Multiclip editing in Final Cut

Recently been preparing an exercise / demonstration to illustrate the uses of merging clips and using multiclips within Final Cut Pro, synchronised using free run timecode.

A really good exercise will be to setup a two camera shoot, say to record an interview, with the audio being handled by a separate audio recorder with all three devices synchronised together using FREE RUN timecode.

Once the footage is captured, both clips can have the same higher quality audio attached by simply using the MERGE CLIPS (by timecode) command which is fine when dealing with single pieces of footage with separate audio. However, a neater method when using multiple cameras is to use the MAKE MULTICLIP (by timecode) command. This will create a multiclip containing the two camera angles and the higher quality audio file (the same method could also be used if one of the cameras was used to record the audio too). By using the MULTICLIP ACTIVE TRACKS command and setting this to VIDEO ONLY, it is possible to carry out a live edit, toggling between to the two camera angles, whilst still keeping the audio track constant. For an edit to be achieved in real time, one must remember to set the PLAYAHEAD SYNC to "OPEN" so that the VIEWER and CANVAS windows are ganged together.

As with all of my teachings, I have created a Quicktime tutorial file showing these methods, but the quality, once posted onto Blogger is not particularly great - however, it's here for reference if anyone is interested in viewing it....



Following on from what I said earlier about using the MERGE CLIP command, something to touch up here in relation to that is that of nesting sequences within sequences. Let's say that some footage has had its separately recorded audio file aligned to it using the MERGE CLIP (by timecode) function. What will have been created now is a clip containing BOTH the camera's on board audio and the separate audio; i.e. 4 audio tracks. To make it so that each time a section of this clip is used, audio tracks 1 and 2 don't have to be manually removed or muted, another neat trick to drag the clip onto a new sequence, remove the camera's audio and then edit this sequence into the main edit sequence, if that makes sense!