of multi cam it not good.
you are left with a bit of a mess to work with, when it comes time to fine-cut

i prefer keeping the bank of shots intact, and building a simple 1 track edit on a top layer
makes it way easier when you cone to do a second pass,
especially if you want to quickly re-look at your rushes.

and as you are discovering, the way you *think* you want to work is not simple, anyway

so you blade all (control V) where you want to cut,
option+shift drag the layer you are interested in up to your edit track.

BETTER
blade all at the cut
park on the though edit
double click clips into the viewer. this way you audition your angles
when you like one,
F10 to edit it onto a top-level target track

one slight drawback with longer clips is the overwrite edit will put you at the END of the clip, and you have to get back to the edit point.
with a lot of shorter cup in the timeline that;s a lot of up-arrowing

on simple solution is to select the end of the clip and hit the up arrow once
that wil take you directly to the START of the clip.

another, better, solution (with no mousing) is Q, F
q bounces you to the viewer, which is still the head of the new shot
F match frames back to the same frame in the timeline.

now that you have a single track edit you can actrulay refine the cut with rolling to trim windrow,
or wait till you have done awhile pass and easily go thru & refining your entire edit.

nick

[Thomas Friedmann]

Many thanks for setting me straight. This might be the impetus I need to learn a new editing suite! This was not my favorite way to edit.

I don’t think it’s off-topic to get some opinions here about which program people prefer for multiple-camera, multiple-take projects?

Cheers,

Tom

[Nick Meyers]

n FCP if you want to work in a true Multiclip fashion with stop/start shooting threr are 2 options.

1.
export each track to a new file,
import those files and multiclip.

big problem is you lose track of your original TC.
its not impossible to trace it back, but if you are in an off-line on-line situation m then this is really not good for you.
OK if you are working at full res, though.

2.
line up all your clips as you have,
go though your timeline, creating a new multiclip each time you have a new clip appear on the timeline.
so you have lots of smaller multiclips.

nick

[Nick Meyers]

look into FCPX
from another list:

If you assign each clip a camera name according to which camera it was shot with and tell X to sort the angles by camera when you make the multicam clip, then it’ll use date and time stamp and/or audio to place all the clips from one camera into a single angle not separate ones. Leaving you with one angle per camera and every clip that belongs to it. If you did your homework, then they’ll even be in sync.

When in doubt: https://bit.ly/152ayOP