What’s the best way to cut a music video using Final Cut Pro X?

[Simon Ubsdell]

[Mark Morache] “The programmers didn’t just put it there to appease us. It’s necessary.

I figure that any keyboard shortcut with a single unmodified letter is an important primary function”

I think the other reason I don’t go for the P option that much is that I have an instinctive hatred of Modes, after may years at the Media Composer workface (before they implemented Smart Tools). It harks back to MC’s use of Segment Mode (two flavours!) for the simple act of moving a clip – teeth-achingly annoying!

This more than anything else was what attracted me to FCP in the first place, that you could move something without having to enter a different mode to do so. It’s kinda ironic that the shiny new paradigm of FCPX has required that this notion be reintroduced!!!! Especially since in terms of the Trim tool they have managed to streamline the implementation of Modes quite elegantly.

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

[Simon Ubsdell]

I should also perhaps clarify why I prefer to work with the audio in the primary storyline and use connected clips for the video.

The way I like to work when cutting music promos (and quite a few other things as well) is to stack up multiple choices vertically. From experience I know that a lot of other editors of music promos like to work this way as well so it’s not just me being weird.

Here’s how I’d typically do it in FCPX.

I would likely have a selected edit of each of the camera angles of the band’s/singer’s performance on the lowest “tracks” (apparently these are now called “lanes” according to Apple!) – I might use secondary storylines to keep these more or less organized, putting in gaps or muting sections where I wanted to “see through” to the storyline underneath but I might well not bother with storylines at all and stick with connected clips for this. (The advantage of using them here would be to keep an overall sync relationship so you don’t accidentally nudge a clip out of sync with the music.) Whatever way, it is definitely useful to keep the different camera angles in play so you can dive down and find the close-up that will possibly work better with the overall shape than the wide shot or whatever, rather than have to go back to the rushes and edit it back in.

But for most music promos the performance sync component is not the biggest element at all and this is where connected clips are more attractive to me.

The advantage of using connected clips is their much greater flexibility:

a) you can move them instantly without having to use Position mode (definitely quicker and smoother whichever way you look at it) – the ability to shuffle clips around very quickly is key to efficient and fluid promo editing in my view and I don’t want anything to get in the way of that;

b) you can trim the ends of shots without having to roll the edit points (I find this quicker personally);

c) you can stack up multiple edit choices and easily switch between them using muting (far better than the lousily implemented Audition feature which is way too clunky for this kind of work) – this is a really big plus for me, especially if you’re working with someone else at your shoulder. This way you can instantly try out as many different options as you want without the hassle of undo’s or sync issues or anything else.

There is the disadvantage that you can’t apply transitions to connected clips – yes, in 10.0.1 you can sort of do this but they automatically become secondary storylines which to my mind only replaces one limitation with another. But overall I’d happily live with this limitation in return for all the other benefits I get from working this way.

I also like having my music markers in the primary storyline where they are visually more dominant than if they’re hanging off a connected clip but that’s small thing.

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

[James Bayliss-smith]

[Simon Ubsdell] “you can trim the ends of shots without having to roll the edit points”

Hi guys, great thread. I’m currently editing a music promo. I’ve gone with Simon’s advice and laid down my music track as the primary story line. I started the other way and it threw me because I’m not familiar enough with the magnetic timeline. My only problem is I have now lost the ability to do a roll edit on the connected clips……

……Ok I just worked it out, I made them a storyline.

Previously the first clip in the sequence I put a cross dissolve on (fade from black) That seemed to make it a storyline as well at the time. So now I have two storylines above the primary storyline containing my audio. Can I link these two into one? I cannot roll between them. What is the best workflow? I’d like to fine edit as I go but if I have to keep making all these little storylines that don’t talk to each other very well just to do roll edit’s what’s the point?

Is this an argument to do it the otherway? (i.e. have the music track as a connected clip not the primary storyline)

I love this programme but it keeps throwing me man!

[Simon Ubsdell]

Previously the first clip in the sequence I put a cross dissolve on (fade from black) That seemed to make it a storyline as well at the time. So now I have two storylines above the primary storyline containing my audio. Can I link these two into one? I cannot roll between them. What is the best workflow? I’d like to fine edit as I go but if I have to keep making all these little storylines that don’t talk to each other very well just to do roll edit’s what’s the point?

Not sure quite what you’re describing here – are you talking about subsidiary audio that is not your “primary” music track?

It’s pretty easy to combine the clips from one secondary into another by dragging from one to the other and once they’re in the same storyline you can roll all you want. Would that not work in this case?

I’d have to agree though that secondaries can get a bit messy (and need a lot more development work I think). Oddly you have to be a lot more organized in FCPX than traditionally if you’re going to keep everything tidy and manageable … especially given the limitations of the “transition have to be in storylines” thing.

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

[James Bayliss-smith]

[Simon Ubsdell] “It’s pretty easy to combine the clips from one secondary into another by dragging from one to the other and once they’re in the same storyline you can roll all you want. Would that not work in this case?”

Sorry how do you do this I can’t work it out, Thanks

[James Bayliss-smith]

Okay I got it now but I still don’t understand what you mean by dragging. I need to select the clip and also the secondary story line I want (by selecting the grey bar at the top NOT dragging) I then command G.

All good but…..

So something strange is happening. I have a time line with a music track as the Primary storyline. I then have 10 clips connected to the primary storyline as a connected secondary story line.

Each time I add a clip I am using the range tool to select the bit of music I want to overlay the clip on to then hitting Q to make it a connected clip.

I am then selecting the new clip and the group of clips joined as a secondary storyline and hitting command G to add my new clip to that storyline.

So far so good

But…. on the first clip of the secondary storyline I have a fade from black 3 frames long. Every time I try to add the new clip I just laid, on to that secondary storyline the whole secondary storyline ripples back two frames (not three)

Why is this. If I delete the transition from the beginning then the sequence does not behave this way when I am adding new clips to my secondary storyline.

Is this a bug or my workflow? Am I missing something here? Surely it cannot be the case that you have to wait until the end of the edit to ad transitions for fear of messing up the sync.

Thanks I hope that made sense

[Simon Ubsdell]

Okay I got it now but I still don’t understand what you mean by dragging.

I meant you can easily pick any clip from anywhere and drag it into a secondary storyline – drag and drop.

Each time I add a clip I am using the range tool to select the bit of music I want to overlay the clip on to then hitting Q to make it a connected clip.

You don’t need to select a range in the timeline, just park your playhead where you want the new clip connected and hit Q.

(i>I am then selecting the new clip and the group of clips joined as a secondary storyline and hitting command G to add my new clip to that storyline.

If you do as I suggested and drag instead of trying to use CmdG you will get a more predictable result. When I tried what you describe, the transition gets left behind and a new group gets formed without a transition – which is clearly not what you want. If you just drag the new clip you want to add into the secondary it will work just fine. I don’t think your way of doing it is what Apple have in mind here …

As I say, secondaries need a lot more work.

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

[James Bayliss-smith]

Thanks for your advice but I still can’t add a clip and make it join the end of a secondary storyline once I’ve laid it down to the timeline. Dragging straight down from the browser it will happily join the end of the secondary storyline as you suggest but if I use a connect edit Q then it doesn’t do it. I then have to select all the clips in the secondary storyline (the whole track effectively) then select the new clip and then ‘create storyline’ so I have to use drag and drop if I want to lay clips down in the way you suggest using a secondary storyline. They need a shortcut for ‘connect to secondary storyline’. Any way I will proceed with dragging and dropping.

So to take it back to the original debate about how to cut music videos, would editing the pictures in the main storyline be easier or just learn to drag and drop. I fear this will slow me down

[Simon Ubsdell]

It would be great if you could “connect” to a secondary storyline but you can’t.

What I was imagining you were asking was how to transfer clips that were already on the timeline into an existing secondary storyline.

Unless I’m misunderstanding you it seems you are trying to put everything into a secondary storyline, which kind of defeats the object of this way of working – you might as well be editing in the primary if what you want is the ripple behaviour.

However, I would have thought that generally when cutting a music promo the desired thing would be to not have the events ripple but be working in a way that you could easily shuffle clips around without affecting the overall sync. If I’ve synced a clip to a particular music event I want it to stay there and not get rippled out of place when I add or make changes to clips earlier in the timeline. Hence my recommendation for putting the music track in the primary and then connecting clips to it. Secondaries in this instance should only really be needed for applying transitions (and it would be far preferable in my book if this procedure weren’t a necessity).

As with all editing, there is absolutely no right way or wrong way of doing something – the right way is the way that feels most comfortable for you and your particualr way of working.

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