Blog Post 2 - Multiclips Editing

Usually when people making television shows in the television station, the director of the show usually sits in the control room to switch cameras that being taking different points of view. And, as you know, the studio with a control room costs a lot of money; also, you may want to shoot videos in the outside but still using multiple cameras. Actually, you can use Final Cut Pro to do the exactly same thing as you doing in the control room, which is “multi-clips editing”.

Even you work on some low budget projects and there is not possible to have multiple cameras for shooting at the same time, this function is still really useful. I would like to do this topic because one day I just came up with an idea that shooting a music video that showing the singer goes around different places with he/she singing the song. I could have six clips to show he/she goes to six different places and I want to switch between clips. In this case you may say just add six tracks on the timeline could achieve the same result; however, if you got 16 or even more clips you don’t want to have 16 tracks on your timeline. However, “multi-clips editing” just create a single sequence on a single track. And as I mentioned in the last blog post, you always want to keep your editing space being organized which could make your editing process more efficient, faster and easier. It offers you more opportunities to try different things on editing, and to be more creative on your editing. Also, the thing I prefer “multi-clips editing” most is that the program divides the viewer window for showing the each clip same time, then you would know what the exact time you are going to switch the camera.

Then I am going to show how to do it by videos, you can click the right bottom corner to view the video full screen.

Before you edit your video, you should make sure each clips is in the same frame size. If you shoot on the same camera all the time, it probably would not be a problem; if you do have different cameras to shoot, you need to unify the clips first.

For how to do “Multi-clips editing” exactly,
1. To make sure the in point of each clip at the time you want
For example, if you are making a music video you would like all the in points are three seconds before the music starts. In the video below, I just add some random clips I have shoot, so I just assume they are all synchronized.
a) select all clips you need in the Browser
b) right click them → choose “Make Multiclip…”
c) in the conversation frame → “Synchronize using” → choose “In Points”
(the term “Time Code” is for the case people get time code generator, but I never had a chance to use it.)
d) click “OK”
Then you get a new item in your Browser.





2. To make sure each setting is correct for “Multi-clips editing”
a) drag the new item “xxx multiclip” to the timeline
b) double click the “xxx multiclip” → you get all clips you need in the Viewer which has been divided automatically
c) click “RT” (real time) on the right up corner of the timeline → make sure “Multiclip Playback” has been checked
d) on the top of the Viewer, click the centre button → choose “Open”
Then everything is good to go.





3. To cut the “xxx multiclip”
a) play the sequence → each clips are playing in the Viewer
b) click the frame of the clip you actually want to take in the Viewer (as you click it, there will has a blue frame around it)
c) notice, once you click the frame, the software puts a mark in the Timeline
Then you get the “xxx multiclip” has been cut.





4. once you finish the first cutting, but some how you want to take the other clip (I figured it out by myself)
a) as the program cut the sequence, double click the one on the Timeline you want to change
b) re-choose the one you want in the Viewer









Mize, R. (2010). Multiclip Editing in Final Cut Pro. Creative Cow.net. archived at http://library.creativecow.net/mize_rob/Multi-Clip-Editing-in-FCP/1