How can I sync B Roll Screen Recording with Edited A Roll on the Timeline in FCP

Hi,

So Essentially, I've already edited the A roll and make it all crisp with nice cuts and everything, now I want to add the screen recording on top which is what I'm talking about. Both the A roll and B roll screen recording have audio that can be synced but is there a quick way for me to sync up the video B roll and have it automatically cut it up and sync it to the A roll?

Is this possible in plural eyes or something?

Essentially I want the A roll to remain untouched and the program will automatically cut where the overlay video goes on top.

Thanks

You should have started by making a Multicam clip, and editing with that.

What if the A roll is already on the timeline?

Then you manually match up the b-roll, which will take a lot of time, I assume.
Create a mutlicam clip, edit from that, may be much faster than manually syncing all your b-roll.

FCPX.guru wrote: Then you manually match up the b-roll, which will take a lot of time, ...

hmm, just as a perhaps silly idea…
• export the done A-edit
• import that clip back again
• use that + the B-roll to create a synched MultiCam
• add to new project, switch btw A and B …

Max604 wrote: ...is there a quick way for me to sync up the video B roll and have it automatically cut it up and sync it to the A roll? Is this possible in plural eyes or something? Essentially I want the A roll to remain untouched and the program will automatically cut where the overlay video goes on top...

I don't think PluralEyes will do that because you have already cut both audio and video in the timeline. If you had continuous uncut audio with edited video (like a music video) then you could just manually sync the B roll, which also has unbroken audio.

If you want to preserve your edits and add the B-roll, I think you must use the below procedure. If this seems like a huge amount of work, it is. This illustrates why you should always begin with a multicam if you know there are multiple audio or video sources.

Sometimes you don't know this, e.g, you shoot one camera with external audio, then later find someone had another camera going. Even if you only have one camera and one external audio source, create a multicam from that before editing. That way if you later find more audio or video material, that can be synced within the existing multicam -- even if the multicam has been edited into the timeline with many cuts. In that case the timeline inherits the updated multicam with the additional A/V angle, which you simply enable in the timeline using the angle editor. This does not work with a sync clip only a multicam clip. Because you didn't start with a multicam clip, I think the below procedure is your only option.

Create and sync multicam, inc'l B-roll. Then FOR EACH SINGLE-CAM CLIP IN TIMELINE:

1. Use clip skimmer to get starting timecode of clip in timeline.
2. Click on clip and observe length in yellow numbers below viewer
3. Open multicam (MC) and skim to timecode for clip obtained in step #1. Note: it won't show the clip timecode if that's the monitoring angle, so select a different monitoring angle before skimming the clip.
4. Place marker; playhead jumps there
5. Move skimmer up so timecode from start of MC container clip displays (vs clip timecode).
6. Go back to timeline (click left arrow on timeline history)
7. In Browser, skim in MC clip to timecode obtained from step #5.
8. Mark range with length obtained from step #2. Expand view as needed using CMD + and CMD -. Use skimmer for rough position then JKL and IO keys to mark the range.
9. Select single-cam clip in timeline
10. Do OPT+R for replace edit of timeline clip with marked range of MC clip which contains other angles and good audio. If color and effects were in place on the timeline clip, before doing the replace edit, copy these Fx using CMD+C, then after replace edit past those with Edit>Paste Attributes