Multicam Shoot-All different formats-Possible to edit in Vegas?

[David Ruhland]

I have been asked to tape our churches christmas program. They would like 3 different angles. Two cams will be set on tripods, one will be manned...

I am using, HD, HDV, and SD

Is this even possible to get a finished product? The SD footage 720x480 will be very minimal, the HD and HDV will be a majority of the footage. There will be two final outputs.. one to play on computers, and another to DVD (in future)

1: Should I set the HD to match the HDV camera at 1440x1080 or leave the HD at 1920x1080, the HDV at 1440x1080?

2: Am I going to have de interlacing problems ?

3: I plan on setting the project properties to the largest setting I shoot in..ie 1920x1080 and dropping all the footage into that timeline weather its 720x480, 1440x1080,

4: any special settings I should have on the cams BEFORE i shoot the video???

[Ian Stark]

This isn't exactly going to answer your questions but I have recently been in a similar(ish) position and my experiences may help in some small way.

I was commissioned to make a number of keep fit DVDs and I used an SD PAL camera (XL2) for jib mounted shots and a Sony Z5 PAL HDV camera for a locked master shot from the front. The end destination is DVD only at standard PAL widescreen resolution.

Through a process of trial and error, reading lots on this and other forums and asking questions (mainly here) I eventually settled on this process:

1. Edited in PAL widescreen DV - NOT in the higher HDV 25fps format.
2. Adjusted the HDV footage to match the PAL output aspect. Did a small amount of post zooming/panning on the HDV track only.
3. Deinterlaced using interpolation (lots of movement in the footage). Also checked 'reduce interlace flicker' for each clip (thank you Excalibur).
4. Colour corrected per track.
5. Applied an overall look at master video track level. This smoothed things out nicely.
6. Applied a little sharpening at master video track level.
7. Rendered to mpg2 PAL Widescreen stream (plus AC3 for the audio as a separate file, of course)

My rationale for the decision in 1. above was that when I tried making the project settings match the highest quality footage the result was noticeably softer by the time it got to DVD.

Whether there is any sense in any of this I have no idea, but I do know that the results were noticeably better when using project settings for the lowest common demoninator rather than the highest (ie PAL not HDV).

With hindsight I wish I had used two PAL SD cameras but I thought I was being clever!

To address your specific questions I think a question needs to be answered: do you intend the DVD to be a standard DVD at 720 x 480 or Blueray? And what dimensions do you plan for the computer viewable version? Which is the most important?

Gut feel is as follows:

Set up the HD camera to shoot HDV. That then gives you two formats to work with rather than three.
Make sure you white balance all cameras otherwise you'll have extra work cut out in post.
For post syncing help try and get a nice loud clap (if it doesn't interrupt the proceedings!) to give you an audio spike that you can match up. I also make a note of the time any loud, sharp noises during the event that might serve as reference points. Do check sync at various points in the timeline - I noticed a very slight drift between the two camera. Whether that was actually there or not I am still not 100% sure but it sure felt out of sync.

Hope that's of some use.

[David Ruhland]

Thanks... I am sure others are in this same boat....I too wish I had 3 of the same cameras..After hours of research I am really confused by the whole HD vs HDV issue... but thats for another time.... right now I just need to figure out this christmas program that is this saturday!...


Other Suggestions are surely welcome!

[Edward Troxel]

Generally speaking: Set the project to your DESTINATION settings. Add the footage from the various cameras to the timeline. Edit as desired. Render to the destination format. That should simply work!

[Gerald Webb]

interesting to hear every ones ideas on this, so here's my version, its different but I believe its works the best out of the work flows that Ive tried. I use it for every multi i do.
1. Capture your event (Dah!)
2. Pick your preferred best output, normally it would be 1080p. For me, I want to end up with a master of 1080p Cineform which is what I keep for archive and to knock down to DVD size.
3. So everything gets converted/captured at 1080p , your HDV is just dropped on a 1920x1080p timeline and converted to Cineform as a progressive stream.
Your SD footage gets captured via component out, through a HD capture card and uprezzed to 1080p Cineform ( dont use HDMI to capture from the cam, the results are much better via component).

So you end up with all of your files in an intermediate codec and all at 1080p.
Edit till you are happy.
Export to your intermediate codec again at 1080p (this is your archive)

Drop that into Virtualdub and use the resize filter to make another archive copy at 1048x576 (Pal square pixel)
Drop 1080p into Architect or Encore (whatever you use for Bluray)
Drop 1048x576p into your DVD authoring software.

SD footage scales up amazingly well if done right.
:)

[Bryan Cantwell]

What I usually do in situations like this is just convert everything to Cineform! :) Simple, right?

Only part I'm not sure on is how the SD would look, I haven't worked with that in a while, and never with Cineform. A little experimentation would help, you should consider trying a short shoot & edit before the events, to work out the kinks in the workflow.

[David Ruhland]

Dont pounce on me to hard, but what is Cineform? I assume its a codec? Is it something I do in the render process of Vegas?

I am still on the learning curve...If it has something to do with putting the video on DVD...Im not that far yet. LOL