Need some two camera editing advice

[Hulk]

I'm finally getting around to editing my wedding video tape. I had two friends tape the ceremony so I have the ceremony from beginning to end on two cameras. One camera on each side of the church.

When I got married 5 years ago I figured two cameras would be better than one, but I knew nothing of editing then!

My plan is to take the camera with the best sound and video and use that as the main track. Sync the second camera to the first and cut back and forth between the two.

What is the easiest way to do this us MS Pro so I don't have to keep syncing the second video?

-Mark

[Graham Meredith]

I have done a few 2-camera edits, though not using MSpro. In my case, syncing was easy, as I had both cameras rolling all the time, so they were getting the same "time" footage, so to speak, at any one point in the timeline. Yours may be different, for example, if one person paused their camera at points. In this case, you'll have to pull the 2 videos onto 2 separate timelines, and listen to the audio tracks to sync the footage. Don't worry about the audio track at this point, edit the video with the audio also chopping and changing between footage, so long as it is in sync and makes sense.

Now for the audio track.

Take the complete video track which has the sound you want, and strip the audio as a wav file from it. Now load this wav file into your timeline, and line it up with the chopped audio of the edited footages. When finished, now mute or switch off or remove the chopped audio tracks, and render the complete video footage using the imported WAV sound track.

It's a lot of fiddling around, but I don't know any easier way. I do live film clips for bands, and keep both cameras rolling, so it's a bit easier for me. Interstingly enough, in my situation, you can use BOTH audio tracks and make a composite stereo track, which is really cool, if the 2 cameras are filming at a reasonable distance to each other. I did a stereo track using 2 mono cameras, and it sounded great.

Graham

[dchip]

I don't use MSP but this is how I do the 2 and 3 camera edits in Vegas.

If both cameras were running the whole time then you should only have to sync-up one time. Lay down both tracks and line them up using a camera flash or loud cough or something that both cameras heard and saw well. You can also use music to line up the tracks. Just keep nudging them until the reverberation is gone.

Chop a hole in the first track in areas where you want the lower track to show, etc. Make sure to activate whatever feature in MSP that holds all the chunks together across all tracks as you move stuff around and delete sections.

Do some simple compositing between the tracks by playing with the opacity of the first track. If you are lucky, while any soloist was performing, one of the cameras stayed on you and your bride. You can do some really elegant compositing in those areas.

Sounds like a fun edit. Hope it goes well.

[Hulk]

Thanks for the advice guys! Yes, this is a fun one.

Like Kirk in "The Arena" I have reasoned it out. Actually, it wasn't that hard.

Here's what seems to be the easiest method in my case.

Put the entire video/audio from the better cam's footage on B.

Bring in the other camera on A and sync them up.

After putting my find my first cut to A that I need, I put moved this clip to V1.

Now whenever I want a A clip I just copy paste the V1 to A, move it by dragging the leading edge then trailing edge to about where I want it. Move it back to V1, taking care only to move vertically, and make final trimming adjustments.

I've been flying through the ceremony using this method. It's working out really well.

Thanks for the tips guys.

-Mark

[johnpr98]

Hi

My thoughts about 2 camcorder edits of shows

Keep both camcorders rolling saves a lot of time when editing as you will have the full length of the tape to synch up in one operation.

Turn on MSPro 6* waveform view for quick & precise audio synch matching (turn off after as it does slow things down slightly).

I also copy the master video to V2, split the audio & delete the video on V2, I then disable the audio on Aa & Ab. This gives me a solid audio timeline.

V1 is my master video track V1 will take precedance on the edit unless I use the scissors to cut out unwanted footage on V1 which lets Va footage be visible. I then increase or decrease the length of the cut clip on V1 for a precise edit.

I film shows using two camcorders at the same time mounted on tripods (Side by side, one wide, one zooming in or zoom in of two halfs of he stage, variation is the name of the game to make it lokk like you have 4 camcorders, the trick is not to zoom move the both cams at the same time, you will always have footage to cover quick moves from one side of the stage to the other.

It worked for me this week end on a two camcorder edit of 2¾ hour video. A vision mixer would be quicker though

I wish there was a edit count on MSPro like a word count on MS Word.

Regards

John

http://www.johnpr98.com

[Peter B]

The waveform view is the best way to synce the videos (turn it off after lining up), check every so often as sometimes different cameras can record at different speeds. I have done some 2 & 3 camera edits with different types of cameras; mini DV, D8 and S-vhs and at the end of an hour you can find 2 or three seconds differnce between tracks that were synced perfectly at the begining.

[Elie]

Insert both clips into the timeline and sync them.

Apply a PiP filter to the second camera so you can see both videos playing at the same time.

Slice the camera two footage as you see fit, once completed... remove the PiP filters and you have yourself a cool looking 2 camera video.

Regards,
Elie

[Hulk]

Elie,

That's a great idea. Thanks.

Luckily, the ceremony was only 20 minutes long so my initial sync held to the end.

Mark