Final Cut Pro

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Level 1

4 points

Final Cut Pro

I am in a world of pain with Final Cut Pro. Suddenly one of my clips, which was working fine, has gone black. I am running the latest version 10.6.3 on a new MacBook Pro M1 32GB ram and 1TB HD. My library is on an SanDisk 2TB SSD. I had rendering turned off, so I turned it back on but that made no difference. I then tried moving the synchronized clip to the bin and then importing it again, but nothing imports, which normally means it's already there, but I don't see it. I tried to move it back from the bin but I don't see the clip in the bin. I checked for similar problems online and tried - Relaunching FCP holding Opt-Cmd to reset the preferences. Then I opened the library and wait for the system to rebuild the filmstrips and waveforms. I left it rebuilding all night, but it's exactly the same - one clip that is black. The only other thing that might suggest an issue is that the rendering never stops, it just constantly keeps rendering no matter how long I leave without making any changes. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Posted on Jul 19, 2022 3:54 PM

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Answer 1

Secret_Box Author

Level 1

4 points

Jul 20, 2022 4:27 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

Sorry for the confusion - when I said I viewed the clip in finder I was talking about the raw footage to ensure it was not the issue - the sync file is what I’m referring to in FCP As you can see from the pictures I did what you said and opened the clip in the timeline and it is all black but the audio is fine

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Answer 2

Secret_Box Author

Level 1

4 points

Jul 20, 2022 2:54 PM in response to Luis Sequeira1

I selected the black clip in the timeline and hit shift F and the portion of the black sync clip in the browser was highlighted - what is the correct way to delete this black sync clip and recreate it - last time I tried to move it to the trash can that didn’t work - FCP wouldn’t let me import the raw video and audio files

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Answer 3

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

151,022 points

Jul 19, 2022 4:02 PM in response to Secret_Box

Bins mean events? What is this: “moving the synchronized clip to the bin”? The sync clip is in the project and you dragged it from there to an event? Where is the black clip? In a project but not in the browser? It’sa sync clip? Select the black clip in the project, and with the playhead over it press ⇧ F. This should take you to the clip in the browser. What happens?

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Answer 4

Secret_Box Author

Level 1

4 points

Jul 19, 2022 7:50 PM in response to Tom Wolsky

Bin means the trash can - my thinking was to put the sync file (that was black) in the trash and then import again - when I imported nothing happened and then I couldn’t see the clip in the Trash can. I tried highlighting the black clip in the timeline with the play head over it and hitting control F but it just made a pop sound and nothing happened - the audio is still working fine on the black clip in the timeline. So I don’t know where the black clip has gone and Trying to import it again doesn’t work and control F doesn’t work - any thoughts?

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Answer 5

Secret_Box Author

Level 1

4 points

Jul 19, 2022 11:25 PM in response to Secret_Box

New information - I powered everything down and then restated and opened FCP I then right clicked on the black file in the timeline and clicked reveal in browser then the coloured wheel of death jammed me up so I shutdown and powered up again and repeated - this time the black file returned in the event browser - so now I have the black sync file back in the browser - can anyone tell me how to reveal my video? The audio works fine and the file video plays when I click on the file in finder

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Answer 6

Jul 20, 2022 2:10 AM in response to Secret_Box

Something confuses me...

You keep calling it a sync clip, but then you say it plays in the Finder. You also talk about importing it.

This may be a problem with terminology, but I think we need to clarify it.

A sync clip is something you create in FCP: select one video and one or more audio clips, and choose New Synchronized Clip.

If I understand correctly, this does not appear to be what you have.

So your "sync clip" is what... something that you created outside of FCP?

Please clarify.

If it is indeed a sync clip as I talked about above, select and do Clip->Open Clip to open it in its own separate timeline.

What do you see? Is there video and audio? Post a screenshot.

In fact, even it is not, you may want to do the same.

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Answer 7

Jul 20, 2022 5:53 AM in response to Secret_Box

Thank you for clarifying.

I think that at least part of the problem may be that you may have tried to delete the video clip after the sync clip was created. It was not deleted, because it is in use in the sync clip, but it became invisible.

If you select that black clip in the sync clip timeline and press Shift-F, do you get the original video clip in the browser? And does it play correctly from there?

If that is the case, I would try to recreate the sync clip.

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Answer 8

Secret_Box Author

Level 1

4 points

Jul 20, 2022 9:32 PM in response to Secret_Box

New update - I clicked on the black sync clip in the event browser and selected

Delete Generated Project Files - I then ticked all 3 boxes - Rendered, Optimized and Proxy - remarkably all the portions of the clip that had been used in the timeline became visible again - the unused portion remained black - but that was all I needed

thanks to everyone that offered advice it’s much appreciated - and I hope this string helps someone in future

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