Locking footage in timeline

Hey, brilliant ones:

I've got an ongoing project where the client is going to be changing about 50 percent of the elements every month. The audio tracks (music, sfx and VO) will not change. Simply, new footage is going into place of the old footage. The stock footage that doesn't change, also doesn't change on the timeline. In other words, once a month, I'll be shoehorning new footage and in between the stock footage and audio.

Is there a way to "lock" certain parts of the timeline that doesn't need to change. Or should I perhaps use a nested sequence for all the unchanging elements?

Any ideas?

Put the footage you don't want to change on their own track and lock it. Lock the audio tracks.

I did it, and my timeline looks funny because there are lots of blank spaces between the tracks since it's forcing me to use so many tracks. But I guess once I get used to it, it won't be so weird.

Carrot Top looks funny too...but he still works:



When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

If you are confused by all the extra layers, render out a current setting quicktime of just the elements that you need to keep. Leave handles for transitions if you need to.

Bring that movie back into your project, put it on a timeline and lock the tracks. Now name that something like "submaster". "shell" or "donut". For each customization you simply duplicate the donut and add the creamy filling to V2.