Is there a recommended "best" workflow for editing a feature length film in FCP?

Question

Level 1

8 points

Is there a recommended "best" workflow for editing a feature length film in FCP?

I edited a feature-length project in the mid-2000s in FCP 6. As I recall, each scene was edited into its own sequence (what is now called a "project"). The scenes were then all put together in a master sequence of the entire film. I believe this was called a "nested sequence."

Is there anything similar to a nested sequence in FCPX? If not, does anyone have a recommended workflow? In my current film project, I have already edited many of the scenes into their own project, all within a single library. To get a sense of the flow of the story, I copied each of the scene projects and made them into compound clips. I then put all of the compound clips into a "rough cut" project. This worked for an initial viewing. Now I have gone back to doing more fine editing on each of the scenes -- not in the "rough cut" project, but in the individual scene projects.

I know I could just put all of the footage into a single project of the entire film, but I think it would be cumbersome and I would lose the ability to easily shift scenes around. Is the answer to use the "rough cut" project and to open each compound clip scene when I work on it and then change it back into a compound clip afterwards? (I have not done a lot of work with compound clips and I'm just learning how they work.)

Thank you very much for any help or suggestions.

MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 12.2

Posted on Jan 27, 2023 6:45 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Luis Sequeira1

Level 9

67,594 points

Jan 28, 2023 2:26 AM in response to eric3321

Using compound clips, exactly as you described, is the closest thing to a nested sequence in legacy FCP.

An alternative is to export a master file of each subsequence, and import that back (using Leave in Place). It works great too. It has the advantage of the final export being simpler, as everything has been rendered out. It uses more drive space.

The former method leaves everything editable even the final project.

FWIW, I export the partial sequences, but I do not work with feature films. My productions are shorter and composed of separate sketches.

Reply

Answer 2

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

152,015 points

Jan 28, 2023 3:18 AM in response to eric3321

Once you’ve edited the compounds into the master project, rather than going back to the original scene projects go into the compound. You can open them either from directly inside the master project by double clicking them ot from the browser. They’re recursive. The only thing is when you make changes to the length of the compound the length will have to me tweaked inside the master project.

Reply

Answer 3

eric3321 Author

Level 1

8 points

Jan 28, 2023 8:47 AM in response to Tom Wolsky

Thank you very much for your help, Luis and Tom. I’ve learned a lot from both of you over the years in reading your responses to others in this and other forums. Always incredible information from both of you.

After I saw Luis’s response confirming the compound clip option, I started to experiment with a test scene that I also copy and pasted as a compound clip into the rough edit of the film. I clicked on the compound clip within that timeline and opened it up to experiment with editing it there — I still had the memory of this workflow from Legacy FCP. I was confused when a black section appeared in that timeline. Then I saw Tom’s response which confirmed this is normal behavior. In the main sequence you seem to drag to get rid of black space, or drag the other way to reveal the clip if you have changed the timing to the sub-sequence.

One thing I haven’t figured out is exactly the relationship between the compound clip and the original scene project. I will plan on using Tom’s workflow of editing the scenes by double clicking on the compound. I am wondering if edits made here will also be reflected in the original scene projects. Is the compoud clip a new clip independent of the project or are they forever connected? There might be an occasion when I wanted to do an in-depth restructure of a scene, and would prefer not to open it from the master timeline. But my suspicion is that changes made in the original project would not affect the compound that is in the master project. If I did restructure something from the original project I assume I would then make a new compound of that project and replace the previous version of the scene in the master project.

One other thing I think I will do in order to stay organized and make sure I don’t edit a scene in the wrong place and end up with two conflicting versions: instead of just having one event for all of the scene projects, I will create two. One will be called something like “Scenes Moved to Master Project - Do Not Touch” and the other one something like “Scenes to Edit - Not Yet Moved to Master.”

Thank you very much.

Best,

Eric Thal

Reply

Answer 4

eric3321 Author

Level 1

8 points

Jan 28, 2023 8:50 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

Thank you very much for your help, Luis and Tom. I’ve learned a lot from both of you over the years in reading your responses to others in this and other forums. Always incredible information from both of you.

After I saw Luis’s response confirming the compound clip option, I started to experiment with a test scene that I also copy and pasted as a compound clip into the rough edit of the film. I clicked on the compound clip within that timeline and opened it up to experiment with editing it there — I still had the memory of this workflow from Legacy FCP. I was confused when a black section appeared in that timeline. Then I saw Tom’s response which confirmed this is normal behavior. In the main sequence you seem to drag to get rid of black space, or drag the other way to reveal the clip if you have changed the timing to the sub-sequence.

One thing I haven’t figured out is exactly the relationship between the compound clip and the original scene project. I will plan on using Tom’s workflow of editing the scenes by double clicking on the compound. I am wondering if edits made here will also be reflected in the original scene projects. Is the compoud clip a new clip independent of the project or are they forever connected? There might be an occasion when I wanted to do an in-depth restructure of a scene, and would prefer not to open it from the master timeline. But my suspicion is that changes made in the original project would not affect the compound that is in the master project. If I did restructure something from the original project I assume I would then make a new compound of that project and replace the previous version of the scene in the master project.

One other thing I think I will do in order to stay organized and make sure I don’t edit a scene in the wrong place and end up with two conflicting versions: instead of just having one event for all of the scene projects, I will create two. One will be called something like “Scenes Moved to Master Project - Do Not Touch” and the other one something like “Scenes to Edit - Not Yet Moved to Master.”

Thank you very much.

Best,

Eric Thal

Reply

Answer 5

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

152,015 points

Jan 28, 2023 9:04 AM in response to eric3321

"One thing I haven’t figured out is exactly the relationship between the compound clip and the original scene project."

There isn't any. The compound in the browser and the in the master project are the same item. No changes in the original scene project will change anything in the compound.

"If I did restructure something from the original project I assume I would then make a new compound of that project and replace the previous version of the scene in the master project."

Yes. Once you make the compound of the re-edited scene project you can simply drag the new compound into the master project and use the replace function to remove the old version.

It's common for editors to make an event for each scene and keep the scene project and the media for the the scene in that event. Some editors like to work with multiple project versions, some as version duplicates and others as snapshots. Otherwise keep one scene project and maybe a few snapshots.

Reply

Answer 6

eric3321 Author

Level 1

8 points

Jan 28, 2023 9:21 AM in response to Tom Wolsky

Thank you very much, Tom. Once again, a huge help. I'll look into experimenting with scene-specific events. That seems closest to what I would do with Legacy FCP. I have used snapshots in other apps, but not in FCP. That might be a great archiving system. Thank you for the suggestions.

Reply

Is there a recommended "best" workflow for editing a feature length film in FCP?

Similar questions