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Multicam Editing in Final Cut Pro, Part 2

Jun 15, 2010 12:00 PM, By Jan Ozer

Working on the Timeline

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.

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.

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.

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.

Polishing your multiclip edit

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.

Transitions or no transitions?

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.

Continue the discussion on “Crosstalk” the Millimeter Forum.
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