[James Ewart]

I hear where you are coming from but I just think it’s so much easier to leave the picture there with the audio you want and drop the picture you want on top of it.

And guess what…I think you will prefer the way this works in FCPX with “trackless” editing.

Actually I would have thought the MC editors would prefer X to legacy because it actually is faster and snappier using more shortcuts than I used to and you have a timeline index.

[James Ewart]

“I simply do not see a value in having B-roll in another track. To me it clutters the timeline, taking up valuable screen real estate with more video tracks, while should a change need to be made, it opens up increased likelihood of pieces getting out of line, simple fast trims can still restore the primary footage; basically I see no reason for there to be anything on the timeline that is completely hidden all that can do is lead to confusion further down the road. I will certainly use more than 1 video track if I need to, but keeping footage all in one track allows me to work better.”

Wow having B roll in v1 would be so claustrophobic for me. What do you do about audio under the B roll? Isn’t it simpler to have the associated picture in the timeline with its audio even if you can’t see it?

My perspective is that of an FCP 7 user since version 1.2. I never got my head round Media Composer and found Premiere to be an excellent tool but no better than FCP7. It too me quite a while to get my head round FCPX. I am still learning all the time

I still find the magnetic timeline annoying at times, especially when trimming the front end of a clip. Especially when cutting to music. I think I should be putting the music track into the primary storyline and this annoyance would probably go away. But I find it helpful more than I find it annoying now. Having the ability to “Override Connections” has been essential for me.

Auditions is an amazing tool even for docs although for drama I can see the benefits must be awesome. To be able to show somebody the options and different takes at the click of a button is super fast. Can you do this in MC? Or Premiere? It surely speeds things up but also makes the creative process and shot selection more flexible. Not just about speed. It helps you make the best choices.

I find myself using much fewer video layers with FCPX which has made me better organised and quicker.

Making the titles in the viewer rather than in a separate box is faster and more intuitive as is the real time preview of effects and filters.

Keyword Collections are a super fast way of logging and organising footage. Way faster than traditional bins. For organising and logging footage I can honestly say I could not go back to the old way. Too slow. It would be annoying.

Smart Collections are also a breakthrough. I only use them for compound clips at present but am sure they will have many more uses.

Th ability to skim through clips in the browser is also super fast. Not sure if MC or Premiere lets you do this but certainly way faster than FCP7.

To be able to log and edit immediately without having to wait for footage to be digitised is a massive time saver.

Oh yes and audi trimming for split edits is very smooth. I like the audio being next to the video although this took a while to get used to it’s a lot easier to see where everything is. The audio functionality is wonderful.

[James Ewart]

Okay thanks for that…interesting.

Any performance issues with keeping a bunch of different versions as a compound clip?

[James Ewart]

“Breaking apart the compound clip is essentially the reverse process. It replaces the selected compound clip with copies of the clips inside it. The clips on your timeline no longer have any relationship with the compound clip they came from (which continues to exist in your event library for later use).”

Okay that’s interesting. So when you open the CC in the timeline you are NOT affecting the CC in the browser which remains there?

When you select all and create CC that effectively backs it up.

When I select new CC with the event browser highlighted to create a blank one into which to physically paste the contents of the timeline I create a CC I can delete whereas the other method I still m struggling despite trying Ronny’s method. I think I have confused it so much.

That said I think I’m with Bret!! Project Folder, duplicate project, nice and simple).

My brain clearly cannot quite cope with the concept.

I don’t think I’ve quite got my head around those little left and right arrows above the timeline index.

Thanks chaps.

[James Ewart]

But any changes you make in the broken apart clip will affect the cc in the browser no?

I think better to create a new CC each time and copy and paste timeline contents into it rather than do what I did which was to select all the items in the timeline and then create a CC.

Subtle difference.

I like the concept of keeping different versions as CCs in Event browser but not sure how many you can do before affecting performance as you read about too many CCs slowing things down rather.

[James Ewart]

Doh!

[James Ewart]

That said I think it should give you the choice through the interface rather than what is effectively a workround do you not agree?

However I am getting on famously with FCPX.

My timeline is so much better organised. Simpler, tidier, loving the audio.

[James Ewart]

Many thanks Jeremy.

Trashing the files before output is the bit that was not mentioned I think which caused the confusion.

cheers

[James Ewart]

Gotcha… sorry clearly not paying attention!

[James Ewart]

Thanks for this…does not seem to work for me.

Ideally I would like maybe three keyword collection windows open at the same time…does that work for you?

I do as you say but they do not open as three separate windows so I can view them all at the same time.

Hmmm

regards

James