FCP Multicam Editing - Do you use it?

[Jonathan Nelson]

Does anyone here use the multiclip editing in FCP?

What do you think of it?

In my experiences, it is one of the buggiest things I have seen in FCP. I love editing multiclips, its fast and easy but FCP acts differently each time I start a new project. It's current favorite thing to do is play the full frame video from the canvas in the viewer which makes multiclip editing impossible. I tried everything to get the viewer to play the angles while the canvas plays the timeline but no luck. I have successfully used it's multiclip editing feature before but it often bails on me.

Sometimes it works, other times it doesnt. One consistent flaw is that it will not switch the blue border to it's corresponding angle during playback. That is just annoying, it still makes the cuts but there is no way of knowing which angle is active and it doesnt update the canvas either.

I guess I could be doing something wrong but I doubt it. If there was some setting I missed, I would be happy to know it.

What I really want to know is if these problems plague everyone.

I will just give up on it if that is the case. The old fashioned way is sounding better and better. However, I will miss the multicam feature, when it worked.

[Nate Weaver]

Multicam I think is indeed the buggiest part of FCP, but do I do get it to work for me on a regular basis. Doing multicam edits the old way were very difficult for client revisions...if they asked you to try a completely different approach for a section often you had to start over....just too difficult the old way.

Couple things on multicam...it relies on the video card quite a bit, so I've found the newer the machine and the graphics card/drivers, the better it works. Anytime multicam has crashed FCP for me, it was when the viewer was trying to bring up all the cameras at once

Originally Posted by Jonathan Nelson

It's current favorite thing to do is play the full frame video from the canvas in the viewer which makes multiclip editing impossible.

Aha. That one took me a while to figure out. What happened is auto-render rendered the whole timeline while you left it open and walked away one time. If the problem sections have a dull blue render bar above them, go into Render Manager, and delete the render files for that sequence. In other words, FCP "rendered" your multicam sections. Dumb, I know.

Originally Posted by Jonathan Nelson

One consistent flaw is that it will not switch the blue border to it's corresponding angle during playback.

Sounds like a video card problem. Is the shot actually changing? I've had variations on this problem, I usually just reboot and things start behaving.

I use multicam on pretty much every project I do, and have done quite a few full length 7-9 camera concerts with it. It can work well enough..if it's not for you I'd do some system repair.

(of course now that I say this, you're going to tell me you have a brand new Mac Pro!)

[Jonathan Nelson]

Originally Posted by Nate Weaver

Multicam I think is indeed the buggiest part of FCP, but do I do get it to work for me on a regular basis. Doing multicam edits the old way were very difficult for client revisions...if they asked you to try a completely different approach for a section often you had to start over....just too difficult the old way.

Couple things on multicam...it relies on the video card quite a bit, so I've found the newer the machine and the graphics card/drivers, the better it works. Anytime multicam has crashed FCP for me, it was when the viewer was trying to bring up all the cameras at once



Aha. That one took me a while to figure out. What happened is auto-render rendered the whole timeline while you left it open and walked away one time. If the problem sections have a dull blue render bar above them, go into Render Manager, and delete the render files for that sequence. In other words, FCP "rendered" your multicam sections. Dumb, I know.



Sounds like a video card problem. Is the shot actually changing? I've had variations on this problem, I usually just reboot and things start behaving.

I use multicam on pretty much every project I do, and have done quite a few full length 7-9 camera concerts with it. It can work well enough..if it's not for you I'd do some system repair.

(of course now that I say this, you're going to tell me you have a brand new Mac Pro!)

I was hoping you would chime in on this. Your the fcp multicam sensei!

Yes, of coarse I have a brand new mac pro. Havent you heard? lol

Wow, the thing you said about the auto render makes complete scence. I just rendered a clip and sure enough, it caused it to display the full frame. Then I made a cut and it was back to normal again. Well that problem is now solved.

About the video card, I am using the stock nvidia that came with my mac pro which I bought a month ago. Its just a normal video card.

Do you think that could be the problem? I tried rebooting but I still have the same problem.

The funny thing is that I opened a past project that had a multiclip that worked fine for me and it still works fine for me. The blue border and the canvas switch to the selected angle. Then I went back to the problem mulitclip and it still has the problem. It almost seems like a setting but the two projects used identical settings.

Well, I am not going to give up now that you said it works fine for you. I absolutly love multicam editing, it cuts the time in 1/2 and it's way cleaner.

[Nate Weaver]

Honestly, if you tell me you have a new Mac Pro, I'd be inclined to chalk it up to new hardware problems.

When Apple released FCP4 on the new dual G5s (both happened within a couple months of each other), there were a lot of issues. I spent many many hours trying to run endplays against bugs you'd run into while trying to make MPEG2s off the timeline with Compressor. In 6 months they eventually nailed it.

Just once, I had a multiclip in a timeline that refused to behave in a manner like yours. Eventually I just had to ditch that clip and start over. But thats just once out of maybe 20-30 I've done. I chalked it up to just a corrupt structure in the project file.

[Jonathan Nelson]

Originally Posted by Nate Weaver

Honestly, if you tell me you have a new Mac Pro, I'd be inclined to chalk it up to new hardware problems.

When Apple released FCP4 on the new dual G5s (both happened within a couple months of each other), there were a lot of issues. I spent many many hours trying to run endplays against bugs you'd run into while trying to make MPEG2s off the timeline with Compressor. In 6 months they eventually nailed it.

Just once, I had a multiclip in a timeline that refused to behave in a manner like yours. Eventually I just had to ditch that clip and start over. But thats just once out of maybe 20-30 I've done. I chalked it up to just a corrupt structure in the project file.

Yeah, its a brand new mac pro.

What do you think I should do?

Maybe switch to a different video card?

[Nate Weaver]

I think it's more likely if you have one clip that's not working, but other that are, it's a corruption issue within FCP.

With the 5.1.2 update, the release notes stated that they changed how multiclips were saved within a project...

I'd try maybe cutting pasting the sequence, or clip, or combinations thereof into a new project and seeing if that helps.

I've had project files go haywire and balloon up from say 65megs to 110megs...only to be fixed then by cutting and pasting everything in the project into a new project.

[Jonathan Nelson]

Originally Posted by Nate Weaver

I think it's more likely if you have one clip that's not working, but other that are, it's a corruption issue within FCP.

With the 5.1.2 update, the release notes stated that they changed how multiclips were saved within a project...

I'd try maybe cutting pasting the sequence, or clip, or combinations thereof into a new project and seeing if that helps.

I've had project files go haywire and balloon up from say 65megs to 110megs...only to be fixed then by cutting and pasting everything in the project into a new project.

Thank you sensei, I will try this.

(ok, I tried it and it didn't work)

I even started a whole new project and new multiclip, it still does it. It's starting to look like a permanent problem.

Maybe re install FCP? I am going to try that and see what happens. I just need to get this problem under control.

I wish I had that apple care thing.

[Patrick Moreau]

Sorry, I didn't have time to read through all the posts before this, so I may not be saying anything new. I use multicam almost daily and after figuring everything out, I have not have a problem since. That was on my old Quad G5 and my new macpro- no problems at all. I do think that if your using it wrong, it could seem like 'bugginess' but if things are done right, it works everytime- on my machine at least.

[Jonathan Nelson]

Originally Posted by Patrick Moreau

Sorry, I didn't have time to read through all the posts before this, so I may not be saying anything new. I use multicam almost daily and after figuring everything out, I have not have a problem since. That was on my old Quad G5 and my new macpro- no problems at all. I do think that if your using it wrong, it could seem like 'bugginess' but if things are done right, it works everytime- on my machine at least.

Well that is good to know. I am trying to get an idea of how unique my problem is. I need to talk to someone from apple.

What videocard is on your mac pro?

This problem is extremely bad on my end. It almost makes mutlicam editing impossible and the problem exists in all but some projects.

I am not sure what to do, I am thinking I might try to get that ati graphics card and try that. I have not installed anything but fcp studio on my mac pro so I know it isn't any kind of software conflict.

[Jonathan Nelson]

I went ahead and reinstalled os x and fcp studio. I pretty much restarted from scratch.

With that said, the problem still exists...

What should I do? I have been considering getting a new graphics card but I am not sure which to get. It's not even sure if that will fix the problem.

This is my first mac and I can't believe all the issues I have had with it.

[Jonathan Nelson]

New Development!

I have been obsessed with this problem. So, I decided to drop some footage from one of my problem projects into a sequence with a different editing time base.

It worked!

I tried it over and over again and finally inserted a new sequence with the new timebase(29.97) into an old project and the multiclip playback worked perfectly!

The timebase I was using before was 23.98 DV NTSC. I used this same timebase in hdv projects and it worked just fine in those.

I don't know what to make of it but I never heard that fcp had multiclip issues with 23.98 DV. Maybe it's my computer or I was doing something wrong, I have no clue.

So, could I drop 23.98 footage in a sequence with an editing timebase of 29.97 and still be able to export the footage in it's native format - 23.98 DV?

I am trying to find a work around.

[Nate Weaver]

Originally Posted by Jonathan Nelson

I don't know what to make of it but I never heard that fcp had multiclip issues with 23.98 DV. Maybe it's my computer or I was doing something wrong, I have no clue.

I won't dispute it if you read something somewhere, but I've done plenty of 23.98 DV codec hour-long multiclips and never had a problem. Doing a nine camera one right now.

It's just one multiclip that's causing problems, right? Now that this has had more time to percolate on my brain...

I'd create a new multiclip with the same sources (not copy and paste), lay it over the old one and do an overcut...that is, duplicating the old one cut-by-cut. That is, if the new multiclip is without problems...

[Jonathan Nelson]

Originally Posted by Nate Weaver

I won't dispute it if you read something somewhere, but I've done plenty of 23.98 DV codec hour-long multiclips and never had a problem. Doing a nine camera one right now.

It's just one multiclip that's causing problems, right? Now that this has had more time to percolate on my brain...

I'd create a new multiclip with the same sources (not copy and paste), lay it over the old one and do an overcut...that is, duplicating the old one cut-by-cut. That is, if the new multiclip is without problems...

That is interesting. I tried everything to get it work with the 23.98 DV, and I have had zero success. I completely re installed ox x and fcp studio, created a new project, dropped in old sources, made new sequences, captured new footage, and I have yet to have the mulitclip feature working with 23.98 editing timebase.

It could be a hardware issue but I suspect anyone with a similar hardware setup as mine will have this issue.