HUGE, HUGE Muulticam Discovery - Time Saver!

[plasma_video]

I today discovered a HUGE timesaver for me working with multicam. This may be old news to some, but for me it was new news, and a welcome find.

Have you ever done a multicam video with all of the camera shots in one sequence and after carefully selecting the shots and doing the multicam editing realized that further color correction was needed to one camera?

I have, and what I've done in the past is to correct one segment of the video and then copy the CC from that segment to EACH of the other individual clips from that camera on the multicam track and then individually delete the previous CC or other effects from EACH individual segment. That takes a while for a longform video. In fact, for a one hour video today, it took me about 20 minutes for each CC.

Enter the Sequence approach. For each camera, create a new Sequence. Then, create a multicam sequence using the individual camera Sequences. Do your multicam editing. If you discover that one of the cameras needs a CC or other effect tweak, make the change in the individual
Sequence dedicated to that camera. The changes will now be carried through to the final multicam track - including any transitions you have created on that multicam track!

As I said, this was a HUGE discovery for me today, after having to CC one particular oddball camera shot 3 different times using the old method.

Let me know if you need clarification.

Tom

[Rusty]

Although I tend to do a rough CC before I use Multicam your method seems superior in that you can go back and make a global change to a single camera and still add more CC as individual clips require.

Nicely done!

[STORMDAVE]

Very good tip. Only problem I see is if you want to switch between the 2 sequences (or more than 2 cams) to match both cameras, you have to create a new sequence and put the 2 camera sequences on top of each other to match them.

[plasma_video]

Very good tip. Only problem I see is if you want to switch between the 2 sequences (or more than 2 cams) to match both cameras, you have to create a new sequence and put the 2 camera sequences on top of each other to match them.

True, but that is a relatively quick thing to do.

The project I was working on today had 52 cuts to that camera (one of three cameras) and I had to individually select each one of those 52 segments to add the new filters and then delete the previous erroneous CC and sharpness filters from each (before I discovered the "trick").

Your addition to the tip makes perfect sense to do.

Rock on, Dave!

Rusty, yes I roughly tweaked in each camera before doing the multicam, but I saw that some colors were off enough to create a distraction in the final video - hence the changes. This particular video was a challenge, as there were 3 different brands of cameras in the mix.

T

[Ron Evans]

IF the correction is going to be the same for them all there is another way to do it. Create the filter combination you want on one of the clips, save and name this filter combination. Then select the track that the camera is on ( CTRl+A) remove all filters ( ALT+F) then once again select the track ( CTRl+A) and drag the new filter you named to this track. This will place this named filter combination on all the clips in that track. This is something I do all the time with multi track. Roughly get the CC right at the beginning and fine tune as described. I find it more useful than sequences as one can still see the audio track waveform and fine tune any of the clips. I also "save as" under a new project name each time so that I can always go back to an earlier version.

Ron Evans

[plasma_video]

IF the correction is going to be the same for them all there is another way to do it. Create the filter combination you want on one of the clips, save and name this filter combination. Then select the track that the camera is on ( CTRl+A) remove all filters ( ALT+F) then once again select the track ( CTRl+A) and drag the new filter you named to this track. This will place this named filter combination on all the clips in that track. This is something I do all the time with multi track. Roughly get the CC right at the beginning and fine tune as described. I find it more useful than sequences as one can still see the audio track waveform and fine tune any of the clips. I also "save as" under a new project name each time so that I can always go back to an earlier version.

Ron Evans

Ron, If I do that, the result does not get transferred to the multicam track - at least I thought it doesn't. I'll try it again later tonight. My recollection is that the changes have to be made to the individual multicam cut pieces.

Oh, maybe you mean to delete the multicam track first and recreate it. Yes, that would work, but you lose any transitions you've added to the multicam track.

ALT-F does not remove the filters from all clip segments for me, even using CTRL-A to select all first. Maybe you are doing something different from me, and this would be a great for me to learn yet another alternative approach.

EDIT: ALT-F temporarily removes the filters for the moment for viewing, but the instant I do anything, they re-appear on the clip.

T

[Rusty]

I see Ron's killer downside for me... lack of waveforms.
2 or 3 cameras mean I work with 4 to 6 mono audio tracks.
Phoo! :~(
I could kill the audio in the Video Sequence(s), map audio only to the Main Timeline, then group the Video Sequence and mapped audio...

This may be interesting.

[GrassValley_BH]

Remember that you can map both VA and V tracks as virtual cameras for Multicam depending on how you work.

Personally I'd use VA tracks and mute the audio - that way I can retrieve sound bites from a particular camera if necessary.

[Ron Evans]

My projects are normally with two other people, two FX1's, GS400 and HC96, TRV50 or SR11 for a 4 camera shoot. They always need correcting!!! We also use a Zoom H4 and H2 for audio. I first set up sync on all cameras ( on VA tracks)then export audio for editing in Vegas ( I find it easier and can stretch audio for perfect sync). Waveform on the closeup FX1 is used as audio sync for audio brought in from Vegas on the audio tracks. I find a place somewhere in the program and do a quick correction. Then switch to multicam mode and edit program ( these are theatre programs usually 2 hour and 15 mins). I always use the method I described and it has worked for me over several versions of Edius. I would personally like it if Edius could just copy and replace parameters for selected clips, just like Premiere Pro but it does not. The only way I have found is to delete all filters and then attach a saved, NAMED filter.This is in normal edit mode NOT multicam mode. You can still apply minor changes to each clip but it is a lot quicker to do it by track. I do in fact have named filters for each of the cameras as my starting points.
Rusty, I mute the audio on the VA tracks and just use the audio mixed in Vegas on A1 but of course I can see the waveforms on all VA tracks all the time if I want since no sequences are involved. I normally just have the waveform for the closeup FX1 open on VA1 ( as well as Vegas mix on A1) so that I can make sure we have good sync all the way through as this is the camera with the most critical lipsync issue and also used as the base in the Vegas mix so should be close to identical waveform after Vegas mix.
Ron Evans

[plasma_video]

Ron,

Sounds like we use identical workflows (almost).

For our stage productions, I use a Zoom and a minidisc. The minidisc is hooked to the PA system for on stage mics, and the Zoom gets the rest of the stage area and ambient sound. I use a shotgun on one camera as an additional pickup for off stage things and the other cameras audios as backups. Depending on the production, I might use boundary mics on stage dumped into one of the cameras. I do want to add another solid state audio recording device to the mix at some point to get away rom mechanical failure possibilities, although I must say the MiniDisc recorder has been a real reliable workhorse.

For small groups and for a symphony orchestra, I've used multiple mics and a mixer, and dumped the audio directly into a laptop via USB or to DAT.

I bring all of the audio into Vegas, sync it up, process it and then dump to Edius as a seperate audio track. I guess you might say "What goes on in Vegas, don't stay in Vegas" (parody of the commercial). I've done the multicam editing in Vegas, but Edius does it so much better.

T