The exponential greatness of multicam in FCPX

[Scott Witthaus]

[Herb Sevush] ” In this thread I’m asking for someone to show me how X can help me improve my efficiency in cutting multicam. “

Why don’t you buy it and try it for yourself? I seem to remember Aindreas all up in my sh** when I asked a similar question about Premiere CC. So I’ve got the free trial and will see for myself. You should too.

Scott Witthaus
Senior Editor/Post Production Supervisor
1708 Inc./Editorial
Professor, VCU Brandcenter

[James Villeneuve]

Hey Bret,

In regards to your problem with the single multicam reference across different timelines…

I think I know how you could deal with that. I came across your ‘multicam problem’ in a different situation. I was working on a project with someone. We had identical libraries and we were sending each other xmls of our work. But things got weird when he updated a multicam with some new angles and then used it on a new timeline. When he sent me that timeline/xml and I imported it… the multicam clip on his new timeline didn’t have his added angles. I realized his xml was still referencing the original multicam clip in my library. So the first multicam was the only thing that would register. His updated multicam clip was confused by FCPX with the older one. SO, I managed to fix that problem, thusly…

what I did was create a new, empty library and imported the xml into that one. The project popped in and was, of course, off line. Then, I created a second, empty event in the new library. I dragged the offline project into the new library. for some wonderful reason, when you do that, the second event now displays all the media used in that offline project, INCLUDING the multicam in question. Well, I renamed that multicam clip as Version two. Then I dragged that second empty event BACK INTO the original library with all the media. Everything reconnected instantly and I had a second, separate updated multicam clip in the event browser.

I think if you had exported an xml of your music video project each time you needed to create an alternate multicam version and followed those steps, you’d have saved yourself that painful work around. I know what I just described seems long and drawn out, but it only takes a minute to do once you figure it out.

If you get a chance, test it out. I’m wondering if I just got lucky with my solution or it is something that could help you with your very specific multicam riddle.

Good Luck!

James.

[Bret Williams]

I was just saying changes to v2 could affect v1 if you weren’t careful. For example if I just REPLACED an angle with the different chorus angle, well, v1 would now have v2’s chorus. So, if I had 15 angle options for a chorus in v1, and v2 used the same multicam, then any changes in v2 needed to be in additional angles.

BUT! James pointed out a feature that I should have used. I should have made a snapshot of the project – a year old feature in FCP X where instead of duplicating the sequence, you make a snapshot, which locks everything in time. And compounds or multi cams (I assume) get locked to their own version. Kinda like nests in FCP 7 when you duplicate the sequence. Those nests no longer link to anything in the bin, they exist only within the timeline.

So you should be able to snapshot v1, then open the snapshot and start editing it as version 2 as the multicam should now be it’s own entity.

So all is well. Still, flattening a multicam would be nice.

[Herb Sevush]

[Scott Witthaus] “Why don’t you buy it and try it for yourself?”

I’m not the kind of editor that bounces between different systems – one day on Legacy, the next on FCPX, the next on Avid. I’m amazed at people who have that ability. For me I need complete immersion in order to internalize the command structure and not let the tools get in the way of the editing. For this reason I’m very cautious and slow to change NLE’s, but when I do it’s all in – to the extant that within a few months I find it hard to go back to whatever i had been editing on previously, no matter how long I had done it before. For that reason I don’t “try out” anything – I research and learn as much as I can and then commit.

This thread is an opportunity for learning about the strengths of different tools and workflows, centered around multicam. It might help someone decide which tool might be best for them, it might teach them new techniques with the tools they are presently using.

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
—————————
nothin’ attached to nothin’
“Deciding the spine is the process of editing” F. Bieberkopf

[Bret Williams]

Here’s a screenshot. Not quite as crazy as I remembered, but still a mess. What I ended up doing, to keep things manageable, was instead of adding every change to a new angle, I put changes into an open gap in the timeline wherever possible, foregoing any sort of organization that was there with v1 so that I’d have less angles to deal with overall. So were angle 5 might have been take 4 in the first video, an open gap in that angle may have been filled with some broll or a different take of a verse in version 2. So that angle didn’t pertain to any particular take or angle or camera in any way by the end. If the individual angles had any sort of organization like that, the final would have had 20-30 angles instead of 10. It made sense that week. But now it just looks like a mess. Oh, every single shot had to be synced by hand even though they recorded boom box audio on camera. My guess is the boom box played at a different speed. Couldn’t get one single shot to match with the CD audio. Looking back, I’d suggest the WHOLE song be recorded in the field over the camera audio and THAT be the master audio for the edit. THEN, once synced, swap that for the CD audio.

[James Ewart]

That is an excellent suggestion/idea. I think that would be the solution. This was before I was using snapshots and realized their usefulness. I use them now assume that would work in the same way it locks in a compound clip. Someone should test it for me. :

It’s nice to occasionally be able to contribute. Would copying and pasting the project be any different to a basic duplicate? (sorry I am going off topic a bit))

[Bret Williams]

Any copying, pasting, duplicating of a project or elements retains all connections to the master clip and multi cam or compound. It can bite you in the … If you’re not careful. For example I do a lot of compounds inside compounds for graphics like a product screen with details and text animation. I might have to do that same treatment 3 or 4 times in the same video. So Ill duplicate the compound and choose reference new parent clip, then open it and choose the inner compound and choose reference new parent clip again and again and again for each nested compound. If you’ve ever done AE work you probably get it. It becomes second nature until someone distracts you and you screw up a previous video or part of a video.

[Bret Williams]

Totally good stuff. And I do a bit of XML in rough cuts with the client so Im familiar. Part of the issue I also had was that both videos were encountering changes at once. So one was a variation of the other. So at least sharing the same multiccam meant if something changed that was the same in both, it could be changed in both fairly easily.

In any case, it’s all an issue with multicam to be taken into consideration early on. A simple flattening command would provide a fairly obvious fix, even if a few changes trickled in after.

[Andrew Kimery]

[Herb Sevush] “if Avid’s multicam, which has always been excellent, has kept up with the other two, and I’d love to hear from some Avid editor’s about that comparison.”

Avid’s multicam is unchanged so in terms of initially creating the multicam and tweaking it after creation Avid’s implementation lags way, w-a-y behind PPro and FCP X. Using something like PluralEyes can help out with the initial sync but overall PPro and X require much less time and effort to get things up and running.

[Oliver Peters]

I haven’t done a lot of mcam in X, but two things that bother me are: 1) the fact that audio gets cut with every edit (you have to detach/connect if you want one clean track of audio), and 2) you cannot collapse the mcam clips once you are done.

I have been doing a lot in PPro and I like it. However, one issue I see is that sizing has issues. For example, I do this at a TV station (as a freelancer) and they shoot 1080 and cut 720 for air. This gives them the ability to reframe/resize. While cutting, it all looks right. But once you go back into the 720p sequence to work with the mcam, the sizing isn’t right. I’m not sure how X deals with that same situation.

– Oliver

Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com