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Any workflow suggestions for editing 3 cam and several audio non-contiguous shoots
i quite often film live protest actions, and I’m still looking for the best workflow to edit a piece from various cameras and audio sources, where the shots aren’t contiguous.
ie, the other cam operators wander around and capture interesting moments, and there might be some audio only (sometimes a radio mic, sometimes heath robinson inputs like some iphone memo sound etc.), as well as some useful sound from the various cameras.
this can all take place in quite a challenging, noisy and fast-moving environment.
my approaches so far have been to create an edit of the whole event, syncing up all the various cams and audios, and then using that to raid best bits for a final short edit.
the disadvantage of this is not having clips keyworded, and also taking time to sort out best angles on sections where all 3 cams might be shooting at the same moment (which often they’re not, or they’re shooting different things like the crowd v the action). this approach also ends up with me spending a long time doing this (where an event might last an hour or more) for what will end up being just a 3 minute film out of it.
but i don’t know how else to find matching audio and/or alternative angles for the sections i choose for the final edit – i feel if i don’t put in all this pre-syncing work, i might end up missing best audio or better angles if i just go through footage from each camera and favourite it and keyword it all in the browser (which is the way i’d handle a one camera shoot).
i’m just wondering how others might approach this sort of scenario, as i’m not very happy with the current workflow and would love some suggestions from more experienced folk.
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9 Replies
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And what happens when you throw a bunch of these clips into a new Multicam and try to sync by audio? Truth be told- this is sounding like raw footage and not really multicam unless you can have the 3 cameras running without cutting. Otherwise you just have to put in the hours…
Noah
FCPWORKS – FCPX Workflow
Call Box Training -
Set the date and time on every camera. Without that, you don’t have a hope.
Then unless you want to create a whole day multi clip (which would likely be a pain in the ass) you need to watch something to identify when important things are happening – and isolate those time ranges as Multi-Cam candidates.
When you have time rang overlap, see if X’s internal sync will read the camera date and time to match them up. (Will probably need to tweak things in the Angle Editor since most clocks won’t be frame accurate.
Work those as multi-cam clips and just fill in with the rest as B-Roll.
My 2 cents.
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thanks. yes, the other cam operators tend to film bits they like, so no it’s not continuous for setting up a long multi-cam. 🙁
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working on a laptop i’ve tended to avoid multi-camming, but i guess if i transcode proxies it should be fine and this does seem like a sensible approach, so i’ll try it on the next one. thanks.
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Ive done this with a 2 hour high-school musical for a friend.
One RED Scarlet as snippets and HFS, a GH2 shooting wide and two Panasonics (wasnt my gear not sure what model) all with audio.
Even used a Zoom just in case.
Only the GH2 shot from start to finish.
A few multicam steps got it all on the timeline.
I too would have loved to find a faster workflow but to date never did find anything.
It was still fun to work with at least in FCPX 🙂 -
“I too would have loved to find a faster workflow but to date never did find anything.”
glad it’s not just me then.
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[Rikki Blow] “…3 cam and several audio non-contiguous shoots…i don’t know how else to find matching audio and/or alternative angles for the sections i choose for the final edit -“
For situations like this I use PluralEyes. Provided you have audio, it works very well. It pre-syncs everything automatically, then produces a XML you import to FCP X as a multicam project. Non-synced material will also be placed in the project based on date/time and you can manually position those as needed.
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yes, toyed with this too joe, but i’m a bit confused about media. if i’ve already imported it to FCPX, how does that work with plural eyes?
i tend to import from the various sources, but then it’s all within a library so plural eyes can’t access it.
guess i’m not sure about how to set this up properly.
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[Eric Santiago] “A few multicam steps got it all on the timeline.”
could you outline those steps … even if there were a pain … need to know.
Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV40, Sony Z7U/VX2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; FCP X write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.
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