Shared and Unique Clip Properties
All clips have properties such as Name, In point, Out point, Duration, comments, and so
on. Master clips are the objects in your project that store clip properties; affiliate clips
then refer to the properties stored in their master clip. In other words, an affiliate clip
stores very little unique information about itself and instead refers to its master clip for
almost all properties.
For example, suppose you import a QuickTime movie file named Apple into Final Cut Pro.
A master clip named Apple is created in your project. Each time you edit the master clip
into a sequence, an affiliate clip is placed in the sequence and its name is also Apple.
The affiliate clip doesn’t actually store a name, but instead refers to the Name property
stored in the master clip. You can test this by changing the name of the master clip to
Orange. The names of all of the affiliate clips update simultaneously.
Master clip
Shared properties
Name and Scene
are examples of
properties stored
in the master clip
and shared with
affiliate clips.
Unique properties
Affiliate clips
In and Out points
are unique to each
master and
affiliate clip.
Name: Apple
Scene: 2
In: 01:00:04:00
Out: 01:00:08:00
Name: Apple
Scene: 2
In: 01:30:22:04
Out: 01:30:29:08
Name: Apple
Scene: 2
In: 01:31:24:00
Out: 01:31:30:00
Chapter 4
Working with Master and Affiliate Clips
45
I
Because there is only one Name property shared between a master clip and its
affiliates, you can change this property either from the master clip or from any of the
affiliate clips. Regardless of where you change the Name property, all of the affiliate
clips reflect the change simultaneously.
Although master clips share most clip properties with their affiliate clips, there are a
few properties that affiliate clips do not share. Most of these properties are for editing,
trimming, or compositing. For example, each affiliate clip has its own In and Out points
so it can have a unique duration in a sequence while still referring to the same media
file via its master clip.
For more information about modifying clip properties in the Browser columns or in
the Item Properties window, see Volume II, Chapter 5, “Working with Projects, Clips,
and Sequences.”