Project isn't updating to reflect changes in Multicam

Dave Kitabjian wrote:

But I'm quite certain that Untitled Multicam Clip 1 didn't exist until pressed Shift-F! I never saw that before! I could be wrong, I guess. I'm trying to prove I'm not insane by restoring the project from Time Machine, but at 95GB it's going to take forever (currently about 10GB restored...)

Okay, it turns out I'm not insane :-)

I restored the entire project and then retraced my steps, and sure enough "Untitled Multicam Clip 1" appears out of thin air! I recorded my screen session so you can see it for yourself. The full video is linked below. But I'll put a trimmed portion right here as a GIF.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/izzicpv05i7ztj1/magical%20appearance%20of%20mulitcam%20clip.mov?dl=0

Luis Sequeira1 wrote:

How many angles are there in total? Could it be just that the angle viewer is, for example, set to 4 and you have 5?

Thanks, that's definitely a gotcha, and thanks to me having read the manual, I knew to change Angle Viewer > Settings > 9 angles, but that didn't fix it.

terryb wrote:

...press Shift-F. That will match frame to the multicam in the browser.

Aha! Magical trick! I will note this! (I now see that you can right-click on the multicam in the project timeline and do Reveal In Browser. Handy!)

And sure enough, you're right. Sort of.

When I did the Reveal in "Raw Project", everything works as expected. FCP selects "Untitled Multicam Clip" in the Browser. But when I did the same in "Main Project", it took me to "Untitled Multicam Clip 1" in the Browser! And that one is missing the Angles.

But I'm quite certain that Untitled Multicam Clip 1 didn't exist until pressed Shift-F! I never saw that before! I could be wrong, I guess. I'm trying to prove I'm not insane by restoring the project from Time Machine, but at 95GB it's going to take forever (currently about 10GB restored...)

But meanwhile, I wouldn't have created a duplicate Multicam intentionally either way. How could this have happened? If I duplicate a Project, it wouldn't duplicate included Multicams, would it? I thought they both linked back to the common Multicam.

Hmm, maybe I did a snapshot:

Duplicate projects and clips in Final Cut Pro for Mac

Duplicating projects and clips is a fundamental technique in your editing workflow. For example, you can duplicate a project to work on a new version of it. You can also duplicate a project and change its settings (such as the aspect ratio) at the same time.

If you work on projects that contain compound clips and multicam clips, you can use the Snapshot Project command to create a self-contained backup version of a project that includes referenced compound clips or multicam “parent” clips. Changes you make to other instances of the compound clips or multicam clips do not affect the versions in the duplicate, so your project is protected from accidental changes. 

I still don't get why I couldn't see it before. But maybe I'll check the Time Machine to see if I just missed it down below in the Browser list...

BenB wrote:

"FCP selects "Untitled Multicam Clip" in the Browser. But when I did the same in "Main Project", it took me to "Untitled Multicam Clip 1" in the Browser! And that one is missing the Angles."

You have two different Multicam clips, period.

Sure, but why was one invisible until I pressed Shift-F?

Tom Wolsky wrote:

The problem began when you duplicated as snapshot.

Are you suggesting it's not a bug? If a Project has a multicam clip in it, whether it came from a snapshot or otherwise, that multicam clip should be present in the browser, right?

Tom Wolsky wrote:

You make a feature request for it. It’s not a bug.

So just to be clear we're on the same page, you're saying it's normal for a multicam to be completely invisible in the Browser until you find it in use on a project timeline and then do a Reveal In Browser, at which point we should expect it to magically pop up in the browser? I don't see that mentioned anywhere in the manual, but if you say that's normal, I'll refrain from reporting it as a bug.

Tom Wolsky wrote:

That only happens with a snapshot in the same library. A simple duplicate will have both projects referencing the same multicam clip.

Ohh, I see. Hmm. Apple says "You can create a “snapshot” backup of the entire project to protect it from accidental changes." Sometimes I have used this as a way to fork a project into two different projects, as suggested in various places in the forums. But I wonder if Apple is quietly assuming you're not going to modify the snapshot, and therefore hides the snapshot's clips in the browser (until your explicitly Reveal it).

I'm thinking that's their rationale and that it's by design. I could probably live with Duplicate and not be afraid of damaging the original content if I knew exactly what was pointing to what. Eg, I'm pretty sure cuts-and-switches belong to the project and don't affect the source multicam. But I think adding/removing angles and changing their sync belongs to the source multicam.

All the pointers in FCP can be great for managing file size and reusing edits, but it does make it hard to understand when you're dealing with a true copy of something vs. a link to the original, all of which can get you into a lot of trouble if not done properly.

Thanks again. This has been very informative!