timeline-integration; skateboardvideo

Hi guys!
Well, that´s quite a topic for me - fcpx surprises me again and again with its wonderful failures... :evil:

At the moment I´m working for a skateboard-video, using fcpx, version 10.0 (on a macbookpro, 2009).
As You may know, such a video consists of different parts, that are arranged one after another. each part normally represents a skateboarder.

When I started the project I wanted to put all parts in one timeline - separated through gaps - to have a good overview over my project and to be flexible in creating transitions between the parts or simply to arrange the parts in a particular order.
The last I did yesterday - I had 2 finished parts (let´s call it "Alex" and "Peter"). I wanted to put Peter (which was at first after Alex) BEFORE Alex´s part. So I selected the complete footage of Peter by creating a rectangle with my mouse and put it before Alex.

The ****ing consequence of this action was, that suddenly the 5 or 6 cross fadings I put into Peter´s part began to render. I checked the footage and was horrified: the music I tuned painfully for Peter´s part was no longer on point! I checked the fadings and realized, that the cross fadings caused, that the clips before and after the fading "slipped away" from each other - no wonder, that the music was no longer on point.
In addition, the "undo-button" was no use at all.

* So there´s my first question:
Why at all fcpx makes such shit? What´s the reason? I mean, Pete´s part is fucked up! This is madness.
So, why, from the "technical" view, fcpx makes this kind of trouble? That´s conterminous to viciousness.


Fortunately I´m not careless - some weeks before I created a separate project to "safe" Peter´s part: I just duplicated my "all-parts-in-one-timeline" and deleted all parts except Peter´s. Then I renamed the duplicated project to "Peter". The same I did with the other 3 completed parts.

Ok, whuh. Game saved!

But the problem is still there, and this is my second and last question:
* How do I integrate those parts (all of them are an own project with an own timeline now) into 1 timeline/one project?
As You heard, I want to be flexible and create transitions, etc. between the parts. Besides, I don´t want any struggle with Compressor or any DVD-maker-program. I just want all my parts into one timeline/project! And I don´t want to have any fear when I´m in the final stage of the working process, where I´ll arrange the parts and try out several orders.
I had one idea, namely to create a single clip out of the bunch of sequences, transitions, music, etc. to prevent the part from "collapsing". The problem of this strategy is just, that after creating a single clip I can´t do any changes any more inside the part.

So, the best solution for me could be like this: When I start to cut a new Part I create a new project. When all parts of the video are finished, I "take" all parts and unite them to 1 project, 1 timeline. Consequently I´m able to try things and arrangements out and even master video and audio, without having fear, that the whole skateboardvideo-project is getting a mess.


What recommendations/strategies do You have for my situation?
I appreciate any constructive comment.


Thx and greetz from Vienna,

Paulus

The first thing I would suggest if you are having trouble moving the segments around in the timeline is to select each segment and put them into their own compound clip. Then you can edit them in their individual compound clips and bring each compound clip into one project to make the transitions from one to another. If you then need to do more complex transitions you can select the compound clip that is in a project timeline and Break Apart Clip Items from the Clip menu. This would be the most careful way to do it and your compound clips still exist even after you break apart the clip items so you can still go back if you mess something up after that.

The best way to make sure that you are moving transitions around properly is to move items by storyline (the black bar that appears above any clips that have a transition applied and are not on the primary storyline). For some reason storylines are not selected when you just click/drag to select, this is frustrating when you don't do it, but when you do, it's quite helpful.
You can hold down command and select multiple storylines to get the same effect you would if you just click/drag to select everything.

ok, let´s try this out - thanks for the suggestion!
and besides that, do you know any way to copy footage from one project to another? i just know how to copy footage inside a project but not beetween 2 projects...

thx, P

FCPX 10.0.0 is not something you should be using, there have been 11 updates since then that make it a much much better program. Why are you still using the very first version?

Hi Paulus,

If you use 10.1 (and hopefully not FCPX 10.0) let me reassure you: this is a known issue.

We have been all over this problem (and some other nasty ones) during the past month and we have sent videos and even entire drives with projects to Apple to help them solve things.

The specific problem you report is the strangest one. Putting the edits in a compound clip won't help, we have tried this. In fact there is no easy solution except to check all transitions between your clips before moving or copy/pasting them. You probably will find that there's a "magical" gap between the clips under one or more transitions, causing every edit after the transition to get messed up when you move or copy/paste the sequence with the gaps. Once you manually close the gap under a problematic transition the problem is solved and you can safely move or copy/paste the sequence. At the end of this post you will find a video explaining how you can proceed.

Also be extremely careful when you copy/paste clips that have adjacent audio clips attached to them: the audio clips in the pasted sequence will often be one frame shorter that the original ones. This issue has driven us nuts because it makes joining different sequences totally unreliable. In this case creating a CC will allow you to copy/paste without missing frames, but it's a workaround and not a solution.

The FCPX team has been listening very carefully and I'm sure they will come up with a permanent fix for these quirks and for some other issues with 10.1 and 10.1.1 we have been reporting. Here's the link to a couple of videos I have made about some of these bugs, including possible causes and workarounds:

"Magical gaps" issue:

vimeo.com/88327404

Audio paste issue:

vimeo.com/88327406

J-cut issue:

vimeo.com/88327405


-Ronny