Legacy editing with FCP X

Question

Level 1

8 points

Legacy editing with FCP X

I have the dailies for a feature and they have all been put into long single clips containing all the Scenes, Shots and takes that were recorded each day. I am now using FCP X, but have not figured out how to break up each long clip into their corresponding Scenes, Shots, and takes. In other words, I would like to create legacy bins for each scene and all its takes. Since some scenes were sot across several days, It would be great to separate all the scenes/shots into their own bins or folders. Has someone dealt with this issue in FCX? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.3)

Posted on Apr 30, 2015 11:17 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Apr 30, 2015 11:47 AM in response to Lumistu60

You need to learn about keywords. You can do what you used to with bins and a lot more that you couldn't.

You can add as many keywords as you want to as many clips or parts of clips that you want. For every keyword a keyword collection is automatically created. These will be your "bins". But these are only metadata, so the same clip can be in several keyword collections. It may be confusing at first, but it takes media management to a new and superior level.

Reply

Answer 2

Lumistu60 Author

Level 1

8 points

Apr 30, 2015 12:15 PM in response to Luis Sequeira1

Thank you for your quick response, Luis. I am assuming that I should then organise my dailies the following way:

1st Day Shoot = Event

Scene 1 = Keyword

Scene 1 Take 1 = Keyword

Scene 1 Take 2 = Keyword

Does this make any sense? Is there a website/article/book that explains this in more detail? I am sure that other people who are editing features in FCP X are facing the same dilemma.

Thank you very much for your advice!

Reply

Answer 3

Apr 30, 2015 1:09 PM in response to Lumistu60

The, erm, key word in Louis's reply was "confusing." Your keywords are more like simple clip names. You might have separate events for each of your scenes. Dailies will have clip names, surely, but keywords are more like your old style FCP7 bins. For instance, to organize a day's shooting, I'd be using keywords such as Good, No Good, and Best.

Reply

Answer 4

Apr 30, 2015 1:19 PM in response to David Bogie Chq-1

David, it seems you did not notice the OP saying each daily has been put in a single long clip.

So this long clip contains many scenes, many takes. You can't give multiple names to this same clip...

Keywords are what he needs. How he chooses them is the crux of the matter, I think.

Reply

Answer 5

Lumistu60 Author

Level 1

8 points

May 1, 2015 6:59 PM in response to Luis Sequeira1

I guess tagging each section of the long clip that contains a Scene number and a shot number with a keyword is the way to go. I wish I could find a reference as to how someone else has done this.... I´m sure several features have been edited on FCP X by now, but for the life of me I have not found an article, book or video that explains how to break down all the dailes in a single clip into separate Scenes and shots, and an efficient workflow to do this.

Reply

Answer 6

May 1, 2015 10:49 PM in response to Lumistu60

Lumistu60 wrote:

… wish I could find a reference as to how someone else has done this....

the title is hilarious, but the video shares excellent insights

Log like a Ninja in Final Cut Pro X with Michael Garber

Reply

Answer 7

Lumistu60 Author

Level 1

8 points

May 2, 2015 5:51 PM in response to Karsten Schlüter

Thank you for sharing the video. It is not quite what I need to figure out but it has some good tips.

Cheers,

Tony

Reply

Answer 8

May 4, 2015 8:26 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

That's just nuts, but, yes, I missed that because I couldn't believe he actually was handed a project that way.

Thanks for the correction.

I'd go to Favorites to break up these über clips into individual items. Apply keywords to the individual clips.

Reply

Answer 9

May 4, 2015 8:45 AM in response to Lumistu60

Lumistu60 wrote:

... It is not quite what I need to figure out but it has some good tips....

Yeah, I don't edit TV-series either ... 😉

But, pushed to the extreme, it shows how 'mighty' those flexible tags are, esp. compared to 'drawers' ...

Reply