Written by Hanna Metaferia
Ever see music videos that have multiple shots running on the screen in sections, playing different video clips at the same time? It’s called Multiclip; this great special effect can be used for music videos, or any other film-project of yours on Final Cut Pro 7.
The first step is to have your clips prepared, and dragged onto the timeline. We recommend editing your clips to your desired length before using Multiclip in order to make the process smoother. Once your clips have been dragged onto your timeline, it is now time to arrange them vertically. In order for Final Cut to play all four clips on the same screen, you must arrange the clips so that way they are on top of each other, layered vertically. It doesn’t matter which clip is on top or bottom, or even if they are perfectly aligned. As long as you drag them into a vertical line, you are set.
Now if you look at the screen above you will see that the clips are aligned vertically, and on the top right hand corner there is a pull-down menu that is open. Click on that outlined box and the menu will pop up, and you should chose ‘Image + Wireframe’.
Now if you look at your Viewer (the top-middle window), you will only be able to see one clip with a wire frame and that happens to be the top clip on your timeline. The other clips are actually just underneath it, because Final Cut has layered these films, just as they are layered in the timeline. In order to see all the clips you must resize the overlaying clips, and resize them so you can actually arrange them to all fit on the screen. With your cursor, grab the corner of the first layered wire-framed image and wait until you see a “+” sign pop up. When it does, you are then able to click, and stretch the size of the image; once minimized, you will be able to see the layers underneath, and you can continue to minimize the size of all the images until they are all visible on the screen. Note, you are only able to edit ALL of your images if you have your timeline “cursor” is on a spot in your timeline where all of your clips are layered on top of each other. For example, if I have four clips layered on my timeline, Multiclip can only arrange them all if I have my timeline cursor on the spot where all four clips are playing at the same time.
Now, this is where it gets tricky. Once you have arranged where you want the clips to be placed on the screen, you must arrange the duration of your clips. Some people like their clips to pop up sequentially, others want their clips to enter and exit their screen at the same time. Here is where you rearrange your individual clips so that they begin and end at your desired time,within your multiclip sequence. You will have to rearrange and render your clips often in order to achieve your desired Multiclip sequence, but the end result will undoubtably be a visually appealing film clip!
