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Multiclips created from merged clips
Has anyone had problems working with multiclips made from merged clips on large sequences (i.e. 20 min reels)? I’m working with a 2 camera shoot (film telecined to HDCam, Prores 422, 23.98) and multi-track .bwf files (4-6 tracks on average, 48.048 F mode on Sound Devices 744T).
Often I match back to source clips or collapse multiclips once I’ve got a cut close to in shape, but I’d like to work with multiclips as long as possible. Others have told me multiclips are spotty, though I’ve never experienced this myself. And I’ve seen posts elsewhere claiming multiclips “don’t work” with merged clips, but haven’t seen much definitive advice
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9 Replies
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Yes there are problems if external audio is involved with merged clips, subclips and multiclips. Often they don’t show up as long as you stay within your project and everything works fine.
Problems with merged or linked clips often occur if you an insert into a merged clip. Also match frame often goes to the wrong frame.
Anything which involves a reconnect with multiclips build from merged clips will loose the sync – same with XML roundtrips. Also subclips are affected by that.
So people who say working this way is not save are right.
The main for that is that audio does not have a standard QuickTime TC track and with reconnect or other operations the TC of the audio which is based upon a timestamp frame is assumed to be 00:00:00:00 which causes the loss of sync.As long as you don’t need an audio EDL a real save way to work is to create merged clips by QuickTime export. You can still create an OMF for sound sweetening if needed.
The problem with that is that the reconnect is a little bit tricky. You can’t reconnect directly as FCP would give you an error that the count of audio channels don’t match. Just importing the exported files you may loose the metadata you already entered. So the option is to create a batch list of the original clips without the channel stettings i.e 1V,2A and reconnect from there.I’ve a customer who is producing 5 different daily soaps means 30 multiclip productions a week. They did run into this kind of trouble way to often. I build them a workflow which does the sync and creation of movies outside of Final Cut and imports those clips into Final Cut by XML.
This is fast and and save and requires nearly no user interaction. For 70 G of P2 data plus external audio the application needs less than 2 minutes to create all needed clips as referenced movies (Intel 8 core), if they do save the files as self-contained – which means they include the P2 transfer process – it takes 30 minutes. Both audio and video metadata are completely included. This process is 20% faster than using the Apple Log & Transfer for just the P2 data.If you interested in this workflow let me know.
Andreas
Spherico
https://www.spherico.com/filmtools -
Thanks Andreas. I would be interested in seeing that workflow
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Hi Andreas ….
I’ve read your post and I woul like to have the workflow. I’ve post explaing, probably, the same problem:” I was trying to use “Media Manager” for the very first time to backup sequences of a project. The whole project is full of multclips since I used 2 and sometimes 3 cameras to record 200 food receipes.
When I try to use Media Manager, it “exports” / copy the final sequences to where I asked for with all multiclips used in the sequence. But, the multiclips exported were no longer on sync.
Does anybody knows why this happens ? ”Is it the same kind of problem ?
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Hi Fredy,
Yes it’s the problem I described. Media manager uses an internal XML roundtrip will definitively bring any external sound out of sync.
For a beta of this workflow app you have to wait till after NAB.
Drop me a mail: kiel(at)spherico.com and will notify you.Andreas
Spherico
https://www.spherico.com/filmtools -
Forgot to say why this happens, I said it in my first reply – it’s because the audio doesn’t have QT timecode and that is what FCP is searching for. The timecode you see with audio is more like an “TC effect” and can’t be retrieved at certain frame as long as the file is not open (and cached) in a FCP project. It could even happen that if you drag a synced clip from one project to the other it will loose sync.
Andreas
Spherico
https://www.spherico.com/filmtools -
As a user of Andreas’s software, I would highly recommend it.
The way we worked out was a bit different in that I recreated new media after the clips had been imported (I imported p2 using MXF4mac, then used Andreas’s sequence liner to sync all sound and video, then reexported new self contained movies to then make the multiclips).
Even with this new media (it was 5 video angles with 10 tracks of audio each) I would find the same problems you were having, especially with match frame. You can try and trash your thumbnail and waveform caches to see if it clears it up. It did for me for a little while, but eventually it’d start to screw up again. A subsequent waveform and thumbnail cache would clear it up again.
Jeremy
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Thanks … I will wait for NAB and make contact with you. Moreover …. I am also having the image out of sync but one thing is funny. The multiclip exported/copied is a mess but the sequence runs fine …
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Andreas,
I would be very interested in reading more about this workflow for an up coming project.Regards
Kerrie -
Hi Kerrie,
I’ll be back to the office next week and will reply.
Regards
AndreasSpherico
https://www.spherico.com/filmtools
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