Easier way to edit multi camera shoots?

[sealilly]

A friend showed me how he edits with Sony Vegas and it seemed fairly easy to edit multi camera shoots. I was wondering if I have not yet learned a similar method of multi camera editing with X6. For example, lets use a dance recital. I would have 2 video clips in the timeline, one full stage and the other is zoomed and panned. I put my full stage on the first timeline and add the zooming clip in track 2. I then need to clip and move, clip and move, etc.

With Vegas, he was somehow dragging up and down from timeline to timeline and it seemed a lot easier.

I am not jumping ship, I love my VS X6, just wondered if there is anything I am missing to make these types of edits easier.

Thanks all.

[lata]

Hi

If the two recordings were continuous without pausing the recordings then you will only have to synchronise the two clips once.

Place the main video in the top track
The second video in the overlay track, synchronise the two by moving the overlay clip. The overlay clip may show as a smaller clip, I would leave it like that so you can also see the top track, you can fit to screen later.

I assume you will need to remove the beginning from the overlaid clip, play the clip to that point, using the scissors (lower right of preview screen), cut the clip.
You now have two clips, delete the first clip.
Continue playing and cutting the overlay track into sections, deleting the bits you don’t want.
Do not move any clips as they are all in sync with the top track, at least they should be in sync’
You may wish to add a “fade in and out” to the overlay track clips to give a smoother transition.

Hope that gets you started

[jklein]

I was curious about this as well.

If I want to keep only the main audio, not the audio on the overlay, how can I make sure the audio's are in sync. For example, if someone is speaking with a close-up on the overlay track, but I want to use the audio from the main track for that segment, I would need the audio to be in sync. Is there a way to sync/match based on the waveforms? In the past, I have used camera flashes from the crowd to line up the frames from the two tracks. It works, but only if there was a flash fired during the segment of interest.

lata, your solution of placing both videos on separate tracks would only work if both cameras started recording exactly at the same time, or am I misunderstanding what you stated?

[lata]

Hi Joe

There is no auto option to synchronise the audio between two clips, this has to be done manually, your camera flash option is as good as any.

I said if the two recordings were complete then after adding them to separate tracks you would only have to synchronise once.

You then cut the overlay track removing/deleting the unwanted frames/clips, add a fade in, fade out to the good video.
The overlay clips will remain in place and be in sync.

Switch to Sound Mixer view and each track will show the wave form of the video, this should help in syncing the clips.

[jklein]

lata,

Yes, thank you for clarifying what you stated about only having to sync once. Sorry, I mis-read what you wrote. You are correct.

I was having a heck of a time syncing on waveform, taking hours. Then I stumbled across the flash option. That worked out beautifully, and like you said, I should only have to sync once. That will help me on my next project. I will let both cameras record the entire performance.

Thanks for the great feedback and posts on this forum. Very helpful.

Joe

[lata]

Hi Joe

If you add a colour clip or image to the beginning of the top timeline then add your video.
You can now resize the colour clip/image, frame by frame if you wish, that will nudge the video along the timeline till you have sync with the overlay track.

I would drag the clips somewhere near then use the above, I am sure there will be other options to set the sync.

[jklein]

Awesome tip, thanks!

[skier-hughes]

Don't hope for a a camera flash, create your own at a point before the start of the performance. Or use a clapperboard to make a very short sharp sound.
As has been said, keep recording until you are finished. If you take a break, you need to reset sync by another flash.