syncing clips

I have a two camera interview that has been synced to the audio from both cameras. I have now created a lot of favorites which I am now putting into the timeline. I then break apart the clip items and separate audio from video. This enables me to cut the top track to go back and forth between the camera angles. Obviously, if I move one of the video clips - that has been detached from the audio - it will go out of sync. I can't figure out how to now lock the audio to the video and still be able to cut the video. Is there a way to do this? Thanks.

Just answered my own question - I lifted the bottom clip from the story line and overwrote the upper clip to the primary story line. That seemed to do the trick.

Your audio should be attached to your video via a connected clip. If you are cutting a two camera setup, I find it is easiest to simple razor blade the top layer and disable the parts you don't want, allowing the bottom layer to show through.

I would do this within the compound clip that was created when you synchronized the audio to the two video tracks. It will make it a bit tidy-er in your final timeline.

I'd duplicate that original Compound Clip and edit the copy.

If you're using audio from just one camera, be sure to highlight in the Browser the original Compound Clip that was made by the Sync function. Inspector > Audio, turn off all audio tracks you don't need, leaving just the one you do need to use.

Also, watch how you name them. The first clip in alphabetical order will be the one in the Primary Storyline. Thus, be sure to name the camera who's audio you want to use so it is alphabetically first. Then disable the audio of the camera that became the Connected Clip.

If you're using audio from both cameras, simply cut away the parts you don't want in the Connected clip(s). When done, highlight all the Connected clips and use "Opt-Cmd-Down Arrow" keyboard shortcut to Overwrite To Primary Storyline. Done, and you don't have to disconnect any audio.

I'd never disconnect my audio doing what you're doing. That's just asking for trouble.

Thanks, but I have to create some confusion here. I have labeled my two camera shots H wide 1 and H c/up 1 and so on up to H wide 6 & H c/up 6. The audio is on the c.up camera angle ( misspoke earlier). When I synchronized the clips, for some reason, fcp put the c.up angles on the bottom in the compound clip - which is good - for the first two synchronized clips, but not for the last four. Not sure why this happened as I named them consistently. Shouldn't it automatically put the clip with the earliest letter in the alphabet on the bottom? Not sure why it put the wide on the bottom and the c.up on the top - where the audio is. Is there a way for me to flip the clips?

Alphabetical order reads all the letters in a name, and numbers effect that, too. So you need to rethink your naming convention. It does seem overly complicated to me. If I make a suggestion.

Close-ups are abbreviated "CU" in upper case. "Wide" is not normally associated with close-up shots. Use the terms medium close-up (MCU) and close-up (CU) and extreme close-up (ECU). So easier naming would help. "H-CU 1" and "H-MCU 1" would work better in my opinion. For simplicity I'll use this convention. So on to the actual issue here.

So you have 12 clips. H-CU 1 through 6, and H-MCU 1 through 6. These were made out of Favorites from 4 Master clips: H-CU 1 and 2, then H-WCU 1 and 2, from what I understand.

I would sync the four master clips first to create one whole Master clip and turn off the audio channels not needed in that Master compound clip.

I'd make my Favorites from that sync'ed Master compound clip, then edit from there. Simpler, easier, much less confusion, nothing goes out of sync in the Timeline.

Always sync cameras first, create Favorites second, edit into the Timeline last.

Hope I am understanding your situation and that this helps.

I have only applied favorites to the first two clips and they have the CU shot on the bottom which is where my audio is. I'm OK with those two clips (and I don't want to go through them and have to rename my favorite clips). That leaves me with the remaining four. I've renamed the clips H-CU-2, H-MCU-2 and so on. I just resynced the H-CU-2 with H-MCU-2 (I started to do them all as one clip and it looked like it was going to take forever). I still wound up with H-MC-2 on the bottom but the audio I want is on H-CU-2. Shouldn't C be the primay story line rather than M?

I've lifted the bottom wider shot from the story line and overwrote the closer shot (with the audio) to the primary storyline. That seems to work. Is it bad?

So if I bring a favorite synced clip down to the timeline (as a compound clip) and then I want to edit it, when I double click on it, it opens on a new timeline as the entire clip with my favorite section highlighted. The rest of the clip is greyed out. I cut between my closer and wider shots on the highlighted portion of the clip. I then go back to the primary story line and those edits are in there. That works for me. Is that the proper way? Thanks again for your patience.

Um, no. Duplicate the original sync'ed compound clip, then right-click the copy, and select Open In Timeline. Edit that. Just cut away the parts of the connected clips you do NOT want. Leave the rest. Since the connected clips are ABOVE the Storyline clip, they show. Playhead looks DOWN from the top.

To force a clip to the Primary Story line, preface all clip names with a three digit number, just like we did in legacy FCP. "001 [name]", "002 [name]", etc.

But I only want to edit my favorites. My original synced compound clips are 20-30 minutes long. That's why I bring down the favorite clips to the timeline. When I click Open In Timeline, they open as I described before. If I do it your way and open the original synced clip in the timeline, then I can't find my favorite clips. They show in the browser but not on the timeline. Let me spend some more time on it. I think this is giving us both headaches. Thanks again.