Apple Final Cut Pro 5 - Manual (Page 1382)

Chapter 3 Elements of a Final Cut Pro Project 31
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A multiclip allows you to sync multiple clips together as angles within a single clip. The
main reason to use a multiclip is to sync multiple camera angles together so you can
cut between them in real time in the Timeline. However, you can sync any footage you
want together in a multiclip, not just different camera angles. For instance, when
making a music video, you could sync three different performances of the band playing
and cut between them on the beat.
Clips Described By Their Properties
In addition to the clip types described above, clips can be further characterized by the
following:
 Relationships to other clips: master, affiliate, and independent clips
 Connection status to media files: Offline and online clips
 Location in a project: Browser and sequence clips
These clip characteristics can describe any type of clip. For example, clips, subclips,
merged clips, and multiclips can all be offline clips.
Clips Defined By Relationship to Other Clips
A master clip is the first instance of a clip imported or captured in Final Cut Pro. Master
clips exist exclusively in the Browser, and they are used to manage multiple instances
of the same footage used throughout your project. This is how it works: Each time you
edit a clip into a sequence, Final Cut Pro creates a new instance of that clip. This new
sequence clip is not completely unique and self-sufficient, but actually gets most of its
properties from the master clip it came from. This clip is called an affiliate clip because
it shares properties with its master clip. Because master and affiliate clips share a single
set of properties, changing a property in one place changes it everywhere. For
instance, if you want to change a clip name, it doesn’t matter whether you change the
name in the master clip or any of its affiliate clips. Since they all share the same Name
property, all the clips now have the new name.
Most properties are shared between master and affiliate clips, but there are a few
exceptions. The properties of affiliate clips that aren’t shared (such as In and Out points)
make them useful for editing, while the shared properties (such as Name and Source)
maintain a relationship with the master clip for easier media management. For
example, In and Out points can be different in every affiliate clip so that trimming one
clip doesn’t affect the duration of all the other affiliated ones.