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Bug or Design Flaw?: Multiclips
I’ll put headings on this posting because it’s gonna be long and you may want to skip parts. I’m running FCP 6.0.2, OS X 10.4.11, QT 7.4.1.
Executive Summary
Multiclips do not retain modifications. So far I’ve tried adding markers and adjusting levels to a multiclip in the Viewer and after switching angles and switching back, the markers disappear, the levels revert to default.
What I’m Attempting
I’ve got hours of two-camera interviews. Cam A is subject, Cam B is host. Clips are several questions/minutes long. I spent a day and a half syncing and multiclipping and then was ready to screen and pull selects. Or so I thought.
Approach 1. My thinking was the most logical workflow would be to watch the interviews then subclip bits I like. We have neither time nor budget for transcripts nor the man-hours to read and highlight them. And even if we did, I’d still need to isolate those parts.
It turns out you can’t subclip multiclips. Modify>Make Sublcip is grayed out and if you try to subclip by extending a marker and then making a subclip from that you get a new clip with a length identical to the original full clip, but with the name of the marker appended to the head of its original name and the original clip also now has this modified name and there seems to be no way of changing that name back.
Still with me?
Approach 2. OK, so I’ll put markers where I find a sound bite I like, name them by subject matter and then, at least, I’ll be able to find my selects in my Interviews bin by turning down the disclosure triangles next to the relevant clips. Not as good a solution, but it’s what I’ve got.
Not.
Multiclips do not retain modifications. Put a multiclip in your viewer, apply a marker (or adjust audio level), play, switch angles, play, switch back. Your marker (or level adjustment) is gone. They’re just gone.
Corporate Response
I got on with Apple Care Enterprise. My tech guy reproduced my problem exactly. He then put me on hold and went to an upper level tech. When he came back he told me that’s the way it’s supposed to work. Multiclips have a sync relationship established by the mere fact that they are multiclips so markers are superfluous. I told him I thought markers served several purposes and he started to get a little testy with me. I laughed a little (not derisively, I swear), said thanks and he hung up without even saying goodbye. I was hurt.
Why I Care
I’ve got hours of these two-camera interviews and no script. I need to find what I like before I can build it into a show. I need to have access to both cameras as I screen because I can’t hear the host on the subject’s mic nor vice versa.
Less Than Satisfying Workaround
Here’s the best I’ve got so far. I make a sequence out of each multiclipped interview, I then mark in and out points when I find a bit I like and I make a sublclip (sub-sequence, really) of it. Let’s say I make a 10 second sub-sequence of a soundbite I like. When I’m ready to work with it I drag it to the Viewer and I have a fullscreen image of either the host or the subject. I’m now into the cutting and I know precisely which part of this subclip I want. I mark an in and an out, I cut it into my show, I’m good. And if I want the host and the subject is showing in the Viewer I simply hit SHIFT 1 or SHIFT 2 to get the other angle.
Here’s the downside of this process (besides the extra steps). If I do choose to switch angles in the Viewer, the Viewer reverts to a copy of the original full-length multiclip with a Media Limit set at the In point. If, now that I’m cutting, I find I want to include the host’s question with this response I can’t without another workaround.
How many workarounds does it take to screw in a light bulb?
If You’ve Made it This Far and Have a Better Solution I Would Be So Grateful
And don’t think I’m just looking for problems; this is going to be a huge issue for me on this project.
Rant
More and more often I’m finding FCP simply isn’t designed for long-form editing, especially long-form documentary where organization, searchability, flexibility and general versatility are essential… No, at best, I’ve only got one person still with me. No sense in ticking you off too.
Sorry,
Martin
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9 Replies
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Hi Martin!
First, I appreciate your carefully written and well structured post … no reason not to stay with you.
You’re probably already too far gone to change approach, but, my workaround would probably be the simple way:
1. Create a sequence for each pair of host/subject clips.
2. Put the host clip on track 1, and the subject clip on track 2
3. Synchronize the two clips.
4. Razor blade between questions / parts, throw away unwanted.
5. Where you want to see the host, disable visibility of the subject clip-bit sitting on track 2.
6. Reorder, delete unwanted or put it at the end.
7. Copy the bits you want from the different sequences to a new master sequences ..Well … maybe it’s too easy, but it looks better then a not working multiclipversion …
Gilbert
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This is one of many bugs with multiclip. In fact there are so many that it really doesn’t work at all and is best avoided. The above might be a workaround to a two camera shoot, but if you want to do anything more complicated… forget it! You’ll be lucky if the two cameras stay in sync.
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I agree completely with avoiding multiclips whenever possible. If it’s a 2 camera shoot, use the method described using two video tracks, razor blading, and disabling the top track.
I’ve recently had to edit a 6 camera shoot and reluctantly used multiclips. Once the media was moved from the assistant’s station to the editor’s and reconnected they were out of sync. But they seemed to have somehow defaulted to using the first frame of the media as their sync point. My workaround attempt for next time would be to try and capture the media from the same TC start point. I don’t know if it will work, but maybe it will.
An “after-the-fact” workaround I used once I started cutting with the producer and discovered the clips had lost their sync (again) was to make all NEW multiclips. I then used the TC display in the canvas to manually type in the TC for the spot I was looking for in the new multiclip in the viewer.
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I’m doing my first multiclip job and I too am completely dissastisfied. The only thing that is cool is selecting them all and they all line up (after taking the work to set up auxillary time code).
they aren’t very flexible. They aren’t easy to work with. It’s a mess when you need to make changes for things that you didn’t anticipate (try color correcting on camera’s clips after you’ve already made all your cuts).
I’ll probably not use multiclips again. I’ll just create a sequence with each camera angle on it’s only video track.
-trevor ward
Red Eye Film Co.
http://www.redeyevideoproductions.com
orlando, fl -
well I’ve come across the same problem and come up with a different workaround. I put the whole interview (3 cameras) in one sequence as a multiclip, then logged it. Now I’m just going through and blading out the bites I want, copying them and pasting them into a new sequence. It seems to have arrived in the new sequence as its own multiclip, all synced up. Of course, I’m going to have to go through and rename each of the new multiclips so I can tell what they are, then drop them into a bin, I suppose, so they are in the browser as stand-alones. Subclipping a multiclip would be so much easier! But, at least at this (early point) this seems to be more efficient than building each bite on separate tracks, etc….
best,
Dave -
From what I’ve experienced with this unexplainable problem is…
The multiclip can be opened, played and then marked in the viewer and those markers will be retained as long as you never switch your camera to something other than the “master” or “default” camera that’s selected when you first open the multiclip.
If you drag that marked multiclip into a sequence and then reopen it in the viewer – the markers seem to stay regardless of what camera you the switch to thereafter. So it appears as the problem is with the original multiclip being opened from the bin into the viewer.
For me, I use the inital multiclip (that I mark in the viewer) as an outline for my footage. I then just select the pieces I want (by clicking my marks that I see in the bin) and drag that section to my timeline.
It’s kind of a tedious workaround, but gets the job done without adding any real time to the edit. You just have to be conscious of where/when you’re clicking.
Put this into the ever-expanding list of “unexplained FCP errors.”
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Ok, when I’m editing with multi cameras everything is going fine the markers show up to show me where I made the switch between cameras. Now when I push stop to save what I have edited the blue makers on the Timeline disappear. Please help and tell me how to get the markers not to vanish so I don’t have to edit it over & over again. Joe
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You will be happy to find that I have found a solution – yeah!!!!
OK so using this article – 121528u20517360894009470
I found that if you paste the markers (via using the XML files) in both source clips and then create the multiclip, that the markers will stay no matter what angle you choose!!!
yeah!!!
(this was after a lot of trial and error!)Hope this works for you – and thanks for the posts!
-Bida
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Sorry – I just wanted to add that I am using final cut 6.04 – so not sure if this will work with other versions – but I’m thinking it may!
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