[Nick Meyers]

sorry, andi,
i haven’t done much media managing in FCP7.

i did MM a 90 minute show a few months ago,
and it came out fine
but i simply cant remember if i had my non-speed-modified safety copies in the timeline or not.
chances are i did.
also, we only had simple speed mods. no ramping.

nick

[Nick Meyers]

FCP has traditionally had problems media managing speed-modified clips.
in my recent experience it’s pretty well behaved.
(i don’t do this a lot, mind you.)

in the past i found a solution was to go thru my timeline before media managing,
match-frame the speed mod clips into the viewer, and edit them back into a dedicated track above the rest with visibility turned off.
these clips would have no speed mod on them.
in those days the errors could be quite large, so my thinking was i could re-build the shot if necessary,
but just having the unaffected clips in the timeline seemed to make the Media Managed version come out ok

i rarely speed shots up, so i don’t know if they would behave differently to the slowed down shots i had.

as you’ve already got an MM’d version of your timeline it might be a drag to have to do all that again.
the simplest solution would be to just go thru the media managed timeline and slip the problem clips to correct them.
that’s assuming you have handles, of course.

nick

[Nick Meyers]

most likely you CANT reconnect the existing file to the new ones.

things that need to line up so you CAN reconnect:

– file names need to be the same (you can get by with them not being the same, but you have to reconnect each file manually)
– Timecode and Reel# should be the same. again you can force this, and while reel# is not a killer, if the TC is wrong, nothing will match up, will it?
– duration’s of clips/ files should be the same.
if they are slightly different it shouldn’t be a big deal.
– Number of tracks needs to be the same, so if you original files were Video only, and the new files are video and audio, then they wont reconnect.
there is no way to force this in FCP.

of course you don’t have to actually RE-CUT the piece,
just use the replace edit to manually replace the old with the new.

OR check out FCP Reconnect from Video Toolshed
https://www.videotoolshed.com/product/41/fcpreconnect
this will reconnect files to clips based purely on Timecode and reel, circumventing the file name.
not sure if it can handle the track issue, but Bouke, the developer, could have some tricks in that department.

cheers,
nick

[Nick Meyers]

yes, it simply pushes ALL the later timeline events “down-stream”,
clip AND gaps.

you should make a COPY of the sequence before you start messing with it again!

nick

[Nick Meyers]

a little hard to visualise exactly without seeing it, but i think i get the idea.

i thought maybe you had large areas of “air” around your building blocks, but maybe you haven’t?
you probably just need to create gaps, either before or after you paste.

one very simple method is to use the TRACK tool.
that’s the forward pointing arrow in the tool bar,
or just hit T for track

this will select all clips forward from where you click, on the track you click in
if you hold SHIFT while you click, you select all clips forward on all tracks.
it can get a little tricky with long overlaps.
remember holding APPLE while you click means you can hunt and pick your tracks and the start points where you grab them.

so make a true gap, with space available on ALL tracks before you paste.
after you paste, you can use the track tool again to shorten or lengthen the remaining gaps,
but if you are shortening them, you may need to bump the audio down to new tracks so you dont overwrite existing audio clips

the other method is to use the RIPPLE tool, which offers more control, but i think track tool will be easier in the short term.

FWIW:
if you have placed special markers on the timeline, the ripple tool, and using ripple paste & delete, will move the markers accordingly, (in FCP7 and up)
The track tool wont.

hope that helps,
nick

[Nick Meyers]

try using ripple delete, and ripple paste commands.

SHIFT X will cut the selected block and copy it into the clipboard, and at the same time remove the gap left behind.
SHIFT V will do a ripple, or insert, paste, inserting this block between other blocks.

this means you don’t over-write your other blocks.

when you have everything in the right order it should be simpler to tidy up the blocks & overlaps,
by moving the audio to new tracks.

nick

[Nick Meyers]

generally you copy them into a new bin in the browser,
and they become your new editing master clips.

cheers,
nick

[Nick Meyers]

yeah, you cant slide multiple clips in FCP lie you can in Avid.
what happens is always really weird.
i cant even figure out what it’s trying to do!

if you want to work like that, best way so to drag the range of clips up to V2,
extend the ends of the clips on V1, and just NUDGE the V2 clips as a group.

nick

[Nick Meyers]

“Anyone know of any trick”

a few:

– NAME your CLIPS effectively
don’t put CAM1 at the end of the name, put it at the beginning, so when you are zoomed out you can still see it.
in fact drop the CAM!
last time i did a big multi-cam multi-track concert project we had a reel# system that would ID the night of the performance and the camera,
so reel 243 was night 2, camera 4 tape 3.
that number went on the front of all clip names from that reel,
and i could spot it a mile away.

– add a “Label ” clip
add a decent sized chunk of text generator, or slug at the start of each track and label it appropriately.
yes, you can only see it by zooming out (shift z) then back in,
or jumping to the head of the timeline, then back,
but better than nothing.

– use color coding on groups of clips
i also did this on the concert film to help differentiate between various nights’ footage.

– use locked tracks to help create clear divisions
i do this on audio tracks o help me distinguish between dialogue, effects, and music tracks.
i really only do it when i am finished cutting and am preparing handovers.
for audio i use a pair of locked tracks so i keep the traditional “odd/even = left/right” layout.

nick

[Nick Meyers]

no, you cant copy & paste markers, sorry.

however, since FCP7, you can ad markers to a multiclip and they will stay.

nick