Organising large no. of sequences

[Leonie Reynolds]

I'm editing a doco on FCP 6. I have a huge amount of footage and I'd like to assemble footage from each tape in a different sequence. What will happen once my sequences' tabs start crowding each other at the top of the timeline window? What's the best way of organising large numbers of sequences? Sorry if this is a really basic question but can't figure it out!

[Mike Chandler]

When you're through editing a sequence, close the tab. You only need to keep open what you're actively working on.

[Jonathan Levin]

Leonie,

What I do is this: Let's say you have four people to interview just as an example. In your FC project, first create a bin for each of the four people. I just use their real names.

Before you import your original camera footage, set the capture folder(bin) to correspond with the person's whose video you are importing. If you right click on the bin/folder in the browser, you should see "Set Capture Folder" or something like that. Upon import, your clips for that person will all be placed in there. (Although in the Capture Scratch, all clips will be placed in one folder that is the name of your project.) Don't forget to title the imported video when prompted.

So you've done this with all four interviews, and you now have four bins with each persons imported and properly identified clips.

Time to make four sequences. Again each sequence I name with the persons name.

Add all clips from corresponding bins to those newly created sequences. I do not edit from these sequences, but I will cut anything I obviously don't want: shots of ceiling, my feet, whatever. But that's it. A very ROUGH edit.

I then create another sequence that I call "Selections" or "Selected passages". This is what i refer to as my working palette.

I usually create a sequence that I use just for titles, called (surprise) "Titles". And another for "B Roll"

I go through each interview and when I find something from the very rough edited interview sequence, I use the Range Tool in FC to select the part(s) of the interview, copy and then paste that into the palette, "Selections" or "Selected passages"

I do this with all the interviews. You can close the original interview sequences but don't delete them.

The palette now becomes a place where you can fine tune your choices. I separate each person in the palette sequence with a temporary title created using FC text generator.

The idea is to be mindful and methodical on how you work. So you can see right here I've created six separate sequences. But I know they are organized (at least for me).

One other thing I do, if I have a nearly finished project that I or my client is happy with, but they want some changes or try a slightly (or vastly different) edit, I will then duplicate the current sequence and put a V.2 (version 2) V.3, V.4 and so on. This way you always have the previous timeline in case they or you want to step back.

So you see you can have a lot of sequences. I just make sure to close the one's that I'm not currently using to avoid clutter.

There are some real seasoned editors here that probably could add more.

Good luck.

Jonathan

[Leonie Reynolds]

OK, thanks, that sounds really useful. Just wondering how I close a sequence though... I'm all for the avoiding clutter - can I disappear the sequence and its tab from the timeline?

[Mark Hendren]

on the tab in the timeline window and choose "Close Tab." If you want to go back to it, just double-click it in the main bin. I usually make a "Sequences" bin and keep them all there. If you want them organized a certain way, you can number them 01name,02name,etc. That way you can get to the one you want quickly.

Feel free to PM me if you have any other questions!

Mark

[Michael Wisniewski]

Also to close the currently sequence on the timeline:
CTRL+W

To move between sequences on the timeline:
SHIFT+COMMAND+]
SHIFT+COMMAND+[

I usually create separate bins for my sequences. For organization, I create several string out sequences with the footage that I "might" use. That makes easier to just scan for a particular bit of footage. So one bin for string outs, with sub-bins for better organization Then another bin for edit sequences where I can start compiling the footage into a viewable form.

[Leonie Reynolds]

Thanks Mark and Michael, now I know what to do!

I don't have right/left buttons on my mouse and had forgotten you need to hit the control button to get the menu... (duh)

- you've saved me from having a hundred sequences open at once, and that wouldn't have been pretty...

[William Hohauser]

I make "chapters" about 10 to 15 minutes. Bins for each chapter's footage and a sequence in each bin. After finishing the chapters, I cut and paste the chapters into a single sequence and do the very final fixes.

[Leonie Reynolds]

Hmm. Not a bad idea.