dragging the thumbnail's playhead

[Philip Fass]

This should be simple, but I'm stuck:

When dealing with a clip in thumbnail view -- using the playhead, not the skimmer -- I can drag the sides of the selection box, or I can click somewhere within the clip to have the playhead jump there. But how do I grab and drag the playhead?

The selection arrow turns into a hand when I hover over the thumbnail, and then it want's to drag the whole clip within the window.

What am I missing? Thanks.

[John Nantz]

Just wondering, when "thumbnail" is mentioned I'm thinking the Event Library; however, when Playhead (the triangle thingy) is mentioned, I'm thinking Project.

Plan A: If one is in the Project section (bottom half of the screen), then the arrow or the hand shows up as the curser representation depending on what is selected. In the middle of the screen there is a horizontal light grey bar that starts out with a camera icon, then a green star, grey star, key, three flag thingies with a down arrow, and then another icon with a down arrow. When the down arrow is clicked on then a drop-down opens up to reveal a list of curser options. Could it be that one of these options is selected, say, the curser "Hand"?

Plan B: On the other hand, if you're trying to select a part of the clip then I assume you could be up in the Event Library section with the objective of trying to move the Range Selection that was selected down to the Storyline.

[Philip Fass]

Sorry, I'm mixing up my terminology.

I'm in the event library, and I'm interested in editing a particular clip. The playhead can be moved within the clip by clicking somewhere in the clip, but that's very inaccurate. I can also move it with the keyboard's arrow keys. But I want to move it forward and back using the mouse and cursor. In the old FCP this was easily done with the black playhead triangle below the viewer window.

[John Nantz]

Handles being the double lines on each end of the yellow clip selection.

Working with a clip in the Event Library window, select the clip.

In the Viewer window, the window in the top-middle of the screen, there are couple arrows, left and right, that hae a couple parallel lines on the wide end of the arrows - these should be just above the timer in the middle of the screen. Click one of the arrows and it will move the handles one frame per click. Select "Mark>Set Selection Start" in the Toolbar and the left handle will move to the location where the playhead is.

Repeat for the right side and select "Set Selection End".

If I understand everything correctly this should give you what you're looking for.

By the way, I just figured out a few days ago how to leave a second at each end of the clip and this afternoon I edited (rough draft) a video I took last year and could have used this little bit of knowledge. Thanks for asking the question!

[Philip Fass]

Not quite there yet.

What I'm really looking for is a way to use the playhead by holding the mouse button down on it and dragging left & right in an event browser's clip. It would work like the skimmer, but require holding the mouse button down on the playhead to drag it. I'm starting to think that this doesn't exist in X, at least not yet.

My workaround, if I can''t do what I'm looking for, may be to bring entire clips into the timeline and edit them there. At least there, at the top where the time code is, you have your down-pointing orange arrow (playhead2.pdf) that can be dragged left/right, whereas the browser's clip view has no arrow or similar function that I can find (playhead1.pdf).

(Sorry, I thought I attached comparison screen shots, but that doesn't seem to work.)

[John Nantz]

Okay, Phillip, understand what you're looking for but where are all the experts?

This isn't exactly what you want but it may help.

I created a test in Project with one clip. Then I expanded it as much as i could using the slider button under the lower right corner of the Project screen. When that didn't expand it enough I grabbed the end (in this case the right end) of the clip and just expanded it some more, and for insurance, clicked on the "+" under the lower right corner of the Project window.

What came up was something that looked like a bunch of frames lined up in a row. However, if one moves the Playhead and looks at the counter it can be seen that isn't what they are. However, there is a slight vertical greying section that can be noticed and the edges of that section correspond to the frame counter.

Close but no cigar, I know, but hey, it's getting closer.

During the course of the past few months of working this application via trial-and-error it seems to me that I did come across a situation that had single frames but that was a while back. And, it was something that I was neither looking for nor wanted, hence, the lack of good recollection.

Hopefully one of the gurus will read all this and jump in with a solution.

[John Nantz]

Go to the Menu Bar and select Final Cut Pro>Preferences...

In the new window select Editing. The first item is "Time Display", select Frames.

What happens now is in the Project Timeline the Playhead can be moved one frame at a time and... the video can be viewed in the middle window to the right of the Event Library section.

Also, I find, if you click on the clip in the Event Library window so that it has the yellow border, one can use the left and right arrows under the middle window to move the Event Library Playhead.

Use Mark>Set Selection Start to move the left clip handle to the Playhead position. Similarly for the right handle.

I'll bet this is more like what you're looking for.

[William Hohauser]

Originally Posted by Philip Fass

Not quite there yet.

What I'm really looking for is a way to use the playhead by holding the mouse button down on it and dragging left & right in an event browser's clip. It would work like the skimmer, but require holding the mouse button down on the playhead to drag it. I'm starting to think that this doesn't exist in X, at least not yet.

My workaround, if I can''t do what I'm looking for, may be to bring entire clips into the timeline and edit them there. At least there, at the top where the time code is, you have your down-pointing orange arrow (playhead2.pdf) that can be dragged left/right, whereas the browser's clip view has no arrow or similar function that I can find (playhead1.pdf).

I am curious if you have gone thru clips in the event browser with skimming turned on or not. With skimming turned on you don't need the timeline pointer as the cursor performs the function I believe you are describing. The time codes are displayed as you pass the cursor over the length of the clip. The timeline bar that existed in the FCP7 viewer does not exist in FCPX however I find that I can do all the previewing, favorite highlighting and keyword functions I need just fine in the event browser. It could be more forgiving with long clips but I had the same issue in FCP7.

[Philip Fass]

This might make the issue a bit more clear:

http://www.legacyvideoportraits.com/playhead4.mov

You see me trying to grab the playhead. When I hover over it, the cursor changes from an arrow to a hand. Then I try to move the playhead, and the cursor changes back to an arrow with a filmstrip icon below it. I think that means it wants to move the entire clip within the event browser.

Note that I moved the cursor down at the end only to show the icon combo better in this demo.

Now, taking a more meta look at the issue, I'm trying to edit several long clips that are head shots/interviews. Using the skimmer, I can't hear the words clearly enough...they go too fast (or I'm unable to move the skimmer slow enough, take your pick.) . Facial expressions don't change enough to give me clues. And moving frame by frame is too slow. Being able to grab the playhead in an Event Browser thumbnail and drag it slowly would give me the control I need, but I'd be happy to know of other suggestions for this kind of footage.

Maybe I just dump the entire clip into the timeline and do all my editing there? So the only function of a thumbnail's playhead is to tell me what raw material it contains.

Thanks for bearing with me on this!

[William Hohauser]

I see you have a 27 minute clip, that's what I was talking about with long clips not being forgiving.

If you have two monitors, sending the viewer to the second monitor will give you more room for the events browser above the timeline and a bit more control over the time increments as you skim over the clip. Moving the events browser to a second monitor give you more control but dragging selections to the timeline gets cumbersome and keystrokes become better to use.

Without a second monitor I suggest you think about how using favorites and keywords can make your editing experience a whole lot easier. I will watch a whole interview and select multiple favorites (these can't overlap unfortunately) and assign the favorites keywords which automatically create subfolders in the events library. Very, very useful.