Blackmagic Forum

ME. Again. So I have this project that looks pretty much the way I want it. I just want to make it longer. As you can see from the screen capture, the duration is 01:51:23. I want to change it to, say, 02:13:00 just to pick an arbitrary number. I know how to change a clip duration. I was hoping someone could tell me a way to change the whole thing just as easily. Please?

DaVinci Resolve Version 16.2.7.010
macOS Catalina Version 10.15.3
iMac (21.5-inch, 2017)

Humm, just add some clips? You see, I don't fully understand your question. A timeline in itself is not limiting you.

Or do you mean extending it by slow-motion? Please explain a bit more about what you want to achieve.

If the timeline is made of of many clips, you'd have to go in and essentially do a new edit and extend each individual clip X number of seconds to meet your run time.

If it were me, I'd use this as a workaround:

1) render the file at the normal speed to a visually-lossless format like ProRes444 or DNxHR 444.

2) take the flat rendered file and create a new timeline.

3) select that entire clip and change the speed until you get the run time you're looking for. Use Optical Flow and Speed-Warp for best results, but be aware that the latter requires a lot of system resources and is very slow to render (but often looks very good). Render that, and you're done.

4) if you're going to a simple speed like moving from 24.00 to 18.00, you could just try doing that with Clip Attributes. Even-multiples (16/18/24/30) can work surprisingly well. Do some tests and see if the quality works for what you're trying to do. This is more than a 10% time-expansion, so be aware that it will be very noticeable in playing slow -- especially the audio.

I worked on a famous American network series some years ago where several shows came in short, so we were forced to slow them down to extend each episode by a minute or so, basically going from 24fps to 23fps or even 22fps. It was very noticeable and I cringed, but you gotta do what you gotta do.

Justin Uthernube wrote:I just want to make it longer.

So add more clips.

are you talking about a fusion project?

Thanks Marc. Your idea sounds great. I was actually thinking of something similar (rendering it and importing it into something else), but your plan is better. Thanks again.

Could you not just use a Compound Clip? Consolidate the old Timeline into a compound clip, then add that compound clip to a new Timeline and adjust the clip speed as appropriate?

I spoke too soon. I can import the project as a single clip just fine, but I canʼt change the duration. Whether I right-click, or try from the menu on top it just breaks. Is it a bug? What can I try next?

Thanks.

Did you render it into a mezzanine codec, like Cineform or DNxHR? If not, try again.
Or post the clip to have it checked.

Woo-hoo!I found out itʼs just fussy. I have to enter it like itʼs displayed–HH:MM:SS. Then it works fine.

Happy New Year