[David Eaks]

I think you just need to “tell” FCPX that the clips are from the same camera, or angle, so it puts them on the same track. Fill in camera name, angle etc. in the inspector for all the clips and try making a new multicam clip. If automatic still doesn’t get it right, set the angle assembly and clip ordering to use the info you entered earlier. Also, if it doesn’t get the angle assembly right, you can just rearrange it manually.

When syncing by audio I’ve found that if one of your cameras doesn’t have good audio and won’t sync well, turning on the audio enhancements temporarily just during sync helps.

Alternatively you could make the split clips into single clips by either compounding or exporting but you shouldn’t need to.

[David Eaks]

A search for “the saving private Ryan effect” will probably give you the info you’re looking for.

[David Eaks]

On the completely opposite end of the eye drop spectrum is Rhoto V Ice. They sting like hell (Menthol). After the first time I was given them to try, I figured they came from a gag store but no, it’s a real product.

Not recommended if you want eye drops that don’t sting.

[David Eaks]

Just to add to Brent’s comment for clarity

What used to be called a “Project” in FCP 7, is now an “Event” in FCP X.

What used to be called a “Sequence” (timeline) in FCP 7, is now a “Project” in FCP X.

So, import into Events, edit in Projects. FCP X Projects (again, these are just “timelines”) are not saved inside of an Event, the two are separate. When any given Project is open, ALL Events are available to edit clips into the timeline.

It’s a little weird at first, for sure.

If you don’t want projects and events other than the one you are currently working on to show up when you open FCP X, download EventManagerX. Super simple design, well worth the couple bucks. Before opening FCPX, use it to choose only the project and event you want, then it opens FCP X for you (if FCP X is already open, it will just close and reopen). All app does is make two new folders in finder that FCP X doesn’t look in, and move projects/events to “hide” them. You can easily do the same thing yourself, but EventManagerX handles it so well.

[David Eaks]

Did you cick the little twirl-down arrow next to the mono track in the inspector, to reveal the additional tracks?

Edit

Nevermind, I just tried it myself, could have sworn that both “Expand audio components” and under channel configuration in the inspector showed all of a compound clips audio channels, similar to a multicam clip. Guess not. Lame

[David Eaks]

Just a tip for color matching.

Say you have two angles of the same subject, a CU and a wide. The subject is on stage with a colorful background, CU shot is primarily skin tone and colorful background, while the wide shot has a lot of black in the frame surrounding the stage. These won’t color match well because of all the black. If you temporarily scale the wide shot way up so it is at least similar in overall composition to the close-up, it will match much better. Then reset the scale back to normal. You might be pleasantly surprised by how well (and fast) it can actually work.

For manual color matching have you used the Event Viewer? Select Window> Show Event Viewer. It should be just what you’re asking for.

[David Eaks]

In this instance you can treat the gap clip just as an empty space was treated in legacy. Using the position tool to extend the end of the first clip to completely remove the gap clip will not leave a “hidden piece” of gap clip behind. If there is no frames of black between to two clips, the gap clip is gone.

An alternative to dragging is shift-x. Select out point of first clip, move play head to start of clip 2 (hit the down arrow) and then hit shift-x.

[David Eaks]

That does looks great! I’d probably end up playing it like a game as much as creating for work related purposes 🙂

[David Eaks]

How does FCPX treat the file? A single file, when opened in its own timeline are there two tracks of video and two audio?

If so, I was thinking you could

-duplicate the clip twice and name each “angle 1” and “angle 2” or whatever
-open angle 1 in timeline and disable/delete the unwanted A/V tracks
-repeat the previous step for angle 2 as appropriate
-create multicam clip based on start of clip (instant sync, since it doesn’t really have to do any syncing)
-edit multicam clip
-have wife bring laptop with finished edit to work

However you do it, I’d be interested in hearing more about how it works out. Even seeing a short screen capture of working with the file.

[David Eaks]

What if you copy/paste the clip to a new timeline? Will it render?

Can you bake-in the effect by exporting just that clip and then bring it back in to replace the troublesome clip?