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Throughly modern multi-cam
I mentioned awhile ago that I’d directed and shot a project that ended up using 14 cameras to cover a 5 piece Jazz band performance.
I’m trying to shoehorn the edit for it inside other work but I thought the group might be interested in a quick initial report since most people who’ve done posts on FCP-X’s multi-cam have been working with less than a half dozen sources.
The shoot involved 7 DSLR’s (5dMkIIs) – and an another 7 GoPro Hero 2’s.
The initial shoot went much better than I expected – not without issues since wrangling 4 directed cameras – 3 fixed position DSLRS – and 7 fixed position micro-cams means a LOT of logistics issues. (took us well over a minute on each take just to confirm all were running properly!)
I’ve included a screen shot of an early test to see if X would bog down with 12 angles of Proxy media (it handled it like a CHAMP) and I’ve been working with all 14 since then. On my older MacPro with the 30″ Cinema Display there is a modest bit of switching lag to get used to – but the clips all play back in sync in the interface really well!
I’m going to move it onto the laptop this week and see if the i7 Duo makes things even smoother.
Bottom line is that Yes, Virginia, FCP-X can handle bunches of multi-cam angles pretty amazingly well for a $300 editing package.
I also haven’t had a single editing issue of any kind since 10.0.4 hit my machines including on this complex beast.
My biggest issue so far has been working out naming conventions for my assets and clips. With 12 cameras times two songs, times two performances each, Plus a “behind the scenes” steadi-cam shot that went from setup through the songs and beyond – plus another GOPro doing time-lapse covering the production, the tagging scheme has not been as straightforward as I initially thought and I had to puzzle out stuff like whether I wanted to “bucket” things by instrument, or angle, or solo, or camera position or whatever – in addition to the song/take info.
But I’ve been having a whole lot of fun – and I’m learning a whole lot about this new world.
More to come as I dig deeper.
“Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions.”-Justice O’Connor
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19 Replies
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Is there ANY WAY to turn off that “filmstrip” look that all the clips have in FCPX? Because having to look at that mad jumble of images you have there along with 12 clips playing in the monitor would drive me bananas…
In the normal timeline, it even plays the frame you’re on while you skim over it. I sure hope it isn’t doing that here too.
This is one of the things that really turns me off from wanting to use FCPX- there’s too much animation and stimulation going on all over the place. Every time I try it I feel like I’m in a casino or something. It just doesn’t feel like a professional environment.
I’ve heard that a lot of that stuff can be disabled if you don’t want it, but I’d rather not have to deal with that. In Premiere I can sit down and get to work right away without having to turn off a bunch of saturday morning kid stuff first…
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“THAT’S our fail-safe point. Up until here, we still have enough track to stop the locomotive before it plunges into the ravine… But after this windmill it’s the future or bust.” -
I can’t believe, after all that setting up you had to do, they only recorded two songs. We do live sessions with bands,off our own back, usually 4 dslr if only using our gear but up to 6 cams at times and we make them do 5 songs and bundle 2 or 3 bands in a day just to make the most of the effort.
And though I am glad the edit is going well in FC10 for you I don’t see the $300 price tag being relevant at all. Either the software is pro or it’s not, which is a bulk of he debate in here. Cost is irrelevant, especially given apple could give it away for free and barely bust a sweat drop.
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Chris Fenwick recently blogged about his success with multi cam in fcpx.
Check it out https://chrisfenwick.com/home/2012/2/11/fcpx-might-work.html -
One of my favorite aspects of FCPX is how easy and natural it is to work with groups of clips.
While I would not consider most of our shoots to be multicam shoots, there’s no question that we have multiple cams on almost every shoot.
X makes it so easy (through a variety of grouping methods, such as compounds, multiclips, connections, auditions) to keep all of these things together through the edit and allowing angle/camera changes at a moments notice.
There’s still a lot to be worked out mechanically with audio, but it still bodes well for a potential future.
Thanks for posting, Bill.
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Bill,
How are you handling the audio? Is there a common mixed board feed that doesn’t require remixing or editing on your part?
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
Are you on x.0.4?
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Oliver,
Yes and No at the same time. (sounds like typical live recording, huh!)
The band was iso’d to six discrete tracks, Piano, Kick, Drum Overhead, Sax, Guitar amp – then Bass direct. The recordist delivered those stems plus a Stereo temp mix.
So that initial mix went into X as a “draft performance track” and has now become the timekeeper for video sync and edits.
(as an aside, it was kinda fascinating listening to all the direct audio takes from the different cameras and listening to how their positioning and enclosures affected the audio they recorded – but that wild audio certainly wasn’t good enough to use for anything other than sync)
Anyway, the sound recordist has a copy of the discrete music tracks and when I’ve selected the actual performances, he’ll do a proper mix down of the song finalists for audio replacement.
“Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions.”-Justice O’Connor
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[Greg Andonian] “Is there ANY WAY to turn off that “filmstrip” look that all the clips have in FCPX? Because having to look at that mad jumble of images you have there along with 12 clips playing in the monitor would drive me bananas…
“Sorry.
After so long here, I just assume that people understand how X works, and that’s usually a huge mistake on my part.
You’re looking at the Angle Editor. It’s a separate workspace in X for multi-cam preparation. It’s the place where you can re-name, re-position and look at your individual camera shots.
It is NOT where you switch your program.
That’s done by dropping the multicam clip into a single timeline, then you can switch shots by clicking on the angle display to make your shot selections.
“Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions.”-Justice O’Connor
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Yes.
It’s been rock solid of me so far on both my machines.
“Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions.”-Justice O’Connor
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[Jules bowman] “I can’t believe, after all that setting up you had to do, they only recorded two songs…”
Jules,
Look, I’m not sure what your issue is, but please, if all you can contribute is stuff like this, perhaps it’s time for you to take a break from posting?
For the record, two songs is what I was able to secure performance and sync rights for from the composers and all the involved musicians.
I’m grateful to all those involved in this project for providing those rights to me, so that I can use this project for my training work and post it places like this without copyright issues.
Period.
“Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions.”-Justice O’Connor
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