Syncing Video for a Multiclip sequence

[Michael Sacci]

For the camera that has breaks in it. Set timelines’s timecode to match the clips, then lay all the clips so the timecode of the clips and sequence matches, which we leave black gaps in the breaks. Then export this as a self contained movie and you that when you make the multiclip with the other 2 clips.

[Nathan Alber]

Will I lose any quality by exporting/importing from the timeline? the video is ProRes 422 from HDV.

[Nick Meyers]

“Will I lose any quality by exporting/importing from the timeline?”

none at all if you do it this way:

export as a QuickTime Movie,
use the Current Settings.
(also no motion effects or filters on the clips: otherwise re-compression is involved)

changing the sequence timecode is pretty irrelevant, as it will only ever match one of your 3 clips.

now this has certain problems:
like if you want to go back to tape, you cant.
you can hedge yr bets by either:
A- making a backup of the file you create
B- saveing your sync-sequnce so you can re-capture & re-export if necessary,
C- both A+B

the other approach is to sync your multiclip by AUX TIMECODE.
for this you would simply add an Aux TC to the V1 clip,
then go to each of the V2 clips, (the start of the clip say, but it doesnt really matter)
and copy the V1 Aux TC at that point, and add it to the V2 clips Aux TC.
(if all V21 clips are from the one master clip, or refer to the one FILE, this wont work, of course)

however my experience with multiclips (FCP 5.02) is that Syncing by in-point is more stable than syncing by aux TC
and my guess is if you;ve captured HDV as ProRes, you wont be going back unless there’s some unmentionable disaster.

hope that helps,
nick

[Nathan Alber]

Nick,

Thanks for all of the useful info… I’ll stay away from AUX TC for now, but I’ll go ahead and export V2 and get to cutting.

I’m working off of three external FW400/800 drives. The ProRes file I created while capturing HDV from my XH A1 is enormous in comparison to HDV. And since my workflow thus far has included FW400/800 drives, I was forced to place the two streams of video on separate disks (one drive just couldn’t read the info fast enough)…

Currently, I’m not backing up my ProRes video because the space is nearly full on my three externals. For now, I think i’ll just keep the source tapes and pray disaster stays away for now.

Again, thanks for the info!
Nathan.

[Jeff Mack]

Nathan,

Here’s a cool trick that I learned from Nate Weaver. Once all three vid tracks are sync’d with each other, put a slug between the first frame on each track and the zero mark on the timeline. The create reference movies of each track. When you create a multiclip, do so by selecting inpoints. It won’t take up any space at all. After your edit, you invoke media manager and copy the used media to another location and delete your original media. This can help manage disk space during your project.

Jeff

[Nathan Alber]

Jeff,

Great idea. I’m all about saving space… i think i have a total of 1.5TB between all of my drives, and I have 4 projects on them. I use ref movies when i create DVDs… I wasn’t sure if FCP6 would like ref movies with a multiclip. This is great news.

Nathan.