[David Eaks]

This is a fun read, about future possibilities of FCPX and iTunes-

https://www.fcp.co/final-cut-pro/news/1144-why-final-cut-pro-x-s-killer-feature-may-be-yet-to-come

[David Eaks]

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.

[David Eaks]

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.

[David Eaks]

Sure, I really do enjoy FCPX. For me the switch became 99.9% FCPX the day of the 10.0.6 release. I have to admit, after doing my first paid job in FCPX (three 7 hour days of multican lectures with powerpoint slides that needed to be added in), I wasn’t sure if I’d ever use it again. It was miserable. But I continued to play with it and learn its ways.

Well, the obvious advantages of it being 64bit. The native/optimized/proxy workflow is awesome. Love the Multicam. Build your own templates in Motion and keep them in FCPX. Queue up multiple projects for export while also continuing to work. Third party plugin hysteria. Built-in Logic effects. I cant remember the last time I rendered anything in the timeline. “Expand audio components”. Too many great things to think of at once.

IMO the magnetic timeline is superior to the traditional track based NLE. I remember reading comments like “The magnetic timeline is horrible, I can’t have clips going crazy and flying around the timeline when I try to drag a clip into place”. To me, that “crazy flying around” is expected, useful, structured and does precisely what I expect it to do.

There so many little things that just “let me do my work”. I can quickly see and hear what needs to be done, then I do it.

[David Eaks]

In general, I’d avoid messing around in the “FCPX Projects” and “FCPX Events” folders in Finder. Create your folders in the FCPX Project Browser and move projects from within FCPX.

Also check out Event Manager X, $5. Very handy.

[David Eaks]

Looks right to me, that’s exactly how my multicam clips turn out. The gaps are the real time lengths between hitting stop and hitting record again. It would be nice if the angle editor had a magnetic option, so there would not be any empty gaps and at least one angle would occupy every frame of the Multicam Clip. I’ll be submitting that as feedback after posting this, please do use the feedback form for your requests as well.

Assuming the 5D clips were recorded more “precisely” and the extra handles of the 250 will be cut completely, I’d say it looks like a quick and easy job to drop the multiclip in a project, skim through and cut the garbage. I’d find the duraion of that first 5D clip and zoom the timeline so it fills the timeline window. With the angle monitor showing (command-shift-7), skim through watching for black on angle 2, blade at the in point of an empty gap then option-[ to trim it out. Repeat 10-15 times. Share. If you’re keeping the handles from the 250, just look for black on both angles.

If you insist on doing it in the angle editor it’s going to take much longer. In the past I’ve not been able to select two synced clips and move them in the angle editor without them losing sync. Manually moving one clip at a time then using “sync to monitoring angle” for the corresponding clip is a nightmare of unnecessary work and potential clip collisions depending on the varying start/stop times of each camera. IMO, just let the gaps be and edit in the timeline.

[David Eaks]

Hi Bob,

I think AVCHD is great. Although it may be harder for computers to deal with, it hasn’t ever given me a workflow problem. Picture quality (from Sony NX5Us) is practically visually indistinguishable to the same shot in Prores on the AJA Ki Pro (w/ HD-SDI input). With SDHC cards you get very long record times on inexpensive, widely available recording media. When I was still on FCP 7, AVCHD would L&T no problem (big thanks to Shane Ross for that tapeless workflow tutorial, it helped me figure this all out too!). While I mainly record AVCHD as an on location backup to the KiPro’s recording, any time I need to cut in a clip of AVCHD, its almost too easy with FCPX. That said, if the edit is mainly AVCHD and is going to be any more involved than simple cuts and titles, I’ll always convert to Prores.

The data rate confusion is due to the “little b or Big B”… bits or Bytes, 8 bits = 1 Byte. So, Prores is 147Mb/s which is also 17MB/s. See here-
https://web.njit.edu/~walsh/powers/bits.vs.bytes.html

You don’t need to render when the clip and sequence settings match perfectly, which should generally be the case at the start of every project. At least until effects etc. are applied, I always preferred the “Unlimited RT” timeline setting rather than seeing that hideous “unrendered” screen (typing that literally made my stomach churn). Either way, I couldn’t imagine going back after learning FCPX.

[David Eaks]

You have zoomed in the viewer. In the top right click the drop down and choose fit. When zoomed in, you can click and drag the red box to pan around the image.

Here’s a quick overview of the FCPX user interface over at at Izzy Video-
https://www.izzyvideo.com/final-cut-pro-x-tutorial/2-overview-of-the-final-cut-pro-x-interface/

BTW this forum is for FCP7 and before. The forum you should post in would be FCPX Techniques.

[David Eaks]

Is the problem that even if the toothpick is layered to be behind the glass, it still “looks” like it is in front of the glass? I’m guessing that the entire martini glass is clear, the etchings are semi-opaque and toothpick is solid. The etchings are probably to subtle to “cover” the toothpick.I’m thinking you could experiment with altering the color/blend mode/opacity of the portion of the toothpick that is “inside” the glass, to differentiate it from the portion sticking up out of the glass to help sell the look.

Just a thought, I’m sure the experts will chime in with suggestions.

[David Eaks]

As Neil said, you should get those mp3s off the timeline. See here-

https://www.larryjordan.biz/technique-converting-audio-files-for-final-cut-pro/

There isn’t any h.264 video on the timeline also, is there?