Can someone explain to me how Pluraleyes would work using multiclip? Let say you shoot 1 camera continuously for 1 hr and the the second camera starts and stops a number of times, resulting in many separate clips. When you create a multiclip its going to ask for 1 clip for each camera but in this scenario there will be multiple non contiguous clips for the 2nd camera. How would Pluraleyes be used to sync the two cameras?

One other semi-related issue is if one camera is shooting interlace and the other in progressive. I assume either the progressive will need to be converted into interlace or the interlace convert to progressive in order to put them into the same multiclip. If so which is better to do?

Basically you plop down both cameras in a sequence, tell puraleyes to sync. In the new sequence it creates, your cameras will be synced with gaps where cameras weren't running. You need to then export each video track separately into a qt reference movie which you can then import and put on higher tracks in the sequence. THEN you can select these two new clips and create the multiclip,

I tried it out. I'm curious how an exclusively audio source is dealt with. For example, I recorded a performance that is over 2 hrs long without an intermission. The 3 camera sources that have interruptions for tape changes while the a digital audio recorder has no interruptions. Pluraleyes was able to create a synced sequence but it couldn't create a multiclip because the audio recorder has no video with it. Further complicating the digital audio source needs to be mixed with the cameras to provide the proper balance between the sound board and ambient. I suppose this should be done in an audio editor and added back in at some point.

I also noticed it creates aiff files. can they be deleted after syncing?

You can't use audio only clips in a multi clip. So what I do is duplicate the synced sequence, delete the audio only tracks, export the two (or more) video tracks as separate, new, QT reference movies, then bring those clips back into the sequence on new tracks above the existing tracks.. Make your multi clip from those new movies, put the multiclip on the top track and you'll have a sequence with everything synced and all your audio sources as well as being able to see the gaps in the cameras to know when they're black.

Thats a nice method. Is there any quality lose doing the reference movie thing?

A reference movie is simply pointers to existing files, so nothing new is created. No loss and little hard drive space used.

Further complicating the digital audio source needs to be mixed with the cameras to provide the proper balance between the sound board and ambient. I suppose this should be done in an audio editor and added back in at some point.

As part of creating reference quicktime movies as Geoff recommends, mix your audio straight away in your timeline so that when you export the ref movie from a particular angle you also bake in the audio you want.

I'm getting a green render for my multiclip

edit: seems like when I make multiclip with more than 2 angles I get a green render line above it. Not sure why.

This has more to do with playback. A multiclip forces your computer to display twice as much video information as a regular clip. If you do allow Final Cut to render a multiclip it will basically get rid of the non0selected angle so it looks like there's only one angle. So don't render multiclips, or at least not until the edit is complete.

As one of the final steps before going to DVD/blu-ray, I select everything in the timeline, then control click a multiclip and select "collapse multiclips." I don't have any evidence but it stands to reason that this would reduce render time. You can always uncollapse again if needed.

I'm starting to get a better handle on things but I wasted a lot time in the process. I thought it would be easier to adjust the color and brightness then save it as a reference movie instead of apply filters at the multiclip stage. It took 2hrs to export because even though there was no green render line it must need to recreate all the frames. I'm use to working in SD, I've noticed HD needs more renders and it takes longer.