2 ?s: "Locking" a portion of edit and "Reconnecting" audio tracks
 

Two separate questions about FCE:

1: How do I lock a completed portion within a larger project? If I have a section that is few minutes long and comprised of 4 or 5 A/V tracks that is complete but within a larger ongoing project, how do I lock just a few minute portion of a longer timeline to insure it doesn't get disturbed?

2: Not sure of the term to use, in Photoshop it would probably be the "flatten" command. Say I have an audio clip of 15 seconds that was edited down from a 60 second recording. In the timeline it now appears as a multitude of chopped up bits. How do I reconnect all the little bits that can be moved/modified as a single clip?

The answer to the first question is kinda "you already have."

Presuming you have AutoSave engaged, if you mess up a section of any part of your timeline, just open the Autosave cache - open an earlier version of your timeline, and cut and paste the part you want into your messed up sequence. Voila - you're back where you were before the screwup.

The idea of "Locking" part of your timeline would actually cause you major hassles. For example, any edit that causes the timeline to expand or contract can get logically BLOCKED by the locked portion. Timelines are living, working, expanding and contracting beasts. It's best to leave them like that until you're truely done fiddling.

That said, there are plenty of other ways to do this if you're really convinced you must have some form of "LOCKED" section to be happy.

Like when you get a segment "just right" set an in point and an outpoint and print the result off as a "clip FINAL." Then you can simply drag and drop that segment into your timline to replace the original timeline. It's less flexible since you'll no longer have clip level access. But if it makes you feel good to see your "finished" clips that way - have fun.

Or build each section as their own individual timelines - and bring them one by one onto an "assemble" timeline for viewing the whole piece. Done this way you can double-click and open each section of the MASTER to launch the timeline it represents and fiddle around with it more.

The thing about FCP is that there are usually a dozen ways to do things - seldom just one.

Good luck.

Not a feature of FCE, so nothing to replace the 'lock clip' command found in Premiere for instance, that let's you pick clips on your timeline and prevent them from being edited. Best to change your thinking on this one I suspect, as nothing FCE does duplicates Premiere's behaviour with this instruction concept.

The concept of flattening in Photoshop is duplicated (near as can be) in the File>Export>Quicktime Movie command. Set the master in/out to match the sequence you want to 'flatten', export. Import the clip you've just exported, and either replace the source clips on the timeline or (my preference) place the 'flattened' version on a track above the source clips -- the placement means you won't see the underlying clips anymore, but you can still tell what the source for your flattened clip was. Again, if you're coming from Premiere this is a more convuluted process than right click/export but it does result in the same thing.

HTH
GB

As to the "flattening" thing - as I noted, you can always simply take any portion of your timeline (TIMELINE A) - cut and paste it onto a NEW timeline (which would become a TIMELINE B you would SAVE) Then delete the clips that you used from A - and drag TIMELINE B into TIMELINE A.

It will import as a simple two track section of video - that when double clicked inside Timeline A will OPEN Timeline B with all the clip relationships intact and ready to edit.

Dragging one timeline onto another is a very efficient way to clean up complex sections and to allow effects (like timecode in a window) to be applied to the global video tracks of something complex.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the emphasis Bill, the process you outline would be a very efficient alternative to the 'export to flatten' process, superior in most every way.

Cheers,
GB