First Wedding, Two cameras, 1 big question

[Michael Hazzard]

Thanks always to those in this great forum. I see many of the same names here that helped me get started 2-3 years ago are still provding useful and interesting advice. I have not videoed much of interest over the past year or so my Vegas skills have dulled a bit.

But, my video gear came out of the closet this past weekend, and I recorded a wedding for the first time ever (courtesy for friend). Besides missing the boquet toss, my first glimpse at the footage is encouraging.

This is also my first effort with two cameras.....

I used two cameras that sometimes overlap the action, and other times don't. I also have a nice .WAV recording from HD2 hidden on the alter. I'm excited to get cracking, and I can already visualize some of my camera to camera cuts.

I've searched around the forum(s), but I cannot get my head around what the VegasPro 8.0 multicam feature provides me. Plenty of tips on how-to, but nothing that appears to answer the overall question how come.

I will be reviewing DSE's Vegas Pro 8 Editing Workshop and Sony Vegas Made Easy this weekend, but would like a little up front question before I opt to pull out my hair learning multicam workflow/tricks.

So here is the wide open question .....

How/What would Vegas Pro 8 multicam feature benefit my effort versus tradional cutting/transitioning of clips and using multiple tracks?

Thanks in advance to all.
Mike

[Edward Troxel]

The built-in multi-cam feature simplifies the process of selecting which camera will be active at any given time. Once you get the two cameras on the timeline and in sync, you can then enable multi-camera mode and see both cameras at once on the preview screen. Then as the timeline plays, you can simply click on the desired angle on the preview screen to change cameras.

[Ken Matson]

Originally Posted by Edward Troxel

The built-in multi-cam feature simplifies the process of selecting which camera will be active at any given time. Once you get the two cameras on the timeline and in sync, you can then enable multi-camera mode and see both cameras at once on the preview screen. Then as the timeline plays, you can simply click on the desired angle on the preview screen to change cameras.

Do you get the full menu of transitions available when you switch between cameras this way?

[Edward Troxel]

By default, you will get cuts. If you CTRL-click, you will get crossfades. Of course you can manually create crossfades as desired plus you can change any crossfade to any dissolve you desire.