using the magnetic timeline effectively

[William Davis]

Hey Jason-

It really depends on the type of project you’re working on. For 30 second promos (of which I do a lot) I generally start with a 30 second gap clip, connect my shots to it, and then stamp them down into the primary as I “commit” them to the cut. For stuff that’s more open ended time-wise I put everything that relates to the story in the primary and connect supporting b-roll, music, and effects. That’s what FCPX feels built for, and it’s quite powerful in that regard. I appreciate the magnetic timeline when I’m drilling down to a very precise edit that I’m finessing and know that I’m not knocking things out of place downstream or accidentally overwriting something outside the frame of my zoomed in workspace. You can also view a secondary storyline as a useful “pod” of shots that you can drag around as a group, ripple trim, or juggle clips around in easily.

Honestly I’ve been working almost exclusively in X since late 2012 and I’m still discovering new ways to get things done quickly. Keep at it and I’ll bet you find the same.

Cheers,
Bill

[Charlie Austin]

[William Davis] “Honestly I’ve been working almost exclusively in X since late 2012 and I’m still discovering new ways to get things done quickly. Keep at it and I’ll bet you find the same.”

Agreed, similar workflow here. Also agree on the “discovery”. There are things that initially really bugged me and then, one day it’s kind of like “oh… that’s how that works… that was easy…”

There are plenty of random little things that bug me, but the list is getting shorter..

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~ My FCPX Babbling blog ~
~”It is a poor craftsman who blames his tools.”~
~”The function you just attempted is not yet implemented”~

[Andy Neil]

[Jason Brown] “I love it in some cases, but in more complex edits I find that my timeline ends up being populated with gaps and all my content is connected.”

That sounds like you’re not really using the magnetic timeline much. I follow William’s second example most often, but one of the things I understand is that my project can maintain flexibility in that regard. I lift and overwrite things to the primary all the time depending on the set of circumstances I’m working with. I also use secondary storylines quite a bit to give me the benefits of the magnetic timeline in a connected clip environment.

And finally, I cannot stress enough the importance of using snapping with FCPX. It’s pretty essential when dealing with regular connected clips.

Andy

https://plus.google.com/u/0/107277729326633563425/videos

[Mark Morache]

I’ve trained myself to try to keep as much in the primary storyline as I can. If I have a 12 second soundbite, and I want to put b-roll over the last 8 seconds, I put the skimmer over the part of the clip where I want the b-roll to start, I select a clip to cover and press Q to connect, then I select the connected clip and drop it down into the primary storyline. Now I can mess with my b-roll in the primary storyline.

Other times instead of connecting b-roll clips, I’ll take the A-roll and place it BELOW the primary storyline. Now I can mess with my b-roll in the primary storyline using the full power of the editing tools FCPX gives me.

It doesn’t make sense to me to connect all of my b-roll shots as separate connected clips. It makes more sense to connect the b-roll as a secondary storyline, however I don’t have the speed tools in the secondary that I have in the primary. I can’t hit I and O to select an in/out in the secondary storyline. I can’t use the D or W, or the X or C keys in the secondary storyline, so I try to keep my editing in the primary. It took a lot of my attention until I got used to it.

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Don’t live your life in a secondary storyline.

Mark Morache
FCPX/FCP7/Xpri/Avid
Evening Magazine,Seattle, WA
https://fcpx.wordpress.com

[Andy Neil]

[Mark Morache] “I can’t use the D or W, or the X or C keys in the secondary storyline, so I try to keep my editing in the primary”

You’re correct about X and C, but you can use Overwrite (D) and Insert (W) quite easily in secondary story lines. Just select the storyline bar and then all the primary edit shortcuts: W, E, D, and even the trim shortcuts (OPT+[ ] ) work. Same with the add gap shortcut (OPT+W).

Andy

https://plus.google.com/u/0/107277729326633563425/videos

[Shay Carriere]

Can I ask, what would be your workflow for a long form edit (like an hour of footage), where you’ve sent an assembly edit to a client and they send notes back referencing the media player timecode?

With FCP7 I would move through the sequence making cuts and then once I had completed the edit, slam everything back together to get rid of gaps.

But with FCPX, once you start making cuts, the magnetic timeline closes gaps, making any timecode references useless.

[Charlie Austin]

[Shay Carriere] “But with FCPX, once you start making cuts, the magnetic timeline closes gaps, making any timecode references useless.”

use the forward delete key, or SHIFT Delete to leave gaps until you’re done trimming…

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~ My FCPX Babbling blog ~
~”It is a poor craftsman who blames his tools.”~
~”The function you just attempted is not yet implemented”~

[Andy Neil]

[Shay Carriere] “Can I ask, what would be your workflow for a long form edit (like an hour of footage), where you’ve sent an assembly edit to a client and they send notes back referencing the media player timecode?”

It’s the same procedure I use in FCP7 or Avid. I use markers to enumerate the spots where edits need to be made. Then I go back through marker to marker making changes. In X I can use the TO DO markers and then use the Timeline index to jump and complete the changes. In fact, because markers are clip based instead of timeline based, I lose my place far less often than I do in either FCP7 or Avid.

Andy

https://plus.google.com/u/0/107277729326633563425/videos

[Robert Gilman]

I will also work “backwards,” starting with the largest timecode in the notes list and working toward the start. That way the changes I make don’t affect the remaining timecodes. Quick and simple.