Poo'dcast

Q: Collapsing to Primary Storyline

I've been looking at how to better fine cut, since you can't trim in more than one place at a time, collapsing seems to be the best way, but I"m getting unexpected results. At first it seems perfect for fine tuning and pacing, but if you have any audio splits on the Connected clips then the vertical relationship is not maintained when you collapse. Also if you don't have a Storyline and just separate connected clips the main audio becomes detached which is hopeless for further refining. I've made 2 short movies to illustrate what I'm trying to achieve. https://www.dropbox.com/s/rudya0fmpcd5zfn/Trimming%20Demo%20Part%202.m4v?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/ew9gj62hj6nqlbu/Trimming%20Demo.m4v?dl=0

Final Cut Pro X, OS X El Capitan (10.11.6), Late 2011 MBPro

Posted on Aug 12, 2016 3:41 AM

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Q: Collapsing to Primary Storyline

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  • by BenB,

    BenB BenB Aug 12, 2016 4:58 AM in response to Poo'dcast
    Level 6 (9,886 points)
    Audio
    Aug 12, 2016 4:58 AM in response to Poo'dcast

    You actually show how to easily do it, then go on to convolute things, overthinking and coming up with odd scenarios.  Why would you have all those clips on top of each other to start with?  You're really over complicating the edit, even in Avid MC.  Learn how FCPX works, and don't try to force it to work like other NLEs.  That will cause you major headaches and waste time.

  • by Poo'dcast,

    Poo'dcast Poo'dcast Aug 12, 2016 5:21 AM in response to BenB
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Video
    Aug 12, 2016 5:21 AM in response to BenB

    Hang on that is not true. I'm not trying to make FCPX work like Avid, I am simply asking "at the fine cut stage how do you trim in the Storyline ie. at my Gap clip, for pace and compensate with your B roll?" Now, since you can't trim on the connections at the same time as the Primary, you have to make further adjustments afterwards, which is actually pretty poor, and why Richard Taylor has this on his list of requested features (number 74: http://fcpx.tv/top.html).

     

    I don't understand what you mean by "clips on top of one another." If you mean audio overlays, or splits, then that is normal, although admittedly contrived in my demo, but it still shouldn't cause problems when you collapse.

     

    The suggestion from someone was to collapse, to the Primary, this seems ideal at first, and gives you complete flexibility to trim on any cutaway and change pace -perfect. But if you have any audio overlap whatsoever, even a single  tail on one of those B roll shots, when you collapse, the vertical relationship changes and the gap closes up. Is that a bug or a feature?

     

    So you tell me how you would do it? Would you collapse? I love FCPX, I have read all the manuals from Peach Pit Press by Brendan Boykin, Mark Spencer, Michael Wohl, have the complete set of Ripple Training tutorials, and have found very little on Collapsing to the Primary. As I say, someone suggested that was what I should do, on the face of it it seems a superb bit of Apple lateral thinking, but I"m getting inconsistent results, why is that?

  • by Tom Wolsky,

    Tom Wolsky Tom Wolsky Aug 12, 2016 5:49 AM in response to Poo'dcast
    Level 10 (118,222 points)
    Apple TV
    Aug 12, 2016 5:49 AM in response to Poo'dcast

    Not a great fan of collapsing as it locks you into an edit with only a lot of hassle to go back if you have to. I prefer to keep B-roll in secondaries. Yes, it would be great to be able to trim both storylines together, but I don't find it onerous to trim them sequentially, usually the primary with the A-roll first, and then immediately followed by trimming the B-roll secondary to match.

  • by Poo'dcast,

    Poo'dcast Poo'dcast Aug 12, 2016 6:02 AM in response to Tom Wolsky
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Video
    Aug 12, 2016 6:02 AM in response to Tom Wolsky

    Thanks Tom, but why does the Gap between the 2 bits of interview change when you have an audio split?

     

    I think if this worked consistently, collapsing at the fine cut stage could be fantastic. Clearly you can't have more than one video clip in the Primary, but if you did want to lift the stuff back out, it's quite straightforward and you'd only have to roll back the Primary vision. The key thing is that nothing becomes detached..... Ah just realised that if you had a cut in your interview, say you'd removed a stammer, then when you collapse, it does indeed become detached, which is hopeless. So yes you're right, collapsing is not good. So 2 lots of trimming is what you have to to do. There's definitely room for improvement here!

     

    Many thanks for helping me out without the patronising nonsense I got from Ben. I think it's a genuine concern, and even if Apple aren't aiming this product at Broadcast professionals I am and this needs to work better than it does currently. The best way currently is to trim sequentially.