need simple workflow for multicam edit

[Jeff Carpenter]

What I would do is log everything on tape A and put those in a bin. Then make a new bin and copy and paste all of the clips you’ve logged into the second bin. So now you’ve got a copy of all the clips. Then just go through and change the reel name and change the “A” to a “B” at the end of each file clip name.

Then batch capture everything from each bin.

[Jason]

I actually tried that first, but when I change the clip names and/or reel names of the copies it changes the clip names in Bin A also.

[Jeff Carpenter]

Ah, ok. Here’s the new plan.

Log tape A. Then, go out into the Finder and find the Final Cut project file. Copy and paste THAT in the same folder. Name the new file “B.” Then go into the A project and capture everything. Then close that, open B, make the name and reel changes, and capture everything in that project.

Then open A up again and import the “B” clips from your scratch disc. You can now erase the “B” project.

This is clumsy and long-winded, but it should work.

[Jeremy Garchow]

Good idea Jeff, but that won’t work for a few reasons. FCP will hang to the relationship of the copied clips. If you change the reel in one, then it will change it in the other. Also, when you go to digitize the B tapes, FCP will want you to rename all of the clips since they will all have the same name

What I would do is log All of the A tapes and be sure to put A in the angle log box and put the take number in the take box. Your clip will now look something like this: Clip 1_1_a, you r next clip will be named Clip 1_2_a. Double click your tape a bin so it’s open all on it’s won (separate from the project window) and select all of the clips in the bin. Control click one of the clips and go to Export > batch LIst and open that in excel. In Excel you can then change the A to a B at the end of every clip name and change the reel numbers (from tape 1A to tape 1B or whatever). Create new bin in FCP called Cam B (or whatever) and then double click that so it’s open separately. Control click in the empty space and select > import batch list @ 29.97.

OR while you are logging Tape A you should log the first clip and then once it’s in the bin drag the media start and and codes to the in and out points of the log & capture window respectively. Change the reel number & name and then log the clip. Either way will take a bit of time, it’s just matter of where you want to do the work, in FCP or Excel. I think Excel would be a little more organized, and you could start capturing the Tape A tapes while you work on the batch list in excel for the B tapes.

Hope this helps.

Jeremy

[Jason]

Aha! I think that tis the answer I’ve been looking for.
I’ll let you know how it works.

Jason

[Jason]

I guess I should have thought this through a little more prior to the shoot, huh?

[Jeremy Garchow]

I’m not sure what you would have changed. As long as your camera are jam synced, what else more could you have done? The matching timecode is what is really going to save you here.

That’s why the editing process has the very informative name of post-production.

[Mark Raudonis]

Aside from these issues…. please be aware of a bigger issue. That is, make ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN that your timecode is identical on both cameras. You said you are “jam syncing” the code. My experience has been that this is NEVER frame accurate. Close… but never spot on. You will probably end up having to adjust each clip to maintain sync between them.

So… once you’ve figured out how to “trick” fcp into digitizing the other angle, you can start worrying about sync.

Good luck.

Mark

[Jason]

Wow! A friend just taught me a very simple way to accomplish this task. Log clips from Tape A, then open the capture window and drag each individual clip from Tape A into the capture window and change the reel name and clip name to “B”, or whatever. Then click “log clip”.
That’s it! It logs a different clip with the exact same timecode.

[Dean Sensui]

I do a lot of multicam shoots, involving three cameras.

We just make sure all three cameras are running, then the talent claps his hands at the beginning for a sync slate. Having all three cameras match timecode isn’t necessary. The sync slate is enough to get everything to match up. And the “clocks” in these cameras are very accurate (Sony PD 170’s). If they weren’t there would be some serious video problems on broadcast.

In post, I capture all three angles from all three cameras.

Find the clap at the beginning of the shoot for each camera, and cut the clips there.

Throw all three clips into a bin, highlight all three, then create a multiclip (not a multiclip sequence).

— Go to Modify dropdown menu and select Make Multiclip
— Select “Sync using in points”.
— Check “on” all clips.

Your multiclip will then be created and can be found in the bin.

Drag this multiclip into a sequence.

— In Viewer: Show Multiclip Overlays; “Show Source Angle Effects” should both be “on.”
— Go to View dropdown menu — Playhead sync — Open
— Go to View dropdown menu — Multiclip Active Tracks — Video + Audio
— Go to View dropdown menu — External Video — All frames (not sure if this is essential)

When you click on your sequence and hit the space bar, you should see all camera angles in the viewer playing simultaneously and the “program” or selected camera angle should be playing in the canvas as well.

To select a camera, just click on the angle in the viewer.

At the end your multiclip will be cut into their respective camera angles. You can go back and fine tune the cuts, too.

At the end you can flatten the entire multiclip sequence to their respective individual clips.

Dean Sensui — http://www.HawaiiGoesFishing.com