Puzzle on editing clips before combining into a muliticam clip

[KevinKillion]

I have video from a wedding (mine!) shot with three different analog cameras. During the ceremony itself, all three cameras were running consistently with the intent of someday simplifying an edit. That’s great …. except that each camera was used before and after the ceremony for other shots (arrivals, the reception, etc. With this footage now in FCP, I have clips that each contain the ceremony part but also other stuff. HERE’S THE PROBLEM: In all the YouTube videos I’ve seen, selection of clips to be assembled into a Multicam clip is done in the Browser (not the Timeline), but spliting of clips is done in the Timeline (not the Browser). How can I split up my footage into ceremony and non-ceremony pieces and THEN make a MC clip from the ceremony pieces? THANKS FOR IDEAS!

 

[Jorgos]

First of all, congratulations on your wedding.


I would find the starting point on each clip for the bit you want as a multiclip and mark an in point (press i on keyboard) and then make a multiclip. It should give you the option to sync them up either by in point or audio. Either should work, but you may need to adjust them a little if they are slightly out of sync. You can then edit it down in the timeline.
Then you can also use the original clips and cut mark in and out points for the before and after ceremony pieces you want and edit them in a separate timeline.

 

[KevinKillion]

Jorgos, thank you for the excellent suggestions. Trimming down the clips going into the multiclip will certainly help, and I didn't know I could use I and O that way in the Browser, even though I can't cut there.
But a problem remains: Sometimes source clips contain two or more elements BOTH of which are to be used in the multiclip. For example, in the wedding tapes, one camera (an old VHS camcorder, this is back a ways!) was turned off and back on, but another camera was left on the whole time. So I'm starting with two clips in the Browser, something like this, containing moments in the ceremony we might call 1 through 9:
First cam skips moment "5": 1234678
Second cam has full sequence from 3 to 9: 3456789

In creating a multiclip, FCP does a great job in finding the portion "678" that matches between the two, and displays this:

From there, I could find the place in the first where the break occurs (between 3 and 6), cut there, and move the left portion to the left appropriately, like this:

However, I had to MANUALLY fiddle to sync the two so that the "34" syncs.

Coincidentally, I just had the same situation occur again: Two people shot a work event with their phones, but one person stopped and started and the other left the video rolling.

So the question remains. Is there any way to handle this situation and let FCP sync the pieces without a manual sync?

THANK YOU.

 

[Jorgos]

Jorgos, thank you for the excellent suggestions. Trimming down the clips going into the multiclip will certainly help, and I didn't know I could use I and O that way in the Browser, even though I can't cut there.
But a problem remains: Sometimes source clips contain two or more elements BOTH of which are to be used in the multiclip. For example, in the wedding tapes, one camera (an old VHS camcorder, this is back a ways!) was turned off and back on, but another camera was left on the whole time. So I'm starting with two clips in the Browser, something like this, containing moments in the ceremony we might call 1 through 9:
First cam skips moment "5": 1234678
Second cam has full sequence from 3 to 9: 3456789

In creating a multiclip, FCP does a great job in finding the portion "678" that matches between the two, and displays this:

View attachment 1821101
From there, I could find the place in the first where the break occurs (between 3 and 6), cut there, and move the left portion to the left appropriately, like this:

View attachment 1821100
However, I had to MANUALLY fiddle to sync the two so that the "34" syncs.

Coincidentally, I just had the same situation occur again: Two people shot a work event with their phones, but one person stopped and started and the other left the video rolling.

So the question remains. Is there any way to handle this situation and let FCP sync the pieces without a manual sync?

THANK YOU.

I'm so sorry. I forgot to follow this up and it has been quite a long time since I flicked through the forums here.

In your situation you may find it easier to do this all manually. I would probably start by putting the clip with all the portions onto your timeline. Find a moment near the beginning of portion 3 when something definitive happens - such as someone talking when they begin to open their mouth or blink.Then I would put the second one above it and shuffle the beginning until it's pretty close to the first one's timing. You will have to then move it frame by frame and turn the visibility on and off to see the first clip to get it as close as you can. Find the point where the recording stopped and cut the top clip at that point. Then move the remaining portions across until they are over the respective point in time on the bottom clip. Go through manually moving it until they line up time wise again.

Once you have both clips in roughly the right spot you go through and cut out parts of the top clip to reveal the bottom clip. If you need to slip them a frame or so either way if sync issues arise you can just do that with the top clip at that point. You can often get away with cutaway shots being a frame out of sync. Moving them one frame is easy in FCP. Just click on the clip you want to move then hit either the , or . buttons to move it one frame left or right.

I'm sorry it is such a manual operation. Just the way it is sometimes.