Multi Cam editing

[Ryan Postel]

I have done a lot of trial by fire testing of FCP 6.0's multi cam editor, and from my experience it would seem that you should always shoot based on your lowest common video denominator; that meaning if you have even one SD camera in the bunch, then shoot SD because of Final Cut's restraints in multicam editing.

From using both FCP's multi cam and Premiere CS3's multicam, I truly dislike FCP's way of syncing different cameras. Its cumbersome and it really forces you to try to sync your timecode one way or another.

Premiere of all programs offers a user-friendly line-it-up-in-the-timeline-and-you're-synced set up option. Why can't FCP offer this?

Also, this is a problem Apple couldn't answer. The FCP multicam continues to disassociate the linked video files so they no longer line up! I've had to restart my edit several times due to this. Anyone else experience this?

[Dana Salsbury]

I sync by audio. The visual can be off by a hair and you won't notice, but with audio you account for distance between camera and action. I.e., if one cam is by the speaker as he slaps the podium and another at the back of the crowd, the audio will not sync if you go by video, but if you match the audio spikes you're more accurate, IMO. You can find a spike by viewing audio waveforms and line them up to the playhead.

[Patrick Pike]

Originally Posted by Dana Salsbury

I sync by audio. The visual can be off by a hair and you won't notice, but with audio you account for distance between camera and action. I.e., if one cam is by the speaker as he slaps the podium and another at the back of the crowd, the audio will not sync if you go by video, but if you match the audio spikes you're more accurate, IMO. You can find a spike by viewing audio waveforms and line them up to the playhead.

I used to do it that way, but started to have problems on larger events. For example, if you have one camera with a mic on the podium and another with a boundry mic, you will not want to sync the audio. As you pointed out, there will be a significant delay between two mics.

Because light travels _much_ faster than sound, you should sync with video. Thee will be a natural audio delay as sound travels between the mics, but you can always adjust the audio separately if necessary. Normally, I love the slight delay with audio - I use it as the most natural sounding reverb.

[Dana Salsbury]

You're probably right. It has just seemed to me that an audio peak is a lot more clear than a flash, kiss, etc. It's also true that by syncing delayed audio due to distance, the video would then be off a bit.

One trick I've tried to implement (I keep forgetting) is to stand at the alter (wedding videos) and slap shut my cell phone in view of all three cameras. That way I have both an audio and visual to work with, and it can seem very casual to the crowd.