Final Cut X to DaVinci with 3 different cameras

[Mads Nybo jørgensen]

Hey Dori,

Unless you have a huge budget, you really should give your colorist the cameras as individual tracks – otherwise, it’ll be a clip-by-clip grade…

Are you working in multicam mode?

If inside FCPX magnetic timeline, you can group roles into lanes.
There are plenty of tutorials around on how to do that.

Hope that this helps?

Atb
Mads

[Devrim Akteke]

Hi,

Just to be clear, you are editing these three cameras in Multicam mode, right?

Unfortunately it is a pain to flatten a multicam clip. Thinking about the duration of a concert it is not something you can do manually. If you are not using multicam but clips on top of each other, that is the way you can use roles to identify them and do some work on the timeline and you can manage that. I think the best way could be telling the colorist the names of the clips from each camera. 3 cameras are not much. He can identify those in Da Vinci. There is no easy job unfortunately. Everybody has to work a little more when needed.

[Dori Cohen]

Thank you for the reply. Yes, thats exactly what the colorist is asking of me -to give him individual tracks with each camera model on its own track. I looked up Roles and added the video Roles plus colors to some clips in order to differentiate. But my concern is that this info will not transfer over via XML. Is that right? or does it transfer?

As far as I can tell lanes only work for Audio clips, is that right or am i missing something?

Is there a way to get the video clips on separate tracks with the use of roles? Haven’t been able to find anything like that online but thats exactly what i need. I see it for audio but not video.

thanks again.

Dori

[Mads Nybo jørgensen]

Hey Dori,

Sorry, I have not worked on FCPX recently, as Apple does not appear to be serious about developing features, as oppoesed to versions for iPad etc – however, this does not help you.

What you must do!

Create 1 frame sync blop at the front of every “track” video and audio (1st frame!). So who ever get the exports can easily sync audio and video.

Then, although time-consuming, might be able to move you forward at speed:

Save a copy of your Master Project (timeline) for safe keeping.

Then make copy, call it cam 1, delete all camera 2 and 3 footage from that project.

Do the same for camera 2 and 3.

IMPORTANT: Make sure that the sync blop is also exported too).

For good measure included MP4 with BITC (and sync blop), so everybody in the chain can split check their timeline against the edited version.

Hope that this helps you?

Atb
Mads

[Devrim Akteke]

Hi,

To add Mads’ advice, you cannot exactly do it as he recommended but you can achieve it this way.

First, go inside your multicam clip and assign a video role to every angle. Right-click the video and choose assign video angle and probably you don’t have angle 1 or angle 2 roles so edit roles and create new video roles. Then assign every angle. Then go back to your edit timeline and open the timeline index with command F, and type angle 1 and select all in the index, all angle 1 clips will be selected on the timeline and copy and paste them onto a new timeline. You will see the name of your multicam clip instead of angle names but don’t worry it will select correct angles. Place a blank adjustment layer between angles to keep every angle as if they are on separate tracks. Do this for all your 3 angles. This way you will have them all on the same timeline. And you can export 3 angles in a high-quality codec like Prores 4444 so the colorist can use those tracks.

Screenshot-2025-03-02-at-20.23.43.png 861 KB Image File - Click to view

• Copy Download Link

Screenshot-2025-03-02-at-20.23.19.png 545 KB Image File - Click to view

• Copy Download Link

[Eric Santiago]

Seems like a pain that a colorist would want it in different tracks.
I’ve edited enough features, multi-track concerts and music vids and never had to provide it that way.

Good luck sir, hopefully this works out for you.

[Mads Nybo jørgensen]

Hey Eric,

You would have thought so.

But as this is a 3-camera concert, which we assume is within one venue. Then having the 3 cameras on separate tracks makes it easier to set the base black and other levels for the whole concert, for each camera (matched to the other cameras). And, then only tweak areas where needed.

Obviously, if it is 3 x files only, then one might be able to do it on the rushes. But there are no guarantees that will work, as every NLE has their own way of doing it. Neither do we know whether the cameras are the same model, or a mix of whatever was available.

When there is a lot of uncertainties, you go back to basics.

Atb
Mads

[Devrim Akteke]

I second that, Mads. We all want a perfect flow, but sometimes, when we encounter a situation that is beyond what it should be, we have to do the best we can to accomplish the job.

[Paul Carlin]

Just to add one more option… you can transfer the project to Resolve yourself. Once you have sucessfully transferred the project, assign clip colors to the different cameras in the media pool, then organize the layers on the timeline based on the clip color. Use Timeline > Select Clips with Clip Color to easily select all the clips of one color at once.

Then export a DRT (timeline) and DRP (project) and send that to the colorist along with the source media used in the Resolve project. You can use the Resolve Media Management tools to consolidate the media, with handles, to reduce the amout of material to only what is needed.

If you are going to learn a new NLE, learn Resolve and use that to edit your next project, not Premiere Pro. Your wallet will thank you as well.