Will Head
If you’ve used several cameras to film an event, syncing up the footage can be a little daunting. Thankfully, there are ways to make this job easier.
If you have control over a shoot and plenty of time for lots of different takes then using a single camera to cover it is likely to be the easiest option. It may make for a longer edit, but you can make sure every shot is just right since you only need to concentrate on one angle at a time.
When you’re shooting live events that you can’t interrupt, however, you’ve got less control over the situation, and it’s harder to ensure you can get the shots you need. In a scenario like this, it’s usually better to go for a multi-camera or multicam setup.
While a multicam shoot will enable you to get all the shots you need from an event, there are downsides to adding more cameras. In addition to the cost of both the extra hardware and people to point them in the right direction, you’ve also got more footage to deal with. Shoot for an hour on a single camera and that’s all the footage you have to log and capture. With a four-camera setup you’ve got four hours to contend with before you’ve got the footage anywhere near your edit suite.
When you do finally get the material onto your Mac, you’ve then got the added issue of synchronising it all up so it all plays in time. There are a couple of ways of achieving this.
The easiest, although most expensive, option is to use an external timecode to synchronise all your cameras. The idea is to use one master timecode – generated either by one of the cameras or a standalone box – and feed it to the other cameras. As they’re all using the same timecode, the clips will be in sync even if you stop recording for a while and start again later. The downside is that not all cameras will accept an external timecode – you’re looking at high-end models. All the cameras need to be hooked up to the same timecode, which generally means wires, so you’re also limited in how far apart you can place your cameras.
The cheaper option, which is a bit more flexible but requires a little more work in your editing app, is to make sure that you create a visual cue to sync to before the action starts. If you want the Hollywood feeling then a clapperboard is ideal – not only does it provide a visual point to later sync all your clips, but an audio cue as well. All you need to do is ensure all the cameras can see it, hit record on each one and snap the clapperboard shut. If you don’t have a clapperboard available, then you can just use your hands instead – stand in front of all the cameras while they’re rolling and clap.
If you do use this option, however, you’ll need to leave all the cameras recording for the duration you need them to remain in sync. If you hit stop, you’ll have to provide another visual cue to use to sync them back up again. You’ll also have lots of individual clips that need synchronising manually. In general, the fewer clips you need to line up in your editing application, the better.
The final option is to simply look for a distinct visual cue in your footage – such as a camera flash or discrete action that you can use to line up all your clips. This is the least predictable option and will take the longest to find in all the clips you want to synchronise, but it’s a good backup option if you forget to provide a deliberate visual cue or it’s just not possible due to the filming conditions.
When you’ve got the clips onto your Mac the next step depends on which editing application you’re using.
In Final Cut, if all your clips have a master timecode then you don’t need to tell it how to line them up. If not, then the first thing you have to do is find the visual cue you’re going to use to sync them up. Open each clip in the Viewer and navigate to the exact frame you want to synchronise on – such as when the clapperboard closes or when a flash finishes – and set that as the in point for each clip.
Then select all the clips, right-click and choose Make Multiclip from the menu. If all your clips have a master timecode, then choose Timecode from the ‘Synchronize using’ menu, otherwise choose In Points and click OK. This will create a new clip in the Browser with the same name at the beginning as your first clip but the name will be in italics and end with Multiclip. Drop the new Multiclip on the timeline.
To change the camera angle for the whole clip, right-click on it, choose Active Angle from the menu and then choose the camera you want from the list. For more control over which angle you want, you need to enable Playhead Sync in the viewer. From the View menu choose Playhead Sync and then Open. You’ll now see all the different camera angles in the Viewer. If you want the audio soundtrack to change each time you change the camera angle, from the View menu choose Multiclip Active Tracks, then Video and Audio. If you want to keep the audio constant with each change, choose Video.
Next, place the playhead at the start of your sequence and hit space. You’ll see the current camera angle playing on the canvas and the available angles in the Viewer. Every time you click a new angle in the Viewer, you’ll see a marker above the timeline. When you’ve finished changing angles, hit space again and the markers will be replaced by edits. You can then play the sequence back and fine-tune any edits as you would normally.
Premiere Pro CS5 handles multicam clips slightly differently. First you need to create a sequence to hold all your clips, placing each one on a different video layer one above another. Again, if your clips have a master timecode then there’s no need to manually align them, otherwise navigate to the same visual cue on each clip. Then, with the clip selected, go to the Marker menu, choose Set Clip Marker, then Other Numbered.
It doesn’t matter what number you choose, as long as you use the same number for each marker on every clip. When you’ve set the marker at the right place for each clip, select all the clips, right-click and choose Synchronize. If you’re using a master timecode, choose Timecode, otherwise pick Numbered Clip Marker instead and hit OK. Your clips will now all be in sync.
Next, create a new sequence and drop the multicam sequence you just created onto the timeline. Right-click on it, navigate to Multi-Camera on the menu and choose Enable. You can also use that menu to select the active camera for the entire clip.
To change the camera more interactively, go to the Window menu and choose Multi-Camera Monitor. You’ll see the available camera angles on the left and the active angle on the right. If you want the audio to change with the camera angle, choose Audio Follows Video from the menu button at the top-right corner, otherwise leave it unticked. Press space to play the video and click the camera angles you want on the left as the video plays. When you’ve finished, press Space to stop. Each camera angle change will then become an actual edit on the timeline.
You can now finish off your edit as you would normally in whichever editing app you’re using. The advantage of using multicam clips is that it will keep all the different camera views in sync, so if you want to change angles later in the edit you won’t have to re-synchronise anything.