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Newbie’s Editing technique question
Hi all
I have a small project to deliver, and as an audio professional and complete video novice, I need advice from you video experts 🙂
The project is to make a DVD of a live show that was recorded a couple of months ago, with a variety of cameras around the auditorium, along with the audio from them as well as a feed from the theatre’s mixing desk. I have purchased Movie Studio Pro Pack and also downloaded the demo of Vegas Pro, which seems more flexible for this particular project, though probably over-powered for my usual stuff. I’ve also purchased Douglas’ fine book, from which I’m learning a lot.
But I would like to know before I get too far in, what the best way of editing you think would suit the project. Bearing in mind that the audio cannot be edited (apart, maybe, from removing inter-song waffle…), so that the video clips cannot be slipped in any way (I’m assuming…)
The way I’m planning it is to have the various video clips on their own tracks, along with the associated audio. I guess the audio tracks are best left Locked, and the video tracks Unlocked. Then, I will Split the video clips at the desired In and Out points – should I then Move each edited portion with 8 or 2 on the keypad to a “Master Edit” track? Or just remove each unwanted piece from its own track, thus ending up with a checkerboard? And how best to handle fades, given that I can’t slip any of the clips?
I hope this all makes sense, and thanks in advance for your input… (apologies if this basic question has been asked before, but my Search skills aren’t up to gleaning this info from the thousands of pages here!)
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4 Replies
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Hi there. Good questions by the way.
I would recommend you look at a plugin called Plural Eyes for lining up the cameras audio and video feeds on the timeline. This will make short work of having to line up the audio and video tracks by sight/sound.
You didn’t mention if the filming was continuous or if there was someone stoping the cameras at random intervals. If the former, then utilize the multicam feature built right into Vegas pro. It is under Tools. I would recommend saving the project right before you start the multicam edit and then saving it again right after you convert it to multicam so that way if a mistake was made you can go back to the pre multicam project. I would also recommend not adding the audio tracks to the multicam edit. Let them stand alone. Once you get the multicam edit enabled you should have all of your video feeds on one track and each feed will be represented as a take (if you right click and hover over take you will see a take for each video feed you have). In multicam mode you can edit as you go along by simply pressing the corresponding number key (the number is superimposed over top of the video feeds in the preview window). Edit to your hearts content and then deal with your audio mixing from ther.
One thing to note, do not do any color correction to the pre-multicam tracks or events or you will lose it when you move to a multicam project. Either do this afterwards or apply your color correction or fx to the project media pool. This will save you a lot of headache so you don’t have to edit this project the hard way 🙂
j razz
https://www.jrazzcreations.com
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Thanks for your very useful reply, Jeremy.
I have already downloaded the PluralEyes demo, and I’ll look at that this pm. Two reasons I went for Vegas Pro (apart from a colleague’s recommendation) were the Multicam feature and the support for more audio tracks than the 4 in Movie Studio.
Unfortunately, the decision to use multiple cameras was a last-minute decision when we discovered that we had several cameras with us, so no advance planning. I was aware that I would get problems in trying to sync everything together at the editing stage, but frankly I was worrying more about the up-coming concert (which, by the way, had an audience of some 1200, so we were… keyed-up and not thinking straight!). This is something we definitely want to do again, so will think about it beforehand and get some sort of clapper system going… or is there some trick that you video guys use? (I’m thinking cheap and cheerful here!)
The three cameras ran uninterrupted in the first half of the show, but with sound only recorded on two (I think the chap with the third assumed that the main desk feed would be the main audio, but in fact, it turns out be in mono, tsk) In the second half, two of the cameras failed, so we were left with just the picture from the centre of the auditorium, with a stereo audio, so that was probably the best one to have. Unfortunately, the young chap who was in charge of this camera during the second half thought he would do us a favour and stop the camera between each piece ::eyes roll::!
So, a lot of work… I decided yesterday to opt for the checkerboard (is this a video term?) option, which seems to be working fine, and the crossfades I can manage by pulling out the ends of the clips.
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The trick used to be looking at the wave form and lining up the audio while locked to the video track for each camera. Now though, Plural Eyes will do that for you automatically so it is the “trick” us video guys use. Plural Eyes will even make short work of the clips that were stopped and started again.
Too bad about the poor planning, but experience truly is the best way to learn. I bet you will never let those mistakes happen again.
Hopefully this is helpful for you.
j razz
https://www.jrazzcreations.com
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Looking at the wave form is the trick I’m using.. I’ve had no luck with PluralEyes. It must be something I’m doing, but it doesn’t come anywhere near syncing the various cameras together. I’m sure it’s something I’m missing (the cameras have all recorded different lengths of video, maybe that’s a problem, even though I’ve aligned them as close as possible…), so I’ll persevere, because the paradigm looks good.
Thanks for your input, Jeremy
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