length of projects

I do a lot of long form documentary work with lots of photos and when I used fcp7 I would typically break my films into multiple sequences - usually four or five - because I found it was easier to edit and played back more reliably. I would then combine my sequences and export them as a single QT file.

I've carried that over to fcpx and have encountered rendering issues. When I go to put all the projects together on one timeline for final export, the copied files lose their renders (I tried making them compound clips first and it didn't make any difference). I wind up exporting each project as a QT file and then reimporting them into a larger project which I then export as a single QT movie.

My question is - is this a dumb way to do this? I fall into certain patterns of editing that have always worked for me but aren't always the right way to work. How do other people handle longer projects? Thanks.

Renders are just like in 7, they are Timeline (or Sequence) specific. Nothing has changed there.

Why are you exporting to QT? Make new, empty Compound Clips in the Event Browser. Name them Scene 1, Scene 2, etc. Create a Smart Collection to make them easy to access. Edit each one. When done, drop them into a Project timeline to assemble them for output.

Then just export, you don't even have to render. It's actually faster to just export rather than rendering in the timeline. And most of the time, playback is smooth enough without rendering.

Most of us keep background rendering turned off.

No need to export to QT's, then re-import, waste of time, gains you nothing.

Also, make sure your timeline settings match the clips your dropping in them for less rendering anyway.

Wow. OK, now I get this.

So for the piece I'm working on now, I've divided it into four scenes as compound clips in the browser. I then give a keyword to each as scene 1, 2, 3 & 4 with that day's date. At the start of each day's edit, I make a duplicate cc for each scene with the new date and make a keyword for those cc's with that day's date. I guess I could then make a smart collection with all those versions, but I'm not sure what that does for me.

I wouldn't then even need to start a project until I'm ready to export. Is that more or less what you're talking about? thx

Not keywords, Smart Collection.
Text Includes Scene
Clip Type Is Compound

I'd even cut each hour into sections.