Final Cut Pro X has brought a fair amount of new paradigms and metaphors we have to learn and deal with.  One of them is the “Connected clip” paradigm that goes along with the “Storyline” metaphors that replaced our beloved track based metaphor.

The connected clips

By default, when you connect a clip to the main storyline using the connect clip button or the keyboard shortcut Q, the clip gets connected to the main storyline by its first frame to the frame of the clip in the primary storyline located at the playhead.   Although this method works most of the time, there are cases where more flexibility is required.

The main point of connected clips is to maintain relative position in time of a clip to the clip it is “connected to” in the primary storyline.  It’s supposed to allow you to trim and roll edits while keeping full sync and avoiding clip collisions.

The situation

Let’s take the following situation.  You have three clips: A,B, and C.  A and B are side by side in the primary storyline and the C clip is connected such that it hides the cut between the A and B clips.  Using the default behavior, the clip C will be connected to the A clip by its first frame to whichever frame of the A clip the playhead was parked on at the when the edit was performed. (see picture above)

But let’s say in that particular case, what matters is the position of the C clip relative to the B clip because, for example, the B-roll content that is in the C clip is referring to what is being said in the interview B clip.  So basically, the A clip could be moved, trimmed, slipped or replaced and it would not matter as long as C maintains its relative position to clip B.

Moving the connection point

In order to achieve that, the “snorkel” connecting the C clip to the primary storyline has to move to a frame of the B clip.  To do that, with the ”Position” or “Selection” tool selected, hold CMD and OPT modifier keys on the keyboard and click inside the connected clip C at a position in time shared by the B clip, where you want to move the “connection”.  The snorkel will be shifted to that new position and clip C will now be attached to the B clip instead of the A clip.  You can now do whatever you want with the A clip and the C clip will always maintain its relative sync with the B clip.