Editing footage from two cameras to make one clip

thebiggfella · Post by **thebiggfella** » Sat May 05, 2007 8:41 pm

Hello. I'm looking for some advice here, basically to save me time messing about and experimenting trying to find the best way of doing this.

I filmed my friend's wedding yesterday, and another friend was the 'second camera person' shooting additional footage. Obviously, what I want to do is to edit the footage from the two cameras into one clip and was wondering what's the best way of going about doing this? I've done plenty of editing using footage shot on one camera but never tried to edit footage shot on two cameras into one clip. I'm using VS10+.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Sat May 05, 2007 8:57 pm

Please view:
Multi Camera Editing

thebiggfella · Post by **thebiggfella** » Sun May 06, 2007 3:36 pm

Thanks for that. I did look at the tutorials but obviously not hard enough!

thebiggfella · Post by **thebiggfella** » Sun May 06, 2007 8:24 pm

So I've just had a look at the tutorial. I wish I had VS11+. Since I've got 10+, am I right in thinking that I've got to edit the footage backwards with my Main video on the overlay track and the secondary video on the video track?

I think I understand the tutorial which appears to be fine for short bits of film of the same length with nothing needing edited out of the main video. But I have two tapes of unequal lengths, both fairly lengthy, both needing unwanted footage removed and both containing footage of different parts of the wedding day filmed at the same time. For example I'm filming the ceremony whilst my friend is filming stuff going on outside.

Do I edit my main video first, then add in clips from the secondary video afterwards by putting the secondary video on the video track and the main one on the overlay track? But thinking about that, if I've only left in the footage that I want in the main video, then overlay that with footage from the secondary video, then the secondary video footage will be covering footage from the main video that I was wanting to be visible.

After I've edited the main video, I could add in colour blocks of the same length as the footage that I want to include from the secondary video so it's the colour blocks that are getting overlayed and not the footage from the main video. Would this work?

As you can tell, I'm confused!

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Sun May 06, 2007 8:31 pm

Place your main video in the video track.
Now place any other videos of whatever length on the overlay track and these can be positioned anywhere along the time line (Gaps are allowed on the overlay tracks)

There is no need to use solid blocks of colour on the main video track because the video on the overlay tracks will hide whatever is underneath (unwanted stuff).

You also need to keep tht unwanted stuff on the video track because it will contain the sound track (if you're following my method).

thebiggfella · Post by **thebiggfella** » Mon May 07, 2007 3:26 pm

Thanks for your prompt response. I think that I've got the procedure. Am I right in thinking that this is it:

1. Put the unedited main video in the video track.
2. Put the unedited secondary video in the overlay track.
3. Remove any unwanted parts of the secondary video and line up the wanted parts with the unwanted parts of the main video.
4. Given that the wanted parts of the secondary video may be shorter than the unwanted part of the main video which it is overlaying, I would have to remove the unwanted part of the main video which is not overlayed in the usual way.

Just one quick question: What would I do if the wanted part of the secondary video was longer than the unwanted part of the main video which it overlaying? Thanks. Glynn.

Black Lab · Post by **Black Lab** » Mon May 07, 2007 3:35 pm

What would I do if the wanted part of the secondary video was longer than the unwanted part of the main video which it overlaying?

Sometimes you can use the Playback Speed to alter the length of the clips. Depending on what kind of motion the clips has, changing the speed by 5 or 10% will not be noticeable, but may be enough to "fit" where you want it too.

thebiggfella · Post by **thebiggfella** » Mon May 07, 2007 7:29 pm

Thank you Jeff. Have I got the procedure right in my post above? Like I said earlier, I've not done any multi camera editing before so it's all new to me. I have to say, if I was left to my own devices, I would have never have thought of doing it like sjj1805 suggested, but the process makes perfect sense so I'm glad I asked! to be honest, I've hardly ever used the overlay track in the 2 or 3 years that I've been using VS.

BrianCee · Post by **BrianCee** » Mon May 07, 2007 7:48 pm

thebiggfella wrote:Just one quick question: What would I do if the wanted part of the secondary video was longer than the unwanted part of the main video which it overlaying?

just cut the main video and insert anything - like a plain colour block or an image or a piece of video and set it's length to expand the main video length to the desired amount - it doesn't matter what you put in (as long as you mute any sound it has) since it will never be seen in the final production.

Similarly if the main video is longer than the secondary overlay just cut the main track twice the required time removal apart - select the middle bit and hit the delete key.

Black Lab · Post by **Black Lab** » Mon May 07, 2007 8:27 pm

BrianCee wrote:
thebiggfella wrote:Just one quick question: What would I do if the wanted part of the secondary video was longer than the unwanted part of the main video which it overlaying?

just cut the main video and insert anything - like a plain colour block or an image or a piece of video and set it's length to expand the main video length to the desired amount - it doesn't matter what you put in (as long as you mute any sound it has) since it will never be seen in the final production.

Similarly if the main video is longer than the secondary overlay just cut the main track twice the required time removal apart - select the middle bit and hit the delete key.

But all this is dependant upon where the soundtrack is coming from. If you are using the sound from the main video then you don't want to cut that because that will throw you out of sync. If you are muting the audio from all video tracks and just using a music bed, you can cut all the video tracks any way you want.

thebiggfella · Post by **thebiggfella** » Tue May 08, 2007 12:55 am

Brian, Jeff - Thanks for your replies. The sound track will be coming from the main video since that's what the footage of the ceremony is on, but much of it will be muted and music will be played over a lot of the footage.

Does the sound from the secondary video on the overlay track also get played? If so, I guess I just mute it with the rubber bands in the audio view. If the sound from the secondary video does not come through and I discover that there is something from it that I want to be audible in the final production, how would I go about doing that?

And with Brian's suggestion about inserting a colour block into the main video if required, that shouldn't affect the sound if it's just coming from the video track should it. I'm thinking that it'll just cause a break in the sound, then resume (if there's no music playing) after the colour block has played through?

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Tue May 08, 2007 1:14 am

All you need to remember is the trick is in the sound. Your eyes can be fooled but your ears can't. Very often we do not see what is really there.

Read this

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae.
The rset can be a total mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm.
Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

Providing the sound "sounds" right then you can get away with almost anything with the video. If you want to use the sound from one of the overlay clips for any reason then you can probably best achieve this by using what are termed J cuts and L cuts.

If the clip in your overlay track is going to be longer than the clip in the video track, rather than place that particular second clip on the overlay track it might be better to cut to video on the video track at the point you want the other video to begin.

Switch to storyboard view rather than timeline view to insert that 2nd video, then you can switch back to timeline view, find the point of the first video where you wish to resume from, make another cut and remove the unwanted portion.

Remember that the method I described for placing your 2nd video onto the overlay track is flexible, there is no need to stick to it too rigidly.
You can mix and match methods throughout the project doing what is easiest at a particular point in the video.

The beauty of video editing is that there is more than one way to do something and you have to decide upon the best method for the project currently in hand.

thebiggfella · Post by **thebiggfella** » Tue May 08, 2007 10:29 am

Thanks for all the advice. I've got a few days off now so hopefully I'll be getting started on the project very soon. I'm just about to start capturing it. I may be back with more questions!