Cross Dissolves less than 3 frames?

Currently I'm working on a project where the cuts highly depend on the music. As the frame rate is 24 I have a max picture resolution of 1/24 of a second. This aint always precise enough to the place the cuts in a musically way, - cuts might come a little too early or a little too late.
Years ago when I made my living as a director in a more analog world, we often used "soft clips" to deal whit these situations and by "soft clips" I mean cross dissolves of 1 or 2 frames. In FCPX it seems that the shortest cross dissolve is 3 frames.
Am I missing something here or is there a work around?

I'll assume the limitation is because technically you can't cross dissolve less than 3 frames. 1 frame must exist for each clip on each side of the edit point, one frame must be the in-between frame. That's physics. If you simply want to fade a single slip out in 1 or 2 frames, you'd have to keyframe it, and it will be barely detectable using only 2 frames. If you wanted only 1 frame, that's not a fade, since the first frame is keyframes at 100% opacity, the next at 0%, that's a simple cut, not a fade.

Yes, I can see that.
To my knowledge a single frame consist of two fields? These might have been in play in the "soft clips". But maybe fields are not accessible in FCPX?

Hey Frits,

In the analog interlaced world we indeed could create a 1-frame dissolve, which actually was a 2-field soft cut. In the digital era you need at least 2 frames, one on both sides of the video cut, to create a video transition. But, as you have noticed, the default transitions in FCP X have a minimum length of 3 frames and you cannot modify it in Motion.

But can you create a soft cut between video clips? Yes.

Put clip 2 above clip 1, make sure the overlap is 2 frames.
Select Clip 2 and press CTRL+V to show the video animation window.
Drag the Opacity handle in the window to create an opacity ramp.
Play the clips. You will see a 1-frame soft cut between them.



Mind you, this will do nothing to the cut coming early or late with respect to your audio. Video editing is always frame-based while audio can be edited at sample level.

- Ronny

Thanks, Ronnie. When I get to finetuning the project, I will certainly try what you just described.
I'm totally aware that the timing of the clip is not altered as such. You just get a visual sense of the clip not being "thrown in your face" and in my book this blurs the imperfections in timing, which sometimes occur when editing to music.
I might be an oversensitive perfectionist, but as being a musician too, unmusical cuts drives me crazy.

I'm a composer, and have done lots of music videos. My question is, what is an "unmusical cut" exactly?

In most cases I find editing too close to the beat not very artistic (IMHO!)... you really need to get some human emotional feel involved, just like all the best musicians do. Often using multicam I do it in realtime or tap in markers on the fly to find a good edit points... using a lot of intuition. :silly:

( FWIW - I've edited many music videos but also compose music and was a pro drummer for 20 years before I got sucked into the post production caves... I'm a cat and have had many lives.)

I've always edited music videos 30fps or 60fps, I'm not a fan of 24fps video, personal taste. Though I've cut 24fps for music enough. I've never had issues cutting with the music where I needed to. So this is a very interesting dilemma.

bluefonia wrote: …but as being a musician too, unmusical cuts drives me crazy.

… but movie editing is way beyond 'mechanics'!
You probably have seen invisible cuts (wot??), technical term "découpage classique“".

Or, simple: continuity.

Even when your music is made to fit by 1/1000th of a sec precisely into the 24/25/30fps scheme of a movie, a non-continuity shot could feel 'unmusical', not 'on the beat' ...

Or, vice versa, an especially 'un-musical', off-beat, 'Blue Note'-cut could fit perfectly to music, set an accent, add drama, tension, relieve, whatever... I love the suggested method, 'tapping' markers first, then use them as a rough guideline, where to edit.

That's the problem with modern post-production techniques: the infamous "we fix it in the post!"-attitude. No, before shooting, you have to imagine your done movie! Only then, you can record the pics needed for an excellent edit.

… long time ago, for education purposes, I saw the following task:
edit plain black and plain white frames to music; II. task, you're allowed to apply 4 red frames... => just switching every 24 frames the color would be complete nonsense, even if the music would have exact 24/48/96/192 bpm ....

depart from the idea, editing frames is independent from the content of the frames...

other thoughts...

the 'L-cut'... we don't even always edit sound on the same frame with simple dramas with no music.

you see lightning before hearing thunder... etc..

when bands play everything in perfect unison it's either electronic or jazz fusion.. both are 'often' (not always!) complete bores. :whistle:

freeform wrote: other thoughts...
the 'L-cut'... …you see lightning before hearing thunder... etc..
…

Excellent observation!

I dare to say: nothing in real life's perception is 'in synch':
the moment of "oops!" before the glas hits the floor.
the eternity before lips touches first time.
the joy when the foot steps onto the banana peel.
the pain when the hammer hit the finger …
…

BenB wrote: I'm a composer, and have done lots of music videos. My question is, what is an "unmusical cut" exactly?

Like in a piece of music where the drummer hits the snare too late or early

Otherwise I think freeform said it in a fine way here:

freeform wrote: In most cases I find editing too close to the beat not very artistic (IMHO!)... you really need to get some human emotional feel involved, just like all the best musicians do. Often using multicam I do it in realtime or tap in markers on the fly to find a good edit points... using a lot of intuition. :silly:
)

Karsten Schlüter wrote: … but movie editing is way beyond 'mechanics'!
You probably have seen invisible cuts (wot??), technical term "découpage classique“".

Or, simple: continuity.

Even when your music is made to fit by 1/1000th of a sec precisely into the 24/25/30fps scheme of a movie, a non-continuity shot could feel 'unmusical', not 'on the beat' ...

This is true. But sometimes in documentary/run and gun you can´t plan for/execute exact continuity. Also all of my footage is handheld, which can lead to more camera shaking than desirable in sections of a shot . All in all this may restrict you to use only a certain part of the footage and this might not always be 100% perfect for continuity .
But also In these cases is it an indispensable feature being able to make "soft cuts", which often can mask a not too perfect continuity cut.

Music allows for a LOT of wiggle room, there are too many artistic opportunities editing to music to end up in something so restrictive.

BenB wrote: Music allows for a LOT of wiggle room, there are too many artistic opportunities editing to music to end up in something so restrictive.

Hi Ben
I´m afraid I don't understand what you mean by "so restrictive" in this context. I thought I was the one seeking for more flexibility/freedom in the edit process