FCP 7 multiclip sync issues

[Shane Ross]

[Nate Winspear] “normally I’d just stack the clips in the timeline and physically resize them for a faux multiclip. Things would stay in sync, but the editor won’t cut that way)”

Where I work, I don’t have a choice on how clips are set up. They are set up in the best way that works and keeps things working. And I am told to cut within those limitations. If that’s the only thing that works…then they need to cut that way.

IMHO

Shane
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[Andrew Kimery]

What was the process for converting all the footage?

Is the camera that shot in the wrong frame rate one of the cameras that goes out of sync?

Does the sync drift or is it always the same amount of frames out of sync?

Is it always the same cameras that go out of sync?

Was there second system audio recorded? If so was in brought in as a polyphonic WAV file?

Has this workflow been successful for you in the past or is there some trailblazing going on?

[Shane Ross] “Where I work, I don’t have a choice on how clips are set up. They are set up in the best way that works and keeps things working. And I am told to cut within those limitations. If that’s the only thing that works…then they need to cut that way. “

We would never give you a 6 cam shoot with each cam stacked on its own video layer. That’s just cruel. 😉

[Shane Ross]

Back in early multicam days of FCP, where it wasn’t solid…we had to do this. And then there’s people who use Pluraleyes…that does this stacking.

And sometimes it’s the best solution for the fast edit when trying to troubleshoot the multicam issues takes more time than it takes to edit. BUT…you have great questions that might lead to the answer

Shane
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Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def

[Andrew Kimery]

[Shane Ross] “Back in early multicam days of FCP, where it wasn’t solid…we had to do this. And then there’s people who use Pluraleyes…that does this stacking.
“

I remember those days too, and I agree that on really quick turn around jobs stacking the video is good enough, but, ugh it’s so clunky. Granted FCP 7’s multicam isn’t exactly smooth like butter but 6 cameras and all of that’s going to have to be flattened (if you are sane) for coloring/online and then inevitably someone will want a change which means going back to the locked offline edit to get access to the other cameras again… oh the humanity. lol

[Nate Winspear]

Hey Guys,

I apologize for not getting back sooner, been a hectic few weeks. Thanks for the great responses. Truly FCP7 multicam, and general media management leaves a lot to be desired. I have only started dabbling in FCPX, I like it, but am not sure if they have fixed these issues.

I agree that stacking clips, especially 6 cams, is cruel and clunky, but unfortunately, deadlines often supersede troubleshooting and since technology has a number of “well that shouldn’t be” types of problems, as Shane mentioned, sometimes we all need to take one for the team to get the edit done. I have used Plural-eyes, but I find it hit & miss. It works pretty well with maybe 2-3 clips and audio if each camera is just one clip, but anymore than that, especially if the camera turns off and on again a lot, producing many clips per camera, I find it often comes back a mess.

Anyway, I seem to have figured out the issue…Or at least got it working. I noticed in the Library, that FCP was not saving any preferences at all (there was no “com.apple.finalcutpro.plist” file). Not sure if that was the culprit, but I chose to re-install FCP and it seems to be working now. Is it possible it wasn’t storing, or shifting, the match frame?

Thanks again to both of you, this is such a great forum.

Nate