Is there a way in fcpx to keep timeline clean for just one scene at a time ?

I use compound clips for that very purpose. Actually, I think it makes a lot of sense when your project is naturally divided into parts - make each part a compound clip, edit those, then put them all together as a project. (In fact, since my project is made of these discrete parts, I don't even create a project until the late stages when I'm finishing up).

What is it that you find you can't make work this way?

You can't really make the clips "disappear" completely, but you can go a long way to making the workspace more pliable.

Open the Timeline index (2nd icon, bottom left of FCPX) and click the Roles tab. To the right of each role is a small icon.

["normal" timeline view... thumbnails, audio waveforms, etc..]

Clicking on those icons will "minimize" the onscreen information (turn off the thumbnails and audio waves, etc) creating "blank" placeholders.

[Video and Dialogue "minimized"]

You can go one step further and select the clips you want to turn off and type V to toggle their "visibility" (this will eliminate anything from those clips from showing up in the canvas -- it will just be "black" and silent until toggled back on — *and* it will dim the clips further [see next image]).

You can then Assign a custom Role (go to Modify > Edit Roles) and create new custom Video role (and possibly audio too, if you need to isolate waveforms and have them show in your workspace). For the clips you want to work with immediately, select them all and Assign Roles > whatever name you used. In the illustration below, I used "Under Construction". (You can also toggle the canvas visibility of the clips off by *unchecking* the role in the Roles inspector.)

At the right side of the image, you'll see a normal looking clip amongst the "blanked out" clips on the storyline — it was assigned the role "Under Contruction" and its setting overrides the default Video settings. This technique should help you adequately isolate your "working scenes". When you've done, you can either create another role ("finished") or revert the roles back to the plain Video and/or Audio (Dialogue) default roles. (Remember to select and type V again to turn their visibilities back on.)

HTH

Mudh Mark wrote:

Luis what are these lined grey areas between which this excluded compound clip is sandwiched? .....

/ looping can't be used,

Ok is it so that if we have to make the clip a little longer we cannot add in the lined grey area....we will have to go in the parent time line ....break the compound clip apart.....add additional shot ......again make it a compound clip and again open it....but additional shot cannot be added in opened compound clip....right ?

No, it is simpler and much more flexible than that. The lined grey areas indicate they will not be seen in the project timeline as it is now. Think about it: suppose your compound clip is 1 minute long and you start adding stuff to it in its own timeline, and make it, say, 2 minutes long. Note the second minute will be in this lined grey area.

Now go back to the project timeline. You CC will still be 1 minute, but if you drag the extremity you will reveal that is is all there.

The converse also works: if you have CC in the project timeline and trim it, to make it shorter, then when you open the CC timeline you'll see that nothing was lost; the trimmed part will appear in a lined grey area also.

You can use and reuse your clips (compound or not) as many times as you want. There is no loss of quality, as they are referencing the same media, as you say.

There should be no problem whether you use proxys or not.

One important matter that I must point out: when you place the same compound clip in several projects (or several times in the same project, for that matter) all of these link back to the same compound clip in your event library. Any changes you make to one of these will in effect change all occurrences. This is sometimes desirable, sometimes not; but it is something one must be careful with. So, for example, if your compound clip has a title in it and you drag to a second project and change the words in that title, or anything else, the previous project will be altered too. If this is not what you want, you need to control-click on the copy in the project timeline and choose "Reference New Parent Clip" - this will create a new "parent" clip in the event library, in effect decoupling this instance in the timeline from the other ones.

Here is an article that explains this a little bit:

http://www.macprovideo.com/hub/final-cut/comprehending-compound-clips-in-final-c ut-pro-x

Mudh Mark wrote:

Ok but I hope this changing of one clip that changes all doesn't apply to various projects duplicated as folders at various stages.....?

I am afraid it will. You'll have to be careful to do "Reference New Parent Clip" before you apply any changes that you don't intend to be applied to the other instances of the compound clip.

Mudh Mark wrote:

control-click on the copy in the project timeline and choose "Reference New Parent Clip" ???

1) Where and how do you get this ?? I have tried control clicking on the clip as well as the new timeline etc couldn't see this....

Sorry, my bad. I didn't have FCP running when I wrote that.

It is not there in the contextual menu. It is in the Clip menu in the menu bar.

Select the compound clip, and go to Clip->Reference New Parent Clip

2) As other members told me on my previous question that if you want to make several stagewise copies of a project by duplicating you can keep naming them and they will form differrent folder in FINAL CUT PROJECT folder and then if you want to go back you can just go back to any folder.....and go back in time and progress stage of your project but as you are saying it would be a blunder to see that all the work done later and saved in another folder within the same project folder would also be changed and updating.......but nobody mentioned it....

You can and should do that - but any compound clip in that project will reflect the changes you make to it, unless you specifically reference a new parent. That is the way compound clips work since 10.0.6. Think of each occurrence of a CC in a project as a reference, or pointer, to the "master" CC in the event browser. Changes in any suceh occurrence reference and change the same master to which all other occurrences are pointing to.

What version are you using? Compound clips behave this way in 10.0.6 and 10.0.7. In earlier versions they worked as separate copies, and therefore there was no such menu.

It is a sound choice to stay with the same version until you finish the project.

You can use compound clips in 10.0.4.

There are two main differences:

1- different versions of a compound clip are copies, not references; so if you drag a compound clip to two different timelines, or to two places in the same timeline, then any change you make to one of them will NOT be reflected on the other. This appears to be something you desired...

2-compound clips created in a project timeline do not appear in any event; whereas you can also create a compound clip in the event browser, by selecting an event, or one or more clips in an event and choosing "New Compound Clip". (If nothing is selected, an empty compound clip is created; if some clips are selected, they will be part of the new compound clip).

You can use either form of a compound clip. I have used compounds in the event browser in versions prior to 10.0.6, as I described in previous posts, so to answer your question directly, you can achieve that in 10.0.4 just like I described.