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Removing multicam gaps
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I mostly shoot events similar to you, Bill. Multicam events with no stopping during the performance. I do a live multicam edit on the fly recording to my KiPro, with camera cards to fix any poor/missed switches. I just got confirmation from Digital Rebellion that Cut Notes has LTC input on the roadmap. So I could plug my Ki Pro into my iPad and take notes on the fly and import them as to do markers in FCPX, sweet.
But yeah, it’s really great when there are multiple roving cameras covering a live event. I backup the cards to a folder with the camera name, inside a folder for the job. Import them as keywords so the cameras are automatically named in FCPX. Then select all and click new multicam clip, it lines everything right up.
Shooters with disconnected cameras can start/stop freely, it won’t bother me at all (well, to an extent).
I’m curious which part was the most fascinating about my post. When you make a multicam clip, does it not leave the real time gaps? Or do you make new multicam clips for each piece? Like Justin I would also like to not have black gaps in my multicam clips. For reference, my suggestion was intended to just quickly get the garbage cut out for client review, not knowing there was many interviews that need this done at the moment.
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Just a thought if I get what you’re trying to achieve, but have you tried adding one of the angles to a timeline and creating a compound clip with no gaps, then using that compound clip as the master angle and letting the other cam’s clips sync to that?
Jeff Kirkland | Video Producer | Southern Creative Media | Melbourne Australia
http://www.southerncreative.com.au | G+: https://gplus.to/jeffkirkland | Twitter: @jeffkirkland -
So long as all of the Clips that were compounded are longer than the individual clips to be synced. Otherwise there might be problems with clip collisions I’m not sure how FCPX would deal with it.
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You’re right of course, didn’t think of that…
Jeff Kirkland | Video Producer | Southern Creative Media | Melbourne Australia
http://www.southerncreative.com.au | G+: https://gplus.to/jeffkirkland | Twitter: @jeffkirkland -
That’s a really interesting thought…Something similar I had considered was taking the audio from the camera getting the lav and exporting that as one long AIFF. THEN, I’ll sync to that. Again, not sure how FCP would deal with any length differences between cameras–probably would make an extra track in the multiclip, or maybe trim?
That is along the lines of what you are suggesting, right? I guess I add an extra step for myself the way I’m thinking.
Video editor, animator, composer, producer
JustinCrowell.com -
I stopped reading halfway through all the posts on this subject and thought I might just give some tips that will help. Pardon me if something I say here is a duplicate.
I found that if I put a marker at the beginning of the first clip of every angle the sync goes MUCH faster. You select ‘Sync on first marker’ but still leave the ‘Sync using sound’ checked. You put a marker at the first thing you can recognize as happening in all angles such as a clapper or a motion. Leaving the sound sync checked will allows FCPX to ballpark using the markers and then fine-tune using sound. You might find that the markers don’t exactly align in the multicam clip because the audio takes precedence for fine-tuning. I found the ‘first marker’ strategy works by just marking the first clip of many from the same camera. You don’t have to mark each clip. Amazing.
If you had a camera that start/stops all the way through you can avoid getting separate angle for every clip by group selecting the clips and giving them all the same camera name. Then use one of the drop downs to organize by camera name.
Don Smith – Dallas
NewsVideo.com
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Don, that’s very useful advice…but I’m not sure it solves the problem at hand, which is that the clips in a multicam clip synced by audio are placed according to timecode, resulting in gaps if the shoot wasn’t continuous. Am I misreading you?
Video editor, animator, composer, producer
JustinCrowell.com -
If an angle was not shot continuously then you’re going to have gaps. If you didn’t want the clips to sync then don’t include them in the multicam and just lay them over the multicam as you wish. If there are gaps in your MC you want out then edit the clip in a timeline normally and edit out the gaps but you’ll be editing out the same parts from the continuous clip.
It could be that you are really talking about the non-continuous clips ON TOP and its cutting back and forth against your will as you play the MC clip. Double-click on the MC clip to open it and then drag the thumb on the right side for the clip layer you want to be on top. In shorter words, rearrange the clips so that the continuous clip you want on top will be on top.
Don Smith
NewsVideo.com
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I dislike the gaps too, and sometimes multicam syncs (even with pluraleyes) get 95% of the way there but you still need to move things around to fine tune the multicam file in the angle editor. There is an easy solution!
In the angle editor, place your playhead on a random part over two synced clips, and add a marker on each clip. Now you can drag each of them around and minimize the gaps, but still use the marker to sync them back together. Sometimes FCPX will make you use the “position” tool rather then the cursor inside the angle editor, but it works just as well.
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