"Media Relatives" in Premiere Pro

[ETorr]

Looking for the equivalent result of Avid's ability to select media relatives: or more specifically to see either

a) A show list of all master clips affiliated with one or more sequences.

b) Select all media within a bin whose contents are being used in a sequence.

My understanding it there is no such command in PPro, but is there an approach that will get us there?

[Jax24135]

Feature Request/Bug Report Form

[ETorr]

Goes with out saying.  Done already.

[excited_Genie16B8]

I'm not familiar with Avid, but in PP you can see which clips are used (and in which sequences) by turning on the Video Usage column in metadata display for bins in List mode.

[ETorr]

You point to a truly brilliant feature in PPro, really powerful, and well-conceived.  Avid would do well to come up with something similar.  Selecting media relatives is a related but nonetheless different feature, and PPro would do well to come up with something similar.

It goes a little something like this: Select an item, any item, Master Clip, Sequence, etc.  Run the command "Select Media relatives".  Result: all clips that make use of matching media are selected.  On the Avid side that feature is coupled with several others: the ability to filter out all but selected items.  (A PPro equivalent might be achieved via the project search box, where instead of a key word it would trigger [selected], and only selected items appear.)

The overall goal is to see related things, and do global project management -- conform naming conventions, fill in / unify columns, remove or add label colors.

Perhaps what might be helpful in Premiere: something like a 'Flat Over Panel' that lists all your project items in flat form, no folder hierarchies.  In that context a "Show Related" might filter the flat view to show those related items. 

[excited_Genie16B8]

all clips that make use of matching media are selected.

I don't understand that.  I don't know what Media Relatives are.

[ETorr]

In the PPro context I probably should have written it as "making use of matching items", but the "media" can be valuable too.

Say you've got 4 Master Clips and 2 Sequences

You edit Master Clips 1 & 2 into Sequence 1.

You edit Master Clips 3 & 4 into Sequence 2.

Then you select Master Clip 1 and run the command, which in turn would select or otherwise highlight Sequence 1.

Likewise, if you select Master Clip 2, you get Sequence 1.

If instead you select Master Clip 3 (or 4) and run the command, you get Sequence 2.

Now turn it around.  Select Sequence 1.  Run the command.  You get Master Clips 1 & 2, both.

Select Sequence 2, run the command, and you get Master Clips 3 & 4

[excited_Genie16B8]

The first part doesn't sound all that different from the Video Usage feature in PP.

The second part is missing, though.  No way to see all clips used in a specific sequence.  (Though it could be approximated using Metadata and searches.)

[ETorr]

I've been meaning to play with Metadata.  It may well be the right tool, potentially capable of vastly outperforming Avid, though my first attempts using it came to nothing  (That amounted to about 10 seconds of exhaustive research).  Will follow up...

[ETorr]

Jim_Simon  wrote

The first part doesn't sound all that different from the Video Usage feature in PP.

The second part is missing, though.  No way to see all clips used in a specific sequence.  (Though it could be approximated using Metadata and searches.)

So here's an example that illustrates the difference between Avid's "Media Relatives" approach and Adobe's "Usage" and/or "Meta Data" approach:

We've got a project, organized prior to my arrival by an itinerant AE who's no longer available to work nor for questions.  He/she left behind the following scenario:

- There are a huge number of master clips.

- Many of them have been synced into Multi-Cam sequences.

- Many were not.

If I could select and set set aside all clips used in the Multi-Cam sequence as things I don't have to bother watching vs all clips not used in any Multi-Cam sequences, I could save a lot of time loading master clips I have already viewed or will view in a Mult-Cam sequence.

In Avid that process is easy:

- Select the Multi-Cam sequences

- Run "Select Media Relatives"

- All Master clips subsequently connected can either moved to an "Ignore" bin or tagged to be ignored.  Very fast, very effective.

Possible in PPro?

[R Neil Haugen]

Again, this last post would be a great feature request ... 

Neil

https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/mmform/index.cfm?name=wishform

[ETorr]

https://forums.adobe.com/people/R+Neil+Haugen  wrote

Again, this last post would be a great feature request ... 

Neil

https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/mmform/index.cfm?name=wishform

Did that early on, and also referenced this discussion URL.

[R Neil Haugen]

As with anything this complex, there's always other things that would be great modifications/additions. Yup.

Neil

[excited_Genie16B8]

Possible in PPro?

Absolutely.

Turn on the Video Usage column, sort by that column, move to another bin.

As you create new multicam sequences, the move can be part of the process so it happens automatically.

[ETorr]

Jim_Simon  wrote

Possible in PPro?

Absolutely.

Turn on the Video Usage column, sort by that column, move to another bin.

As you create new multicam sequences, the move can be part of the process so it happens automatically.

That would be a manual, repeat-until-you-drop, no?  As opposed to single command that gets you what you want instantaneously.

[excited_Genie16B8]

That would be a manual, repeat-until-you-drop, no?

Nope.  It's a one off for the work already done, and automated for work yet to be done.

[ETorr]

Jim_Simon  wrote

That would be a manual, repeat-until-you-drop, no?

Nope.  It's a one off for the work already done, and automated for work yet to be done.

I may not be following.  If you're using the Usage columns approach, and you've got, say, a sequence, with a thousand edits, and you want a listing of all the media used in that sequence,

     a) Usage column for the sequence won't tell you anything

     b) Any bin containing master clips that might or might not be used in that sequence can only show you the number of usages, not specific to any sequence.

     c) It can only articulate that sequence by means of a manually clicked pulldown (a really cool feature, BTW, but not helpful this context)

What am I missing?

[excited_Genie16B8]

The Usage columns won't help for a sequence.  As stated earlier, PP has no method for finding all the media used in a sequence.

Where the Usage column helps is with the media.  Open the bin with the clips, sort by the Usage column, and move those that have been used to a new bin.  That leaves only unused media for you to sort through and continue working.

As you create new multicam sequences, the source media can automatically be moved to a new bin.

Make sense?

[Bruce Bullis]

Potentially of interest:

var arrayOfMatchingProjectItems = anyProjectItem.findItemsMatchingMediaPath(path);

[ETorr]

https://forums.adobe.com/people/Bruce+Bullis  wrote

Potentially of interest:

var arrayOfMatchingProjectItems = anyProjectItem.findItemsMatchingMediaPath(path);

Definitely of interest, and will make good use of it, though it's the inverted version of the goal of this particular post.

In the land of ExtendScript it would be more along the lines of

So taking Avid as a model here (apologies in advance for doing so), the "Select Media Relatives" works as follows:

- Select an item in a bin.  It can be any item: A Master Clip, SubClip, Group Clip (aka MulticamSeq in PPro), Sequence.

- Run the "Select Media Relatives"

- Result: Items in other open bins are selected.  If you start from a master clip, it will generally be Sequences, Groups and SubClips that get selected.  If you start from a Sequence you'll generally see Master Clips, SubClips and Group Clips selected.

- What it's doing that's particular: It effectively answers the question "What was this item used in" AND "What Items were used in this time" packaged under one command.

The ExtendScript equivalent would be something along the lines of...

arrayOfMatchingProjectItems = anyProjectItem.findItemsThatMakeUseOfThisItem_OrAnyItemsContainedWith();  //Completely made-up function.

* And you might want to draw a distinction between getting an array of items that are "make use of project items" vs "make use source media" (which is what .findItemsMatchingMediaPath(path) points to.  PPro's rather brilliant ability to allow multiple Master clips to reference the same source media makes this distinction matter.

I wonder if PPro's own "Search Bin" offers a compelling model here for a feature request -- an additional option to 'display all project items related to...' which opens a dialogue allowing the user to select the project item(s) of reference.

[Bruce Bullis]

Project item selection isn't available in PPro's API...today.  [It's been requested]

You can generate your own search bins today, though:

projectItem.createSmartBin(nameOfBin, queryString);

[ETorr]

Project Item selection would be a welcome addition.

RE projectItem.createSmartBin: Brilliant

Went to test it.  Have a few questions, posting in PPro SDK forum at projectItem.createSmartBin: Is there any documentation for it? (and other questions)

[eikonoklastes]

If you aren't averse to diving into a little macro scripting, you can quickly set up a script to reveal each clip in the timeline and set it to a specific label colour. Then you can select all the clips with the same label colour (Select Label Group) and bin them as you wish.

Executing the script on the whole sequence should not take more than a few seconds, depending on how complex your sequence is. Regardless, it will eliminate a huge chunk of manual work.

Prep work:

- Pick a label colour that isn't used by any source clip and assign a keyboard shortcut to it.

- Enable Selection Follows Playhead

- Activate your sequence, and rewind

- Turn targeting on for all populated tracks.

Script flow:

- Reveal clip in Project Panel

- Assign Label Colour

- Switch back to Timeline

- Advance to next clip

- (Optional safety measure) Assign Label Colour to the selected clip in the Timeline to make sure it was processed

- Loop

Caveat:

- You might need to do video and audio as separate passes, since Selection Follows Playhead doesn't select audio clips when there are video clips above it. Lock all audio tracks first, and then lock all video tracks for the second, audio, pass.

On macOS you can use Keyboard Maestro, and Autohotkey on Windows.

Here's a quick video of it in action:

https://1drv.ms/v/s!AhyOTAuOwz3Hl-J_hsWmORGn1Ilfuw 

[ETorr]

eikonoklastes  wrote

If you aren't averse to diving into a little macro scripting, you can quickly set up a script to reveal each clip in the timeline and set it to a specific label colour. Then you can select all the clips with the same label colour (Select Label Group) and bin them as you wish.

Basic idea is good.  Macros, though they tend to be a bit limited and not so robust.

Better still, a bit of ExtendScript.  It'll be more reliable and will allow you to use the same basic idea as you're proposing but using MetaData, from which you could leverage a "Search Bin".

Both the Macro approach and the ExtendScript approach would likely stumble on nested sequences and multicam.

Best would be for a robust Adobe-developed command, but a custom panel might well work in the meantime.

[eikonoklastes]

The macro can be used to add data automatically to the Description field. Place the Description column next to the Name column, and after the Reveal Clip, Tab over the Description field and add some text there, and then continue the loop. Set up a Search Bin to look for the text you added.

For nested sequences, go into the nest and repeat the script, I suppose.

Video of it in action (the search bin takes a couple of seconds to update once the script has finished):

https://1drv.ms/v/s!AhyOTAuOwz3Hl-MAhrM8XJMBMb_L6Q