How to Set Up and Edit a Multicam Clip in Final Cut Pro for Multiple Cameras

How to Set up Multicam Clip in Final Cut Pro

There are a few ways to handle a shot taken with multiple cameras in Final Cut Pro, but by far the most efficient one is the Multicam Clip. It allows you to take a scene you shot with two or three or any number of multiple cameras and edit them in real time by switching camera views with a click.

My name is Nicholas Johnson and this is the Space Warehouse.

With a multicam clip in Final Cut Pro, you can switch between camera views just by clicking with your mouse, in real time, as the video plays. All the moves you make get saved as cuts and of course you can stop and start or go back or forward all you want. All of your camera angles are combined into one clip on the timeline.

Heres how you set it up. File handling is a big part of this because if youre shooting with multiple cameras, depending on how big the project is, youre going to end up with a LOT of files and youre going to be syncing specific ones with their matching counterpart from the different camera. In this example, I had a lapel mic also, which will become part of the multicam clip.

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So Ive got one shot all separated out here - and crucially, for this next part, every clip had audio recording as well. Thats what the computer is going to use to sync them all up. You CAN add clips with no audio also, like if you had a drone shot - but you’ll need to go in and make an adjustment after the clip is generated, and Ill go over that in a minute.

Ive got a new event and a new project here, so the browser is empty so far. Drag all of these files into the browser together, that way they will all be selected, lets say if you’re in the middle of your project and it might otherwise be hard to find each file in the list. Right click on one of them and choose Multicam Clip - you can leave all these settings on automatic, rename it and press enter. Now you’ve got a NEW clip in your browser with the name you picked. You’ll see at the end how its just got a black screen, thats because the lapel mic was still on after all the cameras were off. Now go over to View on the upper right of the playback, and click angles, or press shift command 7. All of your views should pop up! If you make this part of the screen bigger, you can scrub around and make sure they did a good job of syncing - or if you had a clip with no audio, this is where you will have to manually put it in the right place.

If you have an older computer you may need to make proxy files to get smooth playback.. Im using a 2019 16” macbook pro, and it handles two 4k streams AND a 1080 stream with live playback..

It almost always does this automatically and perfectly, but if you notice one of the clips didn’t sync correctly, maybe it h ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxBMxLx3m0A