Aligning clips with multicam

[RonnieMartin]

Hello John: Long before we had multicam when shooting several cameras we would point all our cameras at the person on the stage one minute before the program started. He would hold up a small digital camera and take a flash picture. From that flash/frame we could sync all three cameras as long as we kept the cameras running. These were tape cameras and at some point they would get off a frame or two but it still gave us a good reference point.

Still works pretty good.

Ronnie

[John Lewis]

Again thanks for your interesting suggestions, I had actually used your suggestion Ron, Cheers all

[kruzer]

I do 3-4 multicams all the time.
I use a stopwatch function on my iPod.

- Start the stopwatch and DO NOT stop it.
- Show it to a camera, 1,2,3,4 etc. or whenever you start shooting.
It don't matter if you stop the recording in any of the cams.... and then re-start, show the stopwatch and then record.

In the timeline just line up all the time you see (stopwatch) in the footage according to the timeline.
This is not dead-accurate but get you within a few frames or so. If you want to make it perfect as some suggested use the audio image to match.
HOWEVER.... if you record with diff microphones then it won't look the same and it's more hassle to find the correct spot. I've been there and it's a pain on the *** to try to match it.

As for "nudge" the frame in the timeline the suggested one is good but I just mark a positon on 2 or more cameras where I want them to lineup and then just CUT each one.
It's sooo much easier to pull the footage and it will STOP at the markers (snap) thenbring the rest of the footage and butt it back where you cut it.
You'll never see the cut mart in the footage once you bring it back the two sections.

I do this all the time and made my job easier to then try to nudge things back and forth with 4 cameras.

BTW, there was discussion about the accuracy of "rolling time" a I described above, and yes, they may be out of frame here and there, but I don't see that much difference that would be obvious.

Wish these consumer cams had a real timecode/visible to work with :)
Then, it's child play to make them match.

[Ron Evans]

I don't use the nudge but I do use multicam view and move the clips to align in the 1 frame timeline scale. It works fine on my system. Most of mine are 4 camera multicam so its set up with 5 monitors active. Align with audio on a 2 sec timeline, check in multicam mode, switch to 1/2 sec and try again and then finally at the 1 frame level. I usually do this for a hand movement that is on all tracks and is easy to see. I have multicam set up as a button on my Shuttle Pro2 so its easy to switch between normal view and multicam.

Ron Evans

[John Lewis]

Whilst i use very little of multicam i think it would be a nice feature request
Thanks for confirming your findings, i have now managed it visually but it takes a bit of patience.

[mhvideos]

Thanks for all your replies an d suggestions but whilst i appreciate the nudge it doesnt appear to work within multicam, that is, seing the monitors side by side and seeing the effect of the nudge visually, that is if i was following your guidance correctly

Same here, the monitor blacks out as soon as the clip is moved.

I multicam car racing and visually find the syncro positions and use clip markers to then align them on the timeline. be sure to click "Update Bin" so the marker is retained on the clip when you go and preview another clip.

Martin

[John Lewis]

Thanks for all your replies an d suggestions but whilst i appreciate the nudge it doesnt appear to work within multicam, that is, seing the monitors side by side and seeing the effect of the nudge visually, that is if i was following your guidance correctly

[antonsvideo]

http://www.videoproductions.com.au/html/edius5-nudge-clip.html

[Ron Evans]

You may find it easier to expand timeline to just 1 frame and view both tracks in multicam mode.
Most of my projects are multicam and I usually start with audio at about 1/2 sec resolution then finetune visually in multicam mode at 1 frame timeline scale.

Ron Evans

[pjsssss]

I find that syncing them by audio waveform is often easier

[tuyle]

You can check those previous posts.
For quick and easy to remember:
select the clip - "SHIFT F8" - "<" or ">" to move one frame.

[John Lewis]

has anyone a good workflow. I am trying to visually allign 2 clips but find that dragging the clip is not accurate enough eg subject diving off a board