FD - Multi-Cam Editing

Owned by Adam Barrett
Last updated: Mar 16, 2018
6 min read

You can synchronize your multi-cam edit by using In Points, Out Points or by using Timecode (providing the cameras have been timecode synced).

 

Double click the file Q1_C1 to mount it into the source panel. Place an in point at an easily identifiable location (ie. first ball down for the start of the quarter).

Double click the file Q1_C2 to mount it into the source panel. Place an in point at the same identifiable location as the other camera (ie. first ball down). Ensure the In point on both clips are frame accurate!

Repeat the process for any additional clips you have.



You can sync as many cameras as you have available to shoot with and as many as your editing system (CPU) can handle.

Select all files, right click and select Create Multi-Camera Source Sequence...



Selection order

The order you select your clips is the order which the multi-cam will be set up.

Select C1 first, then shift+select C2, etc. to make sense of the rest of the instructions

From the first drop down menu select Custom

Next to Custom, name your sequence Q1_MC (where MC refers to Multi-Cam)

 

Ensure the following settings are selected:

Synchronize Point: In Points

Sequence Preset: Automatic

 

Audio - Sequence Settings: All Cameras

Audio - Channels Preset: Automatic

 

The rest of the settings can be left at default, then select OK.

 

 

Your Multi-Cam source sequence now appears in the same Bin as your camera clips, labelled accordingly.

 

 

A Multi-Cam source sequence acts like a single piece of media.

 

If you double click the Multi-Cam source sequence it will open in the Source panel and show all clips, synched and are playable as a single clip.

 

From here you can simply place in and out points, select which camera you want by clicking on it (keyboard shortcut is 1, 2, etc.), and begin adding to a sequence. A yellow border will be around the current clip selected.

 

OR

You can right click on the Multi-Cam source sequence (in the Project panel) and select New Sequence From Clip

You now have a sequence which will be added to the current bin and will automatically open in the Timeline panel with the Multi-Cam source sequence embedded.

 

If the icons are confusing (the top one is the MC Source Sequence, the one underneath is your editing sequence) you can add _Seq to the editing sequence to give it an additional point of difference, whatever makes life easy for yourself!

A Multi-Cam sequence will be green (as apposed to the usual blue) because it acts like a nested sequence.

From here we can remove any unwanted audio.

 

Expand the audio tracks so you can see the waveform data (alt/option + center mouse scroll next to the solo button to view individual tracks, or use the vertical scroll wheel on the right hand side of the timeline to view all tracks)

 

Solo each audio track and have a quick listen to the individual tracks to identify the best audio (if the cameras have been mic'd correctly, this should be track A10)

 

Audio tracks 1-8 = Camera 1 = Wide shot: Not clear audio of the action

Audio tracks 9-16 = Camera 2 = Boundary shot: Best audio for the action of the game 

Audio tracks 17-24 = Camera 3 = Roaming shot: Could be good to grab from if Cam 2 has a glitch, etc.

 

 

As mentioned earlier - the order in which you select the clips to become a multi-camera source sequence, is the order you will be viewing the above audio tracks

Unlink your media, select the audio clips you no longer require (leaving the one good one) and delete them.

 

Make sure you re-select the unlink button once this is complete.

Select the audio clip from the timeline (single mouse click) and go to the Audio Clip Mixer (a tab in the Source monitor)

If you find the audio coming out of just the left channel, click inside the blue box (under the L and R dial that currently reads -100) and type 0 (zero)

This will ensure dual mono to both the left and right channels

To view Multi-Cam footage properly, select the Spanner icon at the bottom of the Program Panel and select Multi-Camera from the options

You will now see your two clips (more if you have additional cameras) and your master clip (this is the clip which is selected, denoted by the yellow border).

 

Best practice for editing from here:

  • Press play (space-bar) and vision mix by selecting the numerical keys 1 and 2 to cut between the two camera sources, Premiere will automatically place edit points on the timeline with each vision switch you make. You can easily change these, or refine the edit points, after you have finished the first pass.

  • Place a marker at the points you want to cut out. To add a marker, simply select the M key on your keyboard as you are playing, these markers will stay on the timeline for your reference.

  • As you are playing, make sure you are viewing in full screen mode. To activate full screen mode, select the panel you wish to enlarge (in this case it will be the Program panel - it will have a blue border around it when activated) and select Tilde ~ (Tilde is the key directly under the esc button - top left on the keyboard), you can also select Tilde to exit full screen mode.

  • Do a single pass - ie. play from start to finish, without stopping, just vision switching and placing markers. After your first pass you will go through and cut out the sections you have marked and tidy up any of the edit points you are unhappy with - this will be your second pass.

  • Continue on and do the process for all four quarters!

This is what your edit points will look like on your timeline.

You can ripple and/or roll the edit points to fine tune your in/out points.

You can also right click on a clip and change the camera source.

Navigating Markers:

 

  • M to place a marker

  • Shift + M to move your playhead to the next marker

  • Shift + Cmd + M to move to the previous marker

  • Right Click on a marker to delete (See image)

  • Double Click on a marker to open its dialogue box where you can change marker colours, add a comment, etc.

 

Markers are very handy for navigating around an edit, get used to them!