Sequence = 4hr. limit?

Say I was really nutty and had a rough cut that exceeded 4hours in length, and I wanted it all laid out in one sequence...would there be any way around it? FCP 4.5 is giving me a time limit error owhen I try and add clips to a sequence that would push the playtime past that 4 hour mark.

I know all about nesting, but that gets a little too abstract for me and my workflow. I feel like there's a simple solution here, but I haven't been able to find it on my own.

The simple solution is to upgrade to FCP 5, which I beleive has a 12 hour time limit.

Having said that, even a four hour timeline would drive me insane!

Do your cutting with less time...
4 hours? 12hours? You will get older in instant...
Organize your footage in chapters and then open a final timeline and place the edited chapters on it.
That saves time and the brains.

Rui Barros
Editor Colorist Trainer
Lisbon, Portugal
RTP Post-Production
Apple Certified Trainer FCP 7
Apple Certified Pro FCP 7

Rui Barros Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Do your cutting with less time...
> 4 hours? 12hours? You will get older in
> instant...
> Organize your footage in chapters and then open a
> final timeline and place the edited chapters on
> it.
> That saves time and the brains.

I'm cutting a documentary, so the process of moving a clip from one chapter, to another chapter doesn't strike me as that intuitive when you're really juggling clips. It's too easy to get lost in the timeline when you're bouncing between sequences. Plus, I personally find that cutting in chapters can influence a narrative approach.

I believe my system is too old to handle FCP 5, so I guess I have no other choice.

I still personally think that you're making a rod for your own back with a 4 hour timeline. Can't you reduce the amount of footage you need for each section, a section at a time, as you lay it in the timeline? You're going to end up with a lot of unessecary spooling up and down which will make it a slow and frustrating job.

Of course it's your show, you're free to do it any way you want. I'm just trying to stop you from going down the more difficult path.

wordsworth

i think that you may have the wrong perspective on long edits. i just dont see a reason to put the entire capture file on the timeline. every edit has a begining clip and a end clip. to get from the beging to the end you have to build to the end using parts from the original capture. i have seen people place the entire captured file on say v-track 4 and then cut and drag what they wanted down to vtrack1&2. when they are done with the cut they delete vtrack4. i dont think that this type of editing is wise or efficient, that is if thats your workflow
.
judes technic of separating it into chapter sequences should make for the best result.

you can not edit the end of a movie first then build it backwards. also if you have say seq#1 (the first hr of your doc), copy the last 2-10mins of seq#1. paste that as the begining of seq#2 and continue editing. this will help keep you edit rythme.

when you are done delete the copied clips from the front of the chapter sequences. at this point 2 things could happen.

1. the newly edited chapters could end up being less than the fcp TL limit. in which case you could then reconnect them in a fresh seq.
2. export each seq for your authoring suit and use the TL in dvdsp (or whatever you use to author) to re-assemble the clips in the desired order.

""" What you do with what you have, is more important than what you could do, with what you don't have."

> > > Knowledge + Action = Wisdom - J. Corbett 1992 """"

> i just dont see a reason to put the entire capture file on the timeline. every edit has a
> beginning clip and a end clip. to get from the beging to the end you have to build to the end
> using parts from the original capture.

I'm pretty sure that's not what he was saying, Jeff. He only said he wanted all parts of his edited sequences in one Sequence, not that he didn't do any shaving down of master clips. He's working on a documentary -- if he weren't cutting down the clips, it's not likely that he's got only four hours of master, unedited footage. You can put together maybe a lean short narrative film with that little raw footage, but almost certainly not a documentary.

I agree with Jude, however -- avoid that kind of a timeline. At the very least, keep each sequence to an hour. If you need to see the joints between sequences, you can always use partial nested clips or copy sections between timelines temporarily. Aside from the organizational hassles of a four-hour timeline, it will also probably slow your system down. And if you make a mistake with track locking, rippling operations etc. which affect your entire timeline, it will be that much more material disrupted that you will need to correct.


www.derekmok.com

4 hour timeline - equals rubber room --
-- Jay --