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528Final Cut Pro User Guide
Multicam editing tips in Final Cut Pro
The following tips can help you streamline your Final Cut Pro multicam workflow:
• Set the date, the time, and the time zone on your camcorder or recording device
before you shoot footage for your multicam project. This provides useful information to
Final Cut Pro during the automatic multicam clip creation process (see Create multicam
clips in Final Cut Pro).
Note: At any time, you can change the Content Created date and time of your source
clips in the browser. Just select one or more clips, then choose Modify > Adjust Content
Created Date and Time.
• Because you can use the sophisticated automatic audio sync feature in Final Cut Pro
to help ensure multicam sync accuracy, it makes sense to record audio on every
camcorder and recording device in your multicam production. (Clear audio recordings
provide the best results.)
• Before you edit multicam clips in the angle editor, duplicate them in the browser to
maintain clean backup copies.
• To double-check the sync of individual angles in a multicam clip, open the clip in the
angle editor and turn on audio monitoring for two or more angles at a time. You’ll hear
immediately if the angles are in sync or if you need to adjust them further.
• If performance becomes an issue while you’re working on a multicam project, do any of
the following:
• Set Final Cut Pro to use proxy media by choosing Proxy in the Media section of the
View pop-up menu (in the top-right corner of the viewer). Proxy playback allows
you to play back more angles at a time. To use proxy playback, you must have proxy
versions of your media available, or you must create proxy versions. See Create
optimized and proxy files in Final Cut Pro.
• Make sure that “Create optimized media for multicam clips” is selected in Playback
preferences in Final Cut Pro. This option transcodes video to the Apple ProRes 422
codec format, which provides better performance during multicam editing. This
option is turned on by default. If the original camera format can be edited with good
performance, you can deselect this checkbox.
• Make sure that the disk holding your multicam source clips is fast enough to play
back all of your media at once. To check disk performance, choose Final Cut Pro >
Preferences, click Playback, then select “If frames drop due to disk performance,
warn after playback.” To find out whether something else is causing playback issues,
select “If a frame drops, stop playback and warn.”
• You can include audio from multiple angles, even after you’ve finished cutting and
switching your multicam program. Select the multicam clip in the timeline and, in the
Audio inspector, select the checkboxes to enable the audio components for the other
angles in the multicam clip. With the timeline clip still selected, choose Clip > Expand
Audio Components (or press Control-Option-S) to show the components in the timeline.
Then select the individual audio components in the timeline and adjust the levels as
needed. See
Configure audio channels in Final Cut Pro, Manage role components in
multicam clips, and Show expanded audio components.
• You can use photos (from a still camera) in a multicam clip. If the date and time
(Content Created) information matches the contents of the other angles, the photos are
automatically adjusted in duration to “fill in” the angle.