Capture Time and Date on Final Cut Pro
 

Sorry if this question is elementary in nature. I'm still a newbie!

I shot an instructional video using two different cameras, and now I'm having a heck of a time trying to get them to match up. Camera A, which I was manning, has tons of cuts, while Camera B, a static camera, just ran pretty much non-stop. Now I'm trying to cut back and forth and I don't even know where to begin.

I know iMovie is able to capture info from the camera, so if you 2x clicked on a clip in the timeline, it'll say the time and date it was captured. So I thought if that was possible in Final Cut, it would be less painful to edit my unorganized footage. But searching through Google and these forums have come up zilch.

Any low-cost suggestions? Thanks.

Hello,

Final Cut Pro's multicam feature could easily handle cuts from both your sources. You'd have to line up each clip using in points first, but it works even if your timecode isn't in sync. You'll have to re-sync the two clips (Cam A and B) and make a new multicam clip each time your A camcorder stops and starts timecode. A lot of work, but the multicam workflow benifits are all worth it. iMovie doesn't have a multicam feature. As far as the date and time thing goes, I don't know. I've only had to add timecode burns to clips, never a date and time. I hope this helps,

CJ Rogers

Nicky,

I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but you do indeed have a bit of a mess on your hands. The time and date info that you're referring to, FCP does not read.

Cale is correct that the multicam feature could be of some use, but without matching timecode on both tapes, I'm not sure how his solution could work. Multicam/multiclip has a rigid set of criteria for it to be able to work, and I think he's overlooked some things.

The only thing I can suggest is to lay your master shot on a timeline, and then lay in each clip from the sporadic second camera above it. And yes, you're just going to have to sync by eye and ear. If you've never done it before, you've got your work cut out for you.

At that point, cutting between the two cams is just a matter of blading the second camera and removing material.