How to do a three way split screen within a multi-cam clip in Final Cut Pro X
Multi-cam clips are great for audio-synced multi-camera movies of an event but sometimes cutting from angle to angle isn't enough. Sometimes you need to see several angles simultaneously. This video shows you how to do it. No extra software or plug-ins necessary! This is not to be confused with standard split screen. This method is for use with audio-synced clips filmed on different cameras at one event. In other words - all the clips are showing one event from different angles.
This is how the cuts work:
N.B. I refer to the three simultaneous multicam clips as "rows" in the following explanation.
When you cut to Camera 3 you see the Camera 3 clip on the top row which has been transformed to reveal Camera 2 on the middle row which in turn has been transformed to reveal the Main camera angle on the bottom row.
When you cut to Camera 2 or Main you are simply cutting to the unaltered versions of those camera angles on the top row.
Don’t forget that if you cut anything out of the top row you must cut the corresponding section out of the middle and bottom rows otherwise the split screen will not be synchronised.
You need the three multi-cam clips because if you just used the clips straight out of the cameras they would be of different lengths as the cameras are placed in record at slightly different times. Yes, you could move them up and down the timeline until they run in sync with the top row but using multi-cam clips is far easier.
In any case, this way, you can change the way the split screen looks if you want by changing the active angles on the three rows. You could even do this in different parts of the timeline although it might get a bit complicated! As it stands, the sole function of the middle and bottom rows is to provide the angles that are revealed when we transform (reduce the size of) the clips on the top and middle rows.