Nonlinear shooting --Timecode question
 

Hi all,

This is more about shooting technique rather than a Vegas comment but since I have been a Vegas user for years now I kinda feel at home in this section of the board.

Well I shot my biggest corporate video last week. All in all I capture about 16 hours of footage using two cameras. Thing is they're timecode were set to time/date. For a lot of shots I only used camera B and for the times i used both the "roll tape" call was sequential so camera 1 would roll and next camera would start to roll.

I don't have to mention that right now in Vegas things are a bit messy. I can't use multicam unless I synchronize all events, which of course would take me forever (I have about 1200 events for this projects).

Nonetheless, is there a way that I could split the screen without using the multicam option so that I can see both cams at the same time?

The answer will probably be no so what should I do next time I have a shoot like this one where both cameras won't run for the same amount of time, i guess I should use another type of timecode but which on?

Thanks

Phil

Is there any reason that you wouldn't be able to use track motion temporarily to put the 2 tracks on the screen at the same time?

Open track motion on one track and adjust that track for the left side of the screen. Do the same for the other track and put it on the right side of the screen.

Once you're finished syncing then just cancel the track motion.

Just the thought of having to track all those events make me shudder. I would've considered it if it was a shorter project.

When I was referring to timecode I was thinking that there are many type of timecode that can be set on the camera (I mostly use Z1). I am sure that one of them would be of great help if I knew which one and how it works.

Cheers

Phil

I'm only aware of two different types of SMPTE time code that are used in the pro world.

#1 is time of day and #2 is rec/run.

#1 is only good for one day as SMPTE time code is only 8 digits.
If you have it set to the correct time and go past midnight, T/C will go from 23:59:59:29 to 00:00:00:00.
If the tape isn't properly labeled, you 'll have no way of knowing the correct date.
You could use the user bit option to set the record date if you were so inclined.

#2 is similar to the T/C on most consumer-level camcorders in that it only spits out time code when you're recording and will pick up on existing T/C if you go into rec mode from a spot on the tape that already has data on it.
SMPTE T/C won't give you the record date as part of the data stream while the T/C on consumer camcorders will.
SMPTE T/C can also be preset if you want to.
When I'm doing a multi-tape shoot, I'll preset T/C to 01:00:00:00 for tape #1, 02:00:00:00 for tape #2, etc.

The ability to extract the date that the footage was shot on is a nice feature that I'm hoping gets built into the next generation of SMPTE T/C which is currently under review.

All you need to sync is the areas where BOTH cameras were running. Separate the clips into two parts - "B" roll and Multi-cam. Then do the multi-cam part using the multi-cam clips and later add the b-roll as needed.