How to copy sequences from another project and NOT end up with duplicate entries for source clips?

[Zooropa75]

If, like me, you used to work in Final Cut Pro, you know one major difference in Premiere Pro workflow is that two projects cannot be open at the same time. Also, any referenced clips have to be part of the project first. On one hand, this forces me to be more organized with the projects/clips, and avoids the situation of "unlisted" source clips. On the other hand, I am running into a challenge around copying/reusing sequences from another project.

We have a large group of footage that serves a couple of different purposes. In order to keep things clear, I created two project files that contain the same source clips, and different sequences. (I cloned the project after importing all the source clips, and then worked from there.) Now I need to "copy" a few sequences from Project A into Project B, so that I can re-use the editing work done on those sequences without needing to replicate them. In FCP, I would just have both projects open, and copy-paste the sequences from Project A to Project B. In Premiere Pro, I was glad to see that copy-and-paste can work across projects - i.e., I can "copy" in Project A, close Project A and open Project B, then "paste". HOWEVER, this brings in all the source clips referenced by those sequences in Project A... Even though the same source clips are already in Project B.

OK, I understand why that happens, because Premiere Pro doesn't know (or check) that the same clips already exist in Project B. But I don't want to keep two entries of the same source clips in the project (in different bins too), because that gets confusing down the road. Is there a way for me to de-link the new sequences from those "new" source clip entries, and connect them with the existing entries? If I just go and delete the "new" source clip entries, the references in those sequences don't just go offline, they get deleted. So the new sequences become empty.

I'm struggling to see what the best approach is in this case. Any suggestions or tricks?

[Shane_P · Accepted solution]

I do this very similar work flow. I will have project "A" where I edit my sequences, etc, then down the road if I want to use some of those sequenses from project "A" in a new project "B".

PP can do what you are seeking and not create duplicate clips of the same source footage.

Do not use copy/paste. Instead use import to import the sequence(s) from the other project.

Open your project you want to reuse the sequences in. Then go to File>Import and navigate out to the project you want to import the sequences from. Click on the project file and PP will ask you which sequences you wish to import. Select the the sequences (or entire project) and PP will import the sequences for you.

Now...the duplicate media...

If you have source clip "00001.MTS" for example already in the project you have open and one of the sequences you are importing also references the same source "00001.MTS" clip, PP will not import a duplicate as it will use the clip you already have imported.

If however PP is importing a duplicate copy it is most likely because in each project you have different I/O points set for the same source clip. If this is the case PP will import the duplicate copy of the clip so it preserves the I/O points of each version of the clip.

If you do a test import and make sure there are no I/O points or they are the same I/O points, PP will import the dup clip.

[shooternz]

The reality  is that it doesnt make any difference apart from a project tidiness POV and that is easily sorted.

The clips are not duplicated media becuase they are only references to the source clips. (eg like a database).

[Shane_P]

@shooterz...In this instance think he is referring to not having his project having many duplicate references to the same source clip, not actually duplicating the original file.

@Zooropa75, I also forgot to mention that if you are using PP 7.1 you can use the Media Browser to navigate out to another PP project and drill down inside the project file to select which sequence(s) you wish to import.

Going to File>Import or using the Media Browser will accomplish the same thing.

Best of luck.

[Zooropa75]

Sorry for the delayed response, I only now got around to testing it out. Shane you are right about the I/O points! If a source clip has different I/O points set in the two projects, then a new entry appears in the project for that clip. If the clip has identical I/O points in both projects (including when it has no I/O points in either project), then PPro knows to use the existing entry instead, and I don't get a "duplicate entry"!

As for "importing" vs. "copying and pasting", they appear to do the same thing, but C&P is faster because it doesn't go through the "parsing" process to find all the sequences in a project (which seems to take a long time). Of course, importing means I don't have to open the other project.

Thanks!

[empireurn]

Hi and thanks; I have a related problem whereby I'd like to copy a whole, rendered, transitioned etc, timeline from one project into another. I need to do this as for some reason, I have ended up with incorrect settings (project / footage) and when I export the timeline, the exported footage does not match what I view in the timeline (I am still trying to work out how to get the right settings in the first place and this is the subject of a separate post).

Any help in copying an entire timeline in project A into project B's timeline would be very much appreciated!

[I have tried copy/paste - doesn't work; I have tried file-import-project-selected sequences but this doesn't copy the whole timeline, transitions, effects etc.]

[SundayGladiator]

Floating this back to the top...

The copy/paste of one track in a sequence, and bringing it over to another track in another sequence/file, doesn't work for me.

I can right-click 'copy' it, but when I go to the other file where I want to insert the track into the sequence, I only get 'paste attributes'.

[SundayGladiator]

Lol, answering my own post. I realized I can just click n drag the goods from one track and move it over into the other sequence and track. Schweet.

[Marcia L. 1991]

I too copy and pasted a sequence from Project A to Project B and the sequence works fine. Although, now that I have changed the name of the original Project A "borrowed sequence", Project B is now "grayed out" and I can't open the project from Finder. The only way I can open it is to open from Premiere Recent files. If I save Project B "Save As Project C" later it does the same thing with the graying out. (after I close the project C) Also, if I try to delete the "saved as Project C", I get an error message. "Some of the items you are moving are in use by another application. Moving the items can cause problems with the application using them. Are you sure you want to move these items?" I have been working on these projects for months and I have no idea which sequence I copied in. How do I locate the offending sequence so I can rebuild it without the copied codex? I have verified all media is linked so that isn't the issue.  I hope that made sense.

[R Neil Haugen]

Using the Productions mode rather than the old stand-alone process you're doing solves all.

Neil

Premiere Pro Productions Introduction

Using Productions in Premiere Pro

Productions Workflow for Long Form & Episodic PDF