Final Cut Pro multicam, keyword collections and roles, ready to cut

How a Final Cut Pro multicam clip comes together

On how to create a multicam clip in Final Cut Pro: select the angles in the browser, choose File > New > Multicam Clip, and open the custom settings. There you tell it how to group clips into angles (by camera name, camera angle or clip) and how to line them up, by timecode, by when the clip was created, or with Use audio for synchronization turned on. Drop the result in a project, open the Angle Viewer, and press a number key to cut as it plays.

Final Cut Pro multicam sync is good when every angle heard the room. The trouble is a wedding: two cameras that share a name, a body that stopped and restarted, a lav recorder that sits on no camera, a wide at the back whose mic barely heard the vows. Each one means checking angles and nudging clips before the cutting starts.

One file, the whole wedding

Everything Hailo makes for Final Cut Pro arrives in one .fcpxml that Final Cut Pro opens directly into your current library. Inside it:

• A project for each timeline the run made, plus any ceremony, speeches or blueprint film.
• Keyword collections by moment, so prep, ceremony, portraits and dancing each have their own place in the browser.
• Each part of the day in its own color when you pick the role layout described below.
• A real multicam clip, every angle synced to the recorder.
• An Event per day on a multi-day wedding, with a marker where each day starts on a timeline that runs across days.

Cutting the ceremony from a Hailo multicam

Build a ceremony or speeches film in Hailo with Multicam chosen, and Final Cut Pro loads a true multicam clip with every angle synced. The ceremony arrives already cut: on whoever is speaking, on the couple for the rings and the kiss, on the floating camera for the music. Because it is a real multicam, any cut you disagree with is a switch in the Angle Viewer. The ceremony cut covers what Hailo puts on screen and when.

That makes for a short Final Cut Pro multicam editing workflow: watch the cut, switch what you would do differently, then move on to the story. The sync underneath comes from Hailo's multicam sync, which places recorders by timecode or waveform and keeps a camera's short takes on its own angle.

One project, colored by role

Final Cut Pro roles are labels on clips, such as Dialogue, Music, Effects and Video, that decide how the timeline lanes are colored and grouped and how audio can be exported. Hailo's layout called One project, colored by role is for Final Cut Pro only: it gives every clip a role named after its part of the day, so the whole wedding sits in one project with each part in its own color.

Final Cut Pro picks the color for each new role when it imports the file, so every part of the day arrives in its own. A clip with sound is drawn in its audio role's color, and Final Cut Pro audio roles and video roles of the same name can get different colors. Match them once per library in Modify > Edit Roles.