Proper workflow to color correct clips after heavy edits

I have a concert which I've recorded from three different angles. I'm going to do a lot of cuts between the different shots as well as having split-screen effects and things like that. However, since each angle is shot on a different camera, there's some inconsistencies between them regarding how they look, something I'll have to make up for with som color correction.

Now, my question is the following: How can I best ensure that I can continue to make color correction adjustments for the clips all through the project, that is, even after I've made a bunch of edits, without having to find each individual slice of the clip and apply the correction? I'm thinking along the lines of creating a compound clip for each angle, and then edit using these compound clips. In that way, I should always be able to go back and change the look and feel of my clips and have it instantly applied everywhere I've included it.

Is this workflow idea flawed in anyway, or do any of you guys have a better solution? I'd really like to find a method I can be confident in _before_ I start editing this project.

You should be able to color correct before you even synchronize your clips. Just open your separate clips in their timelines, match their colors as much as you can and then you're good to go. I may be oversimplifying this, but it seems to save a lot of headaches down the line. I'd wait for others to chime in - I've been wrong before!

We actually do this workflow all the time, it is brilliantly simple in FCPX. Once you create a multicam clip of your concert you simply color correct each angle as needed to match. Your timeline will then be referencing that multicam clip and therefore all the color changes will be reflected in the timeline. You can always go back and tweak an individual angle color correction at any time and it will be updated in the timeline.

So the question is, did you use a multicam clip? If not, why not?

- T.

tpayton has it spot on. I wouldn't even bother adding my two cents, but multi cam concert shoots are about 70% of my work for the last few years, and I just wanted to back him up on that workflow. The only thing I would add is that you should try to do corrections in the multi cam clip to focus on matching the cameras and making them look pretty good. When it comes to adding a look or fixing a problem shot, you can always do that in the storyline on a shot by shot basis.

@tpayton: I've done some initial tests with multicam clips, and from the look of it, it doesn't work with some plug-ins. For example, I'm using CrumblePop's SplitScreen X, which is a generator that is placed on the time line and from there takes references to the clips you want to use. The only way I've found to actually be able to select the clips I want is to stack several multicam clips with different active angles on top of each on the timeline. However, this approach creates flaky results (random or flat out wrong video streams are included). Here, the compound clip approach works flawlessly.

I _could_ go for an approach where I use an effect plug-in to create the split-screen effect, but that would be more time consuming.

Does any one of you (@tpayton or @Daniel Rutledge) have any experience with creating split-screen effects from multicam clips?

I don't have experience with split screen generator and multicam clips. However, I'm personally not a big fan of split screen generators with drop zones. I think the effect route is a better approach because of the animation possibilities and better control.

For example I just saw this one fxfactory.com/info/splitanimator/

BTW. I tend to do split screen manually rather than use a motion template.

@tpayton Well, sometimes, a generator can be the quicker solution. If there's a template for what you'd like to do, it's absolutely the fastest way to achieve it. However, I like to supplement this by using split screen effects on the individual clips whenever I need more control. Thereby, I get the best of two worlds.

The problem with doing split screens manually is that you pretty much have to keep your content static. If you for example want to zoom or rotate within the frame, there's a big risk this will interfere with the other frames.

Wow! tpayton is always there first with the exact thing I was going to say. I too usually do split screen manually if it is a one-off. I did a multi cam project that was going to be split screen on and off for like 5 minutes and I wanted to save time. None of the generators worked right for me. The Split Animator from fxfactory is the only one that did the trick.

On the surface it looks like more work than some of the generators, but the amount of time you lose troubleshooting out of synch clips or unintended freeze-frames in the drop zone method far outweighs the extra time it takes to apply the Split Animator filter to all the stacked clips and line up the right animation presets. Once you get started you can save a lot of time by being organized and using the paste attributes function.

This was actually some interesting information. I didn't know split-screen generators were so prone to errors. Did you try CrumplePop's generator as well?

Anyhow, I probably should tread carefully; maybe do a test project first to make sure everything goes smoothly with my chosen method.

I wouldn't say that they were "errors." I have used the Crumplepop generator and I think that it (and others) say in the instructions that they don't work with multi cam clips. I don't know what you have planned, but I have cut more than probably 200 musical performances and if you don't do it with a multi cam clip, then it is going to take much longer than if you did.