Multi camera shoot editing, questions

[Bill Rabkin]

I’ve done a lot of multicam projects with FCP, and may be able to help.

Please describe in more detail exactly what problems you are having. Which sync option did you choose? How is auto sync not working for you? Describe how you want to move clips around.

[Ty Ford]

Oh, Jeeze. Thanks Bill.

I’m using external SSD drives. FCP X 10.4.10.

FCP got sticky yesterday and I did a restart. Sync worked well.

However, when the Shooter turned in the cards today, he told me that he was shooting 29.97. I asked him if he remembered us going on about 23.976 at the pre-shoot meeting and he said no. So, I have double record audio at 23.976 and his video at 29.97. It synced with my test footage from yesterday, but he said he was still at 29.97.

Can I convert his 29.97 to 23.976? Do I need to if I want my production to be at 23.976?

Today, syncing with the real footage from yesterday isn’t working. I’m pretty sure I’m using the same settings. Sync option is Automatic. Use Audio for Synchronization. Yesterday I had the test sync clip with one audio track and the two cameras. I could pull the audio down in the video clips and hear just the double recorded audio. (or not) and everything was in sync. Now I can’t get it to sync.

The timeline thing is about moving elements on the timeline. They are not allowing me to slide. They jump to places I don’t want them to.

Thanks,

Ty

[Ty Ford]

And surprise! Camera clips got out of sequence with the slate. Once I found the right camera clip, it synced right up to the audio. So maybe that part is solved.

[Bill Rabkin]

I’ve never dealt with the type of conversion you need, but I searched the web for “convert 29.97 to 23.976” and found several items that might be useful. Apple Compressor can convert frame rates, and this post on fcp.co describes several tests with different Compressor parameters:

https://fcp.co/forum/4-final-cut-pro-x-fcpx/22174-29-97p-to-23-976-24p

If you don’t have Compressor, you can obtain it on the Mac App store ($50).

[Ty Ford]

Thanks for your help, Bill.
I’ll look into them.

Regards,

Ty

[Joe Marler]

The problem with 29.97 in a 23.98 timeline is motion cadence, or jerky movement on some types of movement. You can try FCP optical flow rate conforming. It can often smooth out the required rate conform, but it requires additional computation when rendering. Optical flow conforming can sometimes introduce morphing artifacts, but it generally works fairly well.

To use optical flow rate conforming, select a clip in the timeline with a non-matching frame rate (29.97 in your case), then in the FCP video inspector, scroll to bottom and under Frame Sampling, select Optical Flow. Then select that clip in the timeline, render with CTRL+R, and examine the playback smoothness. If that works, do all the clips with frame rates that differ from the timeline rate.

[Ty Ford]

Thanks, Joe,
I appreciate your detailed answer. I’ll give that a try.
Do you think converting the 29.97 clips with Compressor is also a solution?

[Joe Marler]

Compressor can do optical flow rate conforming but I haven’t tried that. The issue is each scene must be checked. For some scene types it works perfectly. For others (say with complicated backgrounds and a dancer moving in front) it can cause morphing artifacts.

If that happens you then try the other rate conforming options such as nearest neighbor or frame blending, render the clip in place with CTRL+R, then evaluate. That must be repeated for each clip or scene type. That is the cost when someone shoots the wrong frame rate.

Due to the varying behavior it might be best to not bulk convert the footage, esp. if only a small portion will be used in the final edit. If you convert all the material, then that gets edited into the timeline, then you find there’s an artifact (because you didn’t scrutinize every second of material) you’ll have to frame match those clips, find the corresponding original material, replace the timeline clips and reconform it using a different algorithm.

Certain rate conforming pathways are harder than others. Going from 60 to 30 is easy. 24 to 30 is harder but is common. 30 to 24 is really difficult.

Gerald Undone discusses mixing frame rates in this video. At 09:18, see especially his discussion of using 30 (ie 29.97) material in a 24 (ie 23.98) timeline.

https://youtu.be/qAVfIQ2G7Io?t=558

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[John Fishback]

Hi, Ty. You may already have Wave Agent from Sound Devices. One of its functions lets you reset the metadata of audio files from 23.976 to 29.97 or other fps. Although, audio hasn’t frames, resetting the metadata of the audio file may enable easier syncing. It’s worked for me and is a lot faster than changing the video.

[Ty Ford]

Thanks, John,

I was headed in that direction. I had to do an OS X upgrade on a machine and let it simmer a bit. Thanks for reaching out, John!

Regards,

Ty