Multiclip with speed changes

I'm working on a concert doc from the 70's and a couple of the cameras were not running at speed. In my timeline I have corrected those speed issues so that the clips are as in sync as possible.

When I try to create multiclips for those sections where there are clips with speed changes, those clips show up black in the multiclip viewer.

Have any of you had any experience with using speed adjusted clips in a multiclip?

On a completely unrelated subject, does FCP have differently colored markers like Avid has? I know about the colored labels, but it would be nice to be able to differentiate markers without having to open the marker info window.

nm

you can have your markers any colour you like in FCP, as long as it;s pink.

as for the speed changed clip in a multiclip...
well i;d say try it.
but be prepared for it to be weird and buggy.
i;ve no direct experience of what you want tot do,
but my experience with multiclips in fcp has taught me that they're not as well behaved as they should be,
and given that speed changes in fcp can be flakey, too, what you;re doing sounds a bit like asking for trouble.
but you should do it anyway.

try it on one song only to start with.
make sure the clips are not really long captures.
(speed changes get more troublesome the longer the clip / file)
if they are long captures, then batch export the angles for just one song as self contained files,
re-import them and work with those.

it may well all be fine,
but take baby steps on this one. like you;re stepping into a river and you cant see the bottom.


cheers,
nick

> you can have your markers any colour you like in
> FCP, as long as it;s pink.

That one gave me a real good chuckle. Damn Apple for that one.

> as for the speed changed clip in a multiclip...
> well i;d say try it.
> but be prepared for it to be weird and buggy.
> i;ve no direct experience of what you want tot
> do,
> but my experience with multiclips in fcp has
> taught me that they're not as well behaved as they
> should be,
> and given that speed changes in fcp can be flakey,
> too, what you;re doing sounds a bit like asking
> for trouble.
> but you should do it anyway.
> try it on one song only to start with.
> make sure the clips are not really long captures.
> (speed changes get more troublesome the longer the
> clip / file)

well, the issue is, since the multiclip is referencing the original file, that clip ends up out of sync again. It took me a while before I realized the camera 1 just didn't look quite right.


> if they are long captures, then batch export the
> angles for just one song as self contained files,
> re-import them and work with those.

I was thinking about doing that. I can't really see what the harm would be. Oh wait, yea, I just remembered. When we on-line from the HD master (I forget what the exact format is -- it's really new), we'll need the exact timecode. On the other hand, since there's a speed change in the first place, the timecode numbers get all screwed up anyway. Man, this is getting to me more complicated then I had previously thought.

> it may well all be fine,
> but take baby steps on this one. like you;re
> stepping into a river and you cant see the
> bottom.

Well, even though my issue isn't completely resolved yet, maybe it can create some discussion.

> if they are long captures, then batch export the
> angles for just one song as self contained files,
> re-import them and work with those.

I was thinking about doing that. I can't really see what the harm would be. Oh wait, yea, I just remembered. When we on-line from the HD master (I forget what the exact format is -- it's really new), we'll need the exact timecode. On the other hand, since there's a speed change in the first place, the timecode numbers get all screwed up anyway. Man, this is getting to me more complicated then I had previously thought.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


if you export as QuickTime movie, then you keep the original reel# & TC.
so no worries there.

nick

chrisrash Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I'm working on a concert doc from the 70's and a
> couple of the cameras were not running at speed.
> In my timeline I have corrected those speed issues
> so that the clips are as in sync as possible.
>
> When I try to create multiclips for those sections
> where there are clips with speed changes, those
> clips show up black in the multiclip viewer.
>
> Have any of you had any experience with using
> speed adjusted clips in a multiclip?
>

Well no experience directly, but I would heartily advise you use window burns of your sped up footage if you need to recapture at any stage. You could use the timecode plug-in to add it, but it would be quicker to recapture the super out from the deck. That way any speed changes can be more easily eye-matched to the offline.

Another solution would be to make a tape at the corrected speed (i.e get the VTR to do the render) and work with that. Good luck getting the speed right though!

Presumably these were film originals to be off-speed? But no access to the original film?

Multiclip seems like a great first attempt at copying the Avid multicam feature (which I'm sure was a copy of Heavyworks or whatever). It does seem a little buggy to me though. Not sure I'd want to use it on a show going out the same day yet for example!

Well, it's been a while and I'm finally back on this project and I'm running into some new problems.

Now in Final Cut v.6 the clips with the speed changes will not even show up in the Viewer.

I'm going to try the workarounds mentioned, but I'm curious to see if anyone has come across these issues within the last nine months.

How are you planning on replicating your speed changes in your HD online? Are you going to send the online house notes on percentage speed change?
Just curious

ak
Sleeplings, AWAKE!

Andrew Kines Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> How are you planning on replicating your speed
> changes in your HD online? Are you going to send
> the online house notes on percentage speed
> change?
> Just curious


I can only assume that we will at least give some kind of notes as to which clips contain a speed change.

We're going to on-line to HDCAM SR, possibly in FCP, but I don't know. It's something we're going to have to discuss with the on-line editor.

Do you have much experience with that kind of thing? As you might be able to tell, I don't.

It's just that if you are going through and making incremental changes to the speed of the clips to get them back in sync, there may or may not be a way to replicate that in an online. It would depend on the system you were doing the online on. You should be checking with your online operator before you go much further.
If the online is in a NLE (FCP, AVID etc) you have a lot of options and only have to figure out how the timecode of the original tapes relates to the speed change clips and how they're going to get them into the final online without a ton of eye-matching and grunt work.
If you only have a few of the off speed angles I would opt for leaving them out of the multiclip and keeping them, as you have them synced, on a top track, hidden. You can, turn the clip on, scan it for useable footage and razor it and drop it into the sequence proper.
Before you do too much work it would be best to know how you're going to finish.

ak
Sleeplings, AWAKE!