Multicam Editing - What's your method in post?

[Tim Harjo]

This more of just curiosity... Final Cut pro has a multicam function that I never really spent enough time to figure out. I use two cams. So I just shrink the two cams into the canvas So I can see both of them synced at the same time) and cut out what I don't need and then expand them back to 100% to make the final product. Those of you that do this know what I mean. Does anyone actually use Final Cut Pro's multicam function? What about you other guys and gals that use different editing suites? What's your method? Again just curious...

[Nate Haustein]

Final Cut Multicam. Really only 4 steps.

1. Set in-points to match on the different clips.
2. Highlight the clips in the bin then right click --> make multiclip
3. Set clips to align on the in-points and click OK.
4. Drag the new multiclip into the timeline, double click, and set the canvas to 'open'

Thats pretty much it. The clips play simultaneously in the viewer window and the active angle plays in the viewer. The multiclip in the timeline splits with each click in the viewer.

[Travis Cossel]

Originally Posted by Tim Harjo

This more of just curiosity... Final Cut pro has a multicam function that I never really spent enough time to figure out. I use two cams. So I just shrink the two cams into the canvas So I can see both of them synced at the same time) and cut out what I don't need and then expand them back to 100% to make the final product. Those of you that do this know what I mean. Does anyone actually use Final Cut Pro's multicam function? What about you other guys and gals that use different editing suites? What's your method? Again just curious...

I experimented with it, but it honestly felt like more work than the other way. Maybe it's better if you really get into it, but I didn't like it.

[Bill Busby]

My way over the years has been similar to Tim's but I'm cutting with an old version of Avid that doesn't have a multicam function... so I fake it :)

Example:
V2 - 2nd cam with PiP filter, sized roughly 50% or so & placed in corner.
V1 - master cam

Leave both V1 & V2 active when placing add edits (I think slice is what FCP calls it).

I have "remove effect" mapped to the keyboard. The shot I want V2, I hit the remove effect key.

I do this continually until the multicam edit is rough cut. The only shots on V2 with the PiP remaining are all that's needed to get rid of & it's easy to tell which clips have the PiP effect applied.

I make only V2 active, place the timeline indicator on each PiP clip, hit T to select mark the clip's I&O, hit Z for lift/extract. Do this until there's no more to extract.

[Tim Harjo]

Originally Posted by Bill Busby

My way over the years has been similar to Tim's but I'm cutting with an old version of Avid that doesn't have a multicam function... so I fake it :)

Example:
V2 - 2nd cam with PiP filter, sized roughly 50% or so & placed in corner.
V1 - master cam

Leave both V1 & V2 active when placing add edits (I think slice is what FCP calls it).

I have "remove effect" mapped to the keyboard. The shot I want V2, I hit the remove effect key.

I do this continually until the multicam edit is rough cut. The only shots on V2 with the PiP remaining are all that's needed to get rid of & it's easy to tell which clips have the PiP effect applied.

I make only V2 active, place the timeline indicator on each PiP clip, hit T to select mark the clip's I&O, hit Z for lift/extract. Do this until there's no more to extract.

That looks like a good way to do it for sure. I take both cams and put them down to 49% and move them to the right and left side of the canvas respectively. I used to shrink them down to 50%, but by putting them at 49, I get a nice black bar that separates them.

[Bill Busby]

I just leave the main shot as full frame. It's one less PiP effect to remove :)

[David L Lewis]

We used to use Pinnacle studio 9.4.3 to edit with two cameras and it was a real pain.

We now use 3 cameras and Premiere Pro CS3 to edit and the Multi camera function is a joy to use.

Ok its a bit fidly when you first use it but now its become second nature.

You have to open up a new sequence and then place your three or 4 clips on the time line and synch them up. I usualy use the audio wave forms to do this.

Once synched up you close the sequence down and open a new sequence . you then place the original sequence into the new sequence timeline.

Its then just a mater of enabling the multi camera function and opening the multicamera window .

once you start playing the clip in the multicamera window you get to see 4 small screens , one for each camera and a bigger screen showing the selected camera

I tend to do a rough edit first and then go back into the sequence and place the cuts where I want them using the usual premiere pro tools.

It sounds quite complicated when you try to write it down but its way easier than trying to do it in pinnacle studio.

[Tim Harjo]

Originally Posted by David L Lewis

We used to use Pinnacle studio 9.4.3 to edit with two cameras and it was a real pain.

............

It sounds quite complicated when you try to write it down but its way easier than trying to do it in pinnacle studio.

I used to have Pinnacle Studio.... still do somewhere. I used it for my first wedding on a notebook. I actually had a brand new Mac and Final Cut Studio, but I could not figure out how to capture the footage and put it into the timeline correctly. Seems so silly now.... lol. Pinnacle was awful to use on my notebook. I had been using it to do 5-10 minute vids for church and what not. When I put an entire wedding in there, it about fried. It was so bogged down, I had to wait 20-40 seconds between each click of the mouse or key stroke or anything. When I finally got all of it to render I exported it to mpeg and shipped it off to the new Mac... and never looked back.

[Richard Wakefield]

i CANNOT understand why anyone with the ability to multi-cam edit doesn't!!!!

i used to do it the way described above in PPro CS2, and yes i got on with it.

but once i edited in multi-cam with CS3 (it really is a 2 step process, takes all of 5 seconds), i wouldn't ever look back....

it's insane why you wouldn't take the extra step??! there's a phrase: 'People don't like change' - it's a well known fact, but you have to trust us that you WILL prefer the better method.

with multi-cam editing, you have the clips running at the same time, clicking on the view you like the look of - so easy you could read a book at the same time and still give it undivided attention... the other method involved so much more painstaking analysis, to get the same result.

[Vito DeFilippo]

I'm with Richard. I use multicam in Avid all the time. It's very easy, just takes a bit of time to group the clips in sync, then you see them playing in realtime, with active camera in monitor. The beauty of it is that you can assign keyboard shortcuts to each camera, and cut realtime without ever touching the mouse.

One thing to be aware of is that the footage on the non-active camera could actually be used somewhere else. I find myself getting cutaways or whatever from unused portions. Quite useful.

[Alastair Brown]

I use the Vaast Ultimate S Quad Cam plug in within Vegas. End up with four PIP in the preview window and I have assigned keyboard shortcuts that let me cut between shots as I watch it back. Similar workflow to you guys, drag the tracks in, sync them up, apply the plug in and i'm ready.

Works great!

[Randy Panado]

Originally Posted by Nate Haustein

Final Cut Multicam. Really only 4 steps.

1. Set in-points to match on the different clips.
2. Highlight the clips in the bin then right click --> make multiclip
3. Set clips to align on the in-points and click OK.
4. Drag the new multiclip into the timeline, double click, and set the canvas to 'open'

Thats pretty much it. The clips play simultaneously in the viewer window and the active angle plays in the viewer. The multiclip in the timeline splits with each click in the viewer.

I am so lost. I got it playing and sync'd together but I don't understand how it will "edit" into a cut up a clip. I always did it the manual way. Mind explaining more on what to do after 4? Is this meant to only just view the clips at the same time and I still would cut the audio and video into another timeline?

Thanks


EDIT

Nevermind. Figured it out. Used the middle drop down menu and found open.

New question, what if I have 3 clips and clip 1 & 2 both are the same length more or less but clip 3 starts a few minutes later. Does that mean I can't cut it in as part of the multi-clip because it's in point is off? If so, is there a work around besides treating the newly made multiclip as a single clip and cutting in the 3 clip like usual?

Thanks

[Eric Mayrand]

Before spending a lot of time cutting, i usually first mark the audio at logical transition points. Especially if its a music performance i mark to the rhythm, say every other measure, and at key changes in the performance. I find this saves me a lot of time even for things that are not musical, such as interviews. Then i go back a second time and do the camera selection editing then a third time for any transitions and motion, - eric

[Joel Peregrine]

Hi Randy,

This is probably going to confuse you even more, but its a guide I wrote up a while ago for one of my editors in response to time wasted because one or two of the camera angles are stopped and restarted during the ceremony:

Event Videographer | Multicam

There are probably a lot of shortcuts I don't know about that could shorten that process...

Originally Posted by Randy Panado

I am so lost. I got it playing and sync'd together but I don't understand how it will "edit" into a cut up a clip. I always did it the manual way. Mind explaining more on what to do after 4? Is this meant to only just view the clips at the same time and I still would cut the audio and video into another timeline?

Thanks


EDIT

Nevermind. Figured it out. Used the middle drop down menu and found open.

New question, what if I have 3 clips and clip 1 & 2 both are the same length more or less but clip 3 starts a few minutes later. Does that mean I can't cut it in as part of the multi-clip because it's in point is off? If so, is there a work around besides treating the newly made multiclip as a single clip and cutting in the 3 clip like usual?

Thanks

[Aaron Mayberry]

I have typically only two cameras to edit from for a wedding. Camera 2 is the main camera when it has the good shot set up, in between shots, I use Camera 1.

My work flow:

1) Lay down camera 1(master) on track 1
2) Sync up cam 2(close ups) on track 2
3) Cut away all the garbage from track 2
4) Make final adjustments, so cuts are logical


I use avid, but that really doesn't make a difference.