[Gary Bradley]

Well, I had thought to register my informed reaction to the multi-cam capabilities of FCPX and then go back to work (on Avid), but passion that engenders such a lengthy response shouldn’t go unanswered.

You make the case that FCPX isn’t so much a video editing software as a Thought Experiment… it is, and I don’t think $300 is at all excessive for a little excursion into exploring how things might be done differently…”Oh, that’s interesting.” But sometimes we just need to get work done, and we need Perfect Sync Playback because we work with extremely demanding producers and performers who are more interested in their own Thought Experiments, and don’t care about furthering our Professional Development. That’s why it took me several months to find the time to dabble in FCPX multi-cam; and I reported why it can’t currently work for me.

I said, it doesn’t do This; and you respond, Yes, but it does So Much More! And there we stand.

By the way, it’s a common misconception that multi-cam software is meant to re-create the live situation in the truck, so that we contemplative editors can imitate adrenaline-fueled directors. As you report, there are many ways to use the multi-cam playback and some don’t require all angles. Those of us who have done these jobs for many years on many systems would agree; but if the function is there, it should work reliably. Now, I’ve read since posting that my ProRes Proxy footage (chosen because it’s so similar to the DNxHD45 footage that’s worked on Avid) might not be exactly what FCPX prefers for best results; that I should load up my full-res streams and ask FCPX to generate proxies. Maybe that would work better, but in my workflow transcoding 80 hours of footage for each project (sorry, event) might take too long. That’s an experiment for my next downtime period.

Oh, and reading threads elsewhere about the initial impossibility of making an audio-only 1 or 2 frame dissolve– a problem now solved by torturous multi-step procedures– doesn’t make an attractive prospect for editing. Especially when Avid says to me: “You liked the way the dissolve smoothed that blip? Would you like me to apply that same effect to every cut on your selected tracks between your in and out marks? Happy to oblige, Master!”

From Barbara Eden to Talleyrand via Bertolucci:
“He who has not lived in the years before the revolution cannot know what the sweetness of living is.”

[Gary Bradley]

m-resolutions were a work-around designed specifically for Avid Meridien systems. On Adrenaline and newer, you’ll get better performance with 15:1s or 4:1s. (I’ve been cutting multi-cam on Avid since 1992.)