Multicam Editing in Final Cut Pro, Part 2

Figure 1. Whether you're a novice or advanced producer, you'll find a lot of value in this new book from Mitch Jacobson.

Last time out, we discussed shooting for multicam editing, and syncing your clips for multicam editing in Apple Final Cut Pro. This time out, I'll detail how to work with clips in the Viewer, how to switch camera angles, how to optimize playback in the Timeline, and other production details.

Figure 2. Here are the 10 angles from a Paul McCartney concert, footage courtesy of MPL Tours.

Since we last talked, I got a wonderful present in the mail: the new book from Mitch Jacobson titled Mastering MultiCamera Techniques (2010, Focal Press, $54.95). Briefly, it's 450 pages long and covers everything from where to position the cameras to what to name the tapes to cutting techniques and styles, with descriptive quotes from such editors as Thom Zimney, who produces Springsteen concerts, and Tim Squyres, who got an Academy Award for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Jacobson has some pretty impressive chops himself, having produced for the Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, and Elton John.

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Multicam Editing in Final Cut Pro, Part 1 Multicam editing is probably the most concrete distinction between consumer and professional productions. In this two-part tutorial, I'll detail the workflow for using Apple Final Cut Pro's multicam editing feature. In this issue I'll focus on covering the shoot and syncing your clips; next time I'll cover choosing camera angles and other multicam editing details...

And, there's lots of good stuff in between, including how multicam differs for productions such as sitcoms, concerts, weddings, and worship services, and working with IMAG projectors. It's the kind of book that offers a lot of value to shooters and editors of any experience levels, and I know that I'll use it frequently going forwards with my multicam productions. Anyway, the DVD with the book has seven bonus chapters, a 21-minute overview tutorial on producing multicam footage in Final Cut Pro, and practice clips with up to 20 angles of a multicam shoot, which I'll use for this portion of the article. The Paul McCartney clips on the DVD, and images hereof, are courtesy of MPL Tours, Inc., Executive Producer, Sir Paul McCartney.

The footage was jam-synced at the show, so I synced the clips together into a multiclip using Final Cut Pro's Make Multiclip option, synchronize using timecode.

Figure 3. Fine-tuning the sync of the clips.

Let's spend a few paragraphs working in the Viewer. As I mentioned in the first article, multiclip names are italicized in the Browser, and multiclips work pretty much like normal clips—you double-click them to load them into the Viewer, play them with keystroke commands or player controls, and drag or keystroke them into a sequence. Before you get started editing, however, you should check the accuracy of your sync, particularly if you synced via in and out points rather than timecode.

To do this, double-click the multiclip to load it into the Viewer, then drag the playhead to a frame where you can easily assess the accuracy of the sync. If any clip is out of sync, press Control and Shift, then drag over the thumbnail in the Viewer to the left or right. You can see the timecode in the clip on the upper left in Figure 3. To be clear, the clips in my multicam synced perfectly, and I'm dragging the top frame on the top left below out of sync by shifting it back by five frames just to show you how it's done. Don't sweat, I'll undo the edit the moment I finish typing this sentence.

If you want to move the location of a camera angle in the multiclip Viewer, press the Command key and drag it to the new location. To delete a clip from the multiclip, first, make sure it's not the active clip (no blue or green box around it), then press the Command key and drag it outside the Viewer. More on the active clip below.

Figure 4. You can add camera angles to the multiclip using this overlay command.

You can add another clip to the multiclip by dragging it from the Browser into the Viewer, which will open the overlay comand shown below. Inserting the new angle will add it to the multclip, overwriting the angle will replace the one you're dragging it over, and inserting the new angle into affiliates will insert the angle into all sequences that include that multiclip.

Figure 5. Choosing the number of angles shown in the Viewer.

Note that the impact of inserting a new clip into the multiclip will vary by the method used to sync the clips. For example, on Jacobson's project, I used timecode to sync the clips. When I dragged in a different camera angle from the same song from the previous night's show, Final Cut Pro expanded the project from 3 minutes to 24 hours and 3 minutes, which makes perfect sense, but isn't the desired result. In this case, it makes more sense to add the clip via overwrite edit in the timeline rather than inserting it into the multiclip.

Figure 6. The green and blue boxes surrounding the clip on the top right mean that's the active clip for both audio and video.

Jacobson's DVD gave me 10 McCartney clips to play with, so I needed to expand the number of angles shown in the Viewer. To do this, I clicked the View popup menu and chose the desired view. Understand that while your multiclips can contain up to 128 videos, you can only view 16 at time.

If you have more clips in your multiclip than the number of angles available in the Viewer, Final Cut Pro will insert arrows in the thumbnails on the top and bottom right, as shown in Figure 6, that you can click to view the other clips.

Now let's start thinking about working with the clips in our sequence. You'll note that the clip on the top right in Figure 6 has blue and green boxes around it. This means that it's the active clip in the multiclip for both audio (green box) and video (blue box). By "active," I mean if you added the multiclip to a sequence, the audio and video that played in the Canvas would be from that clip.

Figure 7. Unsyncing audio and video so you can use the selected audio track for the entire production.

As you know, many times with multicam productions, one camera will have the primary audio, either via a connection to the sound board or a microphone. In these instances, when switching camera angles, you'll want to maintain the audio on that camera angle, and change only the video angles, not audio. To do this, add the multiclip to the sequence as normal, and click the camera angle with the audio to select it. Then, click the Viewer's playhead sync pop-up menu, and choose Video. From then on, all changes in camera angles with be video only, and the audio will come from the first camera angle that you selected. If you recorded audio separately from any camera, so to DAT or CD recorder, choose the camera angle with the easiest to view waveform to serve as the reference audio. Obviously, don't use audio that's too low to really see, or is peaking beyond all recognition.

Figure 8. Audio and video are unsynced, so the blue video box surrounds one clip, the green audio clip another.

After you unsync the audio and video and change camera angles, the green box should remain on the selected clip and the blue box following the active video track. You can see this in Figure 8.

Finally, to view the fancy overlay and timecode text over your camera angles (a killer feature), click View > Show Multiclip Overlays.

Figure 9. To sync your Viewer and Canvas, choose these settings in your RT popup menu.

Get your multiclip to the timeline using your favored technique. I'm a drag-and-drop guy, so I'd just drag it down into the target track. Now you're ready to edit your multiclip. Let's take a moment to think about how that will work.

The multiclip on the timeline gives you access to all the angles contained in the Viewer, while the Canvas shows you the active video angle and you hear the active audio angle. In a moment, you'll start playing your multiclip in realtime, and switching camera angles via keystroke commands or clicks. Conceptually, for this to happen, you need the Viewer containing the multiclip and the Canvas to be in sync and continuously update as the multiclip plays on the timeline. To accomplish this, make sure that the settings in your RT popup menu match those shown in Figure 9. In particular, if Multiclip Playback is not enabled, the multiclip in your Viewer won't update as the multiclip plays in the Timeline, so you won't be able to see your camera angles in realtime.

Figure 10. Make sure Open is enabled in both the Viewer and the Canvas.

The other settings that you'll need to check are the playhead sync popup menu on the Viewer and Canvas, which needs to be set to Open on both.

When you're set, make sure the desired starting camera angle is selected in the Viewer, then click the Space bar to start playback. As the multiclip progresses, click the new camera angle in the viewer to change camera angles. Don't sweat if you're off a moment or two, because you can easily edit your choices on the timeline.

Figure 11. You'll see these little gray markers on the timeline as you switch angles in the viewer.

While you're playing the multiclip and switching angles, you'll see little gray marker appear where you switch angles. You can see these above the timeline in Figure 11.

Once you click the spacebar to stop playback, these gray bars will become true cuts, as shown in Figure 12. Note that the audio file stays on the same angle because of the choice we made in Figure 7.

Figure 12. Here are the edit points showing the different camera angles.

If you'd prefer keyboard shortcuts to clicking in the Viewer, you can use the numeric keypad on your keyboard to switch by clicking Tools > Keyboard Layout > Multi-camera Editing. Note that clicking the corresponding number will switch the camera angles, but not insert the cuts. This will appear confusing at first, because the little gray markers will appear while you're playing the multiclip, but the actual edit points will never show up.

To actually insert the cuts, hold the Command key while choosing the numbers. If you have more than 10 angles in your multiclip (0 corresponds to angle 10) then you'll have to create your own custom keyboard shortcuts for the additional angles. While customizing the keyboard, you can also configure the numeric keypad to cut rather then switch. You can find a short tutorial on this here.

Figure 13. Adjusting the edit point with the Roll Tool.

Once you're finished with your realtime edits, it's time to review your work. If you're editing McCartney or Elton John, or similarly high-budget projects, you probably want to review every cut point individually. For lower-budget jobs, I would scrub through the timeline looking for edit points that look awkward. Most of the time, you can fix the problem via the Roll Tool, dragging the edit point one way the other to smooth out the transition. That's what I did in Figure 13, though the Roll Tool cursor didn't get grabbed by the screen capture tool.

If you need to switch camera angles on the timeline, right click the camera angle, and choose Active Angle and the desired angle, which Final Cut Pro will switch with the current angle.

I've gone round and round on transitions between camera angles and generally use a four- to five-frame cross-dissolve, which is generally unnoticeable to the viewer, but smooths the flow from angle to angle. I've gone longer for effect, as in long slow dissolves between camera angles in a soulful number, but typically keep it short.

I asked Mitch Jacobson for his take on the subject, and it turned out to be quite the political football. Here's what Mitch said:

"I interviewed over 100 people for this book. Many—most—are not into transitions between shots. Some are so adamantly against it that arguments broke out between the editors and producers. One director, Gary Halvorson—who does everything from Friends to the Macy's [Thanksgiving] Day Parade to the Live at The Met in HD HATES dissolves! He says the are are crutch—it's about being in the moment at the right moment. Other directors love the long dissolves and say they make a big show bigger. Matter of taste, I guess."

So that's multicam from the shoot to the sync to the edit, wit a little bit of the art mixed in between. I hope you find it helpful.