About Shots Sequences

A Shots Sequence is the result of the analysis of the sequences located in Sequences Reels of a Reel Group. It detects similar contents, and creates an aggregate sequence of all the segments from the connected sequences.

You create a Shots Sequence with the Create Shots Sequence button, in Conform. Only one Shots Sequence can exist in a given Reel Group. Creating a Shots Sequence where one already exists overwrites the existing one.

It allows you to break down shots for visual effects work: to name, to separate and to work on VFX shots, either for solo work, or for collaborative shot distribution. You work on the shots knowing that the work propagates, through shared segments, to the connected sequences. A Shots Sequence is required to use Create Batch Group in Conform.

A Shots Sequence is similar to a master timeline:

• It contains the longest instance of a shot from connected sequences.
• It maintains the vertical structure of shots, as well as the logical story order.
• It creates links between segments of connected sequences, enabling the sharing of metadata (including VFX) between related segments.

Tip: In Conform, when you modify a shared segment, it is selected in every sequence where it is found. This makes it easy to see the modified segment across the different sequences using the sequence tabs.

A Shots Sequence preserves original timewarps, as well as Containers and Matte Containers. Note that in the case of both containers, only the segments they contain are shared, not the containers themselves.

Information Shared Between Segments

While the Sources Sequence shares only source clip metadata, a Shots Sequence shares source and segment metadata with all connected sequences.

Metadata shared between the Shots Sequence and the connected sequences:

• Source clip metadata
• Segment Name
• Shot Name
  Note: If you use Shot Naming with the Segment Index token, the index used is that of the sequence where the Shot naming is being done. It propagates to all other sequences using the same segment, using the index of the sequence used for naming, not the index of each sequence.
• Comment
• Timeline FX (including BFX).

Tip: Consider always doing any bulk operation from the Shots Sequence: this ensures that modifications include every segment because the Shots contains all the segments from every connected sequence.

How the Shots Sequence Is Created

In the Shots Sequence, the segments are ordered based on the story order of the longest sequence. Segments found in other connected sequences but not in the longest sequence are added sequentially at the end of the Shots Sequence. If two or more sequences share the title of longest sequence, then the tied sequences are ordered alphabetically, and the first one is used as the reference sequence.

In the Shots Sequence creation process, Shot names impact the structure of the Shots Sequence:

• If Shot naming is done after the creation of the Shots Sequence, its segments are organized based on their location in the original sequences. This is the recommended approach.
• If Shot naming is done before the creation of the Shots Sequence, the structure of the created sequence takes into account the Shot naming: segments sharing sources but with different shot names are duplicated for each differing shot name. If you use this approach, make sure that every segment of every connected sequence has a shot name to ensure predictability of the resulting Shots Sequence.

The approach to use depends on your goal: the latter is useful when working with sequences that may share the same media but require different visual treatment, such as delivery of localized content. The former creates a more compact structure, easier to manage, aimed at creating uniform visual treatment.

The segment names used in the Shots Sequence are the ones from the original sequences, not the media file name.

Working with Shared Segments

A Shots Sequence creates links between the segments of the sequences in the Reel group. This in turn allows you to modify metadata, like Shot Names, in one sequence and have that change propagate to the other sequences connected by the Shots Sequence.

Shared Segment Icon

A segment shared across multiple sequences is identified with .

Navigating instances of shared segments

Right-click a segment and select Shared Segment: the drop-down list displays the sequences with an instance of that segment. Selecting a sequence from the list opens that sequence, with the segment selected.

Syncing Shared Segments

Modifications made to Timeline FX, BFX or History of a given segment are local to that segment until you sync it.

1. In the Shots Sequence, apply a Timeline FX on a Shared Segment or on a selection of Shared Segments.
2. From the contextual menu, select Sync Shared Segments.
3. All corresponding Shared Segments located in the connected sequences in the Reel Group are updated.
   Tip: Render all of the updated Timeline FX for all synced Shared Segments by rendering the original segments Timeline FX before syncing.

Notes:

• You can undo this sync.
• You can sync a selection of segments. You can sync a segment from any sequence part of the Reel group, but it but should be performed on the Shot Sequence, since this sequence contains every shared segment.
• The number of shared segments that were synced appears in the Message Console.

Replacing Shared Segments in Shots Sequence

To replace a shared segment across the connected sequences of a Reel group:

1. Open Timeline.
2. Select the segment to be replaced.
3. Select the clip that will replace the segment.
4. Do one of the following:
   • To replace the segment and overwrite the Timeline FX applied to the destination segment, use the Timeline Replace operation. Press R, or click the Replace button.
     
   • To replace the segment and preserve the Timeline FX applied to the destination segment, use the Timeline Replace Media operation. Press Ctrl-Shift-R, or click the Secondary Edit box and select Replace Media.
     
5. All instances of the shared segment are updated.
   Note: The media used must be long enough to cover the whole of the segment it replaces, or this will fail.

The Replace operation can be performed on any clips, whether they have Timeline FX applied, a BFX, or include History.

Removing segment sharing

Sometimes you need to isolate a segment to perform a unique edit, such as applying language-specific titling to multi-language deliverables; the sharing of segment metadata offered by the Shots Sequence become a hindrance. In this case, you want to remove segment sharing.

1. Select the segment to isolate.
2. From the contextual menu, select Remove Segment Sharing option.

Important: While you can Undo this operation, there is no Restore Sharing operation that can be performed later.