Replace multiple clips in timeline using Shift+Alt (windows)

[Stephen.Pickering]

Hi there,

I have a sequnce that I assembled using an edl.  I would now like to replace those clips with a multi-camera (or nested) sequence.  I thought I could select all clips in the sequence and then Shift+Alt drag the nested sequence onto those clips.  It's not workign as I expected.  However, I can select each clip one at a time and Shift+Alt drag the nested sequence onto the clip and they work fine- it's just cumbersome.  Am I doing something wrong or is this how it should be?

TLDR: when selecting all clips and dragging the nested sequence onto them it replaces all clips but does not shift the nested sequence. So if I had a 5 minute clip with the entire middle cut out (and there's a single cut in the middle), the nested sequence would raplace these clips but would add a cut that is seemless because it doesn't actually cut the middle, rather it cuts the end.  I assume this is an in/out thing but I just don't know enough about this- that's why I wonder if it's suppose to work like this or if I'm just doing something wrong.  If this doesn't make sense please let me know.

Thank you for any insight!
-Stephen

[RobShultz]

If I'm understanding you, and I'm not sure that I am, perhaps you could highlight the clips in the timeline and the right click/nest. Then try your edit.

I hope that this helps.

[Stephen.Pickering]

Thanks for trying to understand me.  I had a hard time explaining what I meant but @Mike Dziennik nailed it on the head.  If anyone knows a work around that would be great.

[Mike Dziennik]

Haven't used this function in a while, but yes I see what you mean. If you alt+shift replace one clip, it will respect the timecode of the clip and replace it with the same timecode on the new clip. If you try to replace multiple clips, it replaces them all with one contiguous span of the new clip - even if there are gaps between the selected clips on the sequence. It may or may not be a bug - but I certainly think its a feature which does not behave in an expected way...which is as good as a bug. I can't think of a workaround at the moment, other than replacing all your clips one by one.

[Stephen.Pickering]

This is exactly it.  If anyone has an idea for a workaround that would be great, although manually replacing one at a time wouldn't take more than 5 or 10 minutes...

[coco11372]

Bumping because i found this trying to find an answer to the exact same question. I have transcripts and an EDL from Trint and if I could replace all with a multicam sequence at once this would be such a great workflow... but I can't. Adobe, would love to know a fix for this!

[Stephen.Pickering]

We ended up scrapping this just because we couldn't find a good way to make it work 😞

[EthanSK]

such a shame...premiere was so close to greatness...whyyyy

[marcos1986 · Accepted solution]

I found a solution.

Use after effects to import de premiere project. Make the replacement with alt drag as you would in premiere, but selecting all clips. You will notice that after effects work as expected. Then simply copy everithing and past it back in premiere.

[jeremyr45339484]

THIS ONE WORKS

[Royals and Rogues]

...

[_nicdean]

This is one of those ancient features that should have been fixed years ago. Replacing media and maintaining in/out points feels the bare minimum for NLEs

[Ivan Stepanov · Accepted solution]

Hello there, I made a script to perform such replacement.
I made it to launch with Excalibur (paid extension), but if you have any other script launcher (e.g. JSX launcher) you can run the script there as well.

Instructions:
- download file and replace .txt with .jsx extension (forum doesn't allow to upload jsx)
- when launching script it Premiere Pro:

1. Select one clip in Project panel
2. Select clips in a timeline
3. Run script

19.03.2025 edit:

I modified the script, so it is more robust.

[Stephen.Pickering]

Ivan, this is awesome!  I was happy to see it also works with nested clips (which is a game changer!).  We're looking at Excalibur now to add more features that Premiere has ignored.  Thanks so much.

[Ivan Stepanov]

Thank you, I'm glad to help!