How to edit. in Avid s Multicam. Digitize. Prepare Your Clips

Transcription

1 How to edit in Avid s Multicam Avid s Multicamera (or Multicam as it s sometimes known, Xpress Pro calls it Group Clip Mode) allows you to group two or more clips together, and edit between them in real-time just like live vision mixing. You can then change the edit points in the usual way (by trimming), or you can re-do sections of the edit in real-time again. Being non-linear, you can also just edit down the main camera, then quickly edit in the questions with no match framing or hunting through timecodes. This document explains how... Digitize If possible, digitize all the tapes for your Multicam. This will make it easier for you in the long run, and give you lots of choice in your edit. Prepare Your Clips Multicam works best when you have two or more timecode locked cameras. However you can group clips manually, by using a recognisable event that is viewable on each camera e.g. handclap, cough, start of a word etc etc. Let s take a recent example where George Clooney has been interviewed. The interview was covered in three cameras one on George, one on Kirsty Wark, and one tracking wide shot. Page 1 of 11

2 To keep things simple, I have put all 3 clips into the same bin, and named them appropriately. Load the first clip into the Source monitor, and locate a point on the clip that is present on each of the cameras. NB if they are timecode locked, then this point does not matter, simply find a easy timecode - e.g. 01:53:40:00. Mark an IN at this point. Page 2 of 11

3 Goto the other clips and mark an IN point at exactly the same point on the clip here we have used the timecode 01:53:40:00 Page 3 of 11

4 Group Clips Now we want to group these clips together. Select all three clips in the bin, and go to the Bin Menu. Select "Group Clips". This brings up this menu box. Page 4 of 11

5 You can now select how you want to group the clips - by IN points, by OUT points or by Timecode. We have set our IN points to be the same, so select IN points. This will give you a new "Grouped" clip, which secretly contains all three clips (although you can't see that yet!). Name it something sensible - we have called ours "George Clooney Grouped". If you load this clip into the source viewer, it will just look like a normal clip, showing one of the clips in the group full frame. Page 5 of 11

6 You need to enter a special Multicam mode to be able to view and edit the Multicam group. Multicam Mode Load your grouped clip into the source viewer, and edit it into the Timeline. Notice that the clip in the Time line has a (G) at the end of its name - this tells you that it is a grouped clip. Now select Multicamera Mode from the Special menu. Page 6 of 11

7 Your Source monitor will now change to display all the clips within the grouped clips. It will look something like this: Editing As you scroll up and down the timeline, you will notice that the three clips move along in time with your position on the Timeline. There are 2 main ways to edit in Multicam. 1. Mouse mode 2. Live cutting mode Mouse Mode 1. Play the Timeline. You will notice that the Composer monitor shows a full frame image of the Timeline. The Source monitor shows the three grouped clips moving in time with the sequence (NB the main broadcast monitor shows a low quality version of the Source Monitor). 2. Stop the Timeline when you want to cut to another camera. 3. Click on that camera in the Source monitor. Page 7 of 11

8 4. Play the Timeline, and repeat! NOTE: You do not have to actually play the Timeline in this mode. You can simply scroll along the timeline if you wish, clicking on cameras as and when you want them to appear. When finished, you Timeline will look something like this: NOTE: You only ever get one audio track. This is the original one that came with the grouped clips that you edited into the Timeline at the beginning. Live Cutting Mode This mode is more fun, but first you must map some new keys to your keyboard. Open up the Command Palette (Tools > Command Palette) and your Keyboard settings. Go to the Mcam tab. Map M1, M2 and M3 to your F keys (or wherever you have space! Don't forget you can use SHIFT + F keys as well). Page 8 of 11

9 Now you are ready to edit like a vision mixer. 1. Having edited your Grouped clip into the Timeline and entered Multicam mode, go to the beginning of your sequence and hit play. 2. Press your M1, M2 and M3 buttons to cut between cameras. 3. That's it. If you make a mistake, or want to change something, simply go back on the Timeline and try again. If you do lots of retakes, you may end up with spurious Add Edits - this is where you have had another go at a cut point, probably deciding to stay on one camera for a little longer. It may look something like this: Here we decided to stay with George for longer, before cutting to Kirsty's question. You can remove these Add Edits by going to the Clip menu and selecting "Remove Match Frame Edits". Page 9 of 11

10 Tips and Tricks Press the Control key in the Source monitor for a reminder of the original clip names. Whilst in this mode, click on the name to change which camera is in which position. Right click on the clips in the Timeline, and you can change the contents. Before: Page 10 of 11

11 After: Conclusion This looks like a really great way to edit complicated multicamera edits. However, it is only available on modern versions of Avid, so check whether you have Multicamera Mode before planning an edit around it. Remember to leave Multicamera Mode (Special > Multicamera Mode) go back to "normal"!! If you want more information on Multicam mode (and it can do a lot more that I've described here) then please look in the help files. This document was written around Media Composer Adrenaline version Other versions of Avid may vary. Let me or Tony know if you have any problems with this, or indeed any suggestions. Xpress Pro names Multicam as Group Clip Mode, but the Command palette has a tab marked Mcam. Xpress Pro Help covers Group Clip Mode in some detail. Rob Kennedy & Tony Ellam April 2006 Page 11 of 11