Two cameras/One Timeline

Is is OK to use material shot with the Canon HV20 and the Canon Vixia HF20 in the same project Timeline?

Well, you really meant " ... in the same project Sequence ..."
The answer is yes. The HV20 is DV/HDV, the HF20 is AVCHD. If you shoot DV, you will capture that directly in FCE. HDV and AVCHD, however, are transcoded to Apple Intermediate Codec when you capture (HDV) and log & transfer (AVCHD).
You may have to be careful about your sequence settings if you shot the material differently (especially if you are combining DV with HDV or AVCHD in the same sequence; also if you shot 720p on one cam, 1080i on the other). I'd suggest reading up on sequence settings and Auto Conforming.
Also, stick to 60i or 30p ... FCE does not support 24p.

Similar Messages

Newbie Question: Two Cameras, One Soundtrack

Hi there, I will have access to a machine with FCP for a week. It's a bewilderingly complex product for the non-pro editor like myself. I've tried to use iMovie on my own iMac without success. I shot a classical concert on two cameras (SD DV). The closer of the two has the soundtrack I want to use but the other one has the majority of the video I need. What is the simplest method of using the first soundtrack, the video from cam 2 but still using the some video from cam 1 for cut-aways? And last but not least, are there any specific tools for syncing the audio to the video. Obviously I don't have time-code.
Thanks for your indulgence.

Go to Help in FCP's menu bar and read up on the Multiclip editing function.
The printed manuals contain exactly the same information -the online documentation is searchable by keywords.
Basically, you find a common sync point, press play and then switch cameras using the keyboard.
The edit points can be changed after the fact if neccessary.
You probably will need to use FCP for more than a week to finish this. Much to learn.
Footage from a DV cam does have timecode by the way.

Working Two Formats, one Timeline: DVPro 50 and DV HD

I am working with two formats and trying to make this process as smooth as possible, and it almost is in FCP 6.0. We haven't had too many issues, but there are issues non-the-less. So here is the background:
We have been doing a cooking show for 3 years now, the past two have been shot with DVPro 50, this year was shot with the Panasonic HPX 2000 (Cam A) and Panasonic HVX -200 (Cam B) using 720p 24pn. Both were shot in 16x9.
So, when we set up the master timelines, we've been using the DVCPRO HD-720p 24 Easy Setup as our default setup, so everything goes smoothly for the most part, except sometimes the footage which is shot with the DVCPRO 50 footage becomes choppy and uncooperative. The reason being (I Think??) is because this footage is shot in 29.97, then pulled down to 23.97, if that's right, then that might be the problem.
My questions are:
1) What, if anything can I do to smooth this workflow, so I don't come across these problems so frequently?
2) Should I try to recapture the DVCPRO 50 footage in another setting?
I think that's it, all help is greatly appreciated, and thanks.

See that's the thing, I thought that FCP 6 would handle a lot of the mixed footage converting, and it has, some of the times. When I place the footage into the FCP 6 timeline it usually brings everything up to where it should be in the timeline, and that's where I thought I could handle the frame rate conversion.
Even though, we originally shot the DVCPRO 50 footage at 23.97 it still has to go through the frame rate pulldown to get from 29.97, and FCP usually handles that pulldown. But why is it only handling it some of the times?

Syncing clips from two cameras

This must be a fairly common thing, but I have been unable to find the answer I'm looking for, so maybe I have a terminology problem. But here is what I want to do...
I shot my wedding using two cameras one a Sony HVR-A1U on a tripod and the other a Sony PD-170 handheld by a friend of mine. I would like to put them both in the timeline and just cut back and forth between the two cameras. Is there an easy way to match the two, so I get clean edits? Also I'm going to use the audio from just the camera on the tripod as it's better.
I hope I explained that clearly.
Thanks in advance for your help.

You should've synched them to a clock or some such thing when you recorded the event, but it's too late for that. The best way to do what you want is multiclip editing-- which, (sorry for more bad news) is not a function of Express. You'll have to layer them on top of each other and sync them some other way, then just cut back and forth as you see fit.
As a sidenote, while FCP does have multiclip editing, I would not consider upgrading to it just for that. It is widely known as one of the weaker functions of FCP (at least as compared to other NLEs).

Synchronize Two Cameras

Hi,
I am an novice video guy. I am supposed to video a ballet using two cameras; one pan and one close-up. I would like some sort of trick to help me synchronize the two cameras so that I can easily edit the close-up video into the wide-angle shots. I thought of a flash prior to the beginning of the dance so that I can line up the video of both cameras during editing but flash photography is forbidden.
There must be an established technique but I can't seem to find it.
Thanks in advance for any help.
Brock Fisher
San Diego
imac Mac OS X (10.4.3)

Tom's suggestion of a clapperboard or a handclap is probably your best bet. Just keep those cameras running once they are started. If you do so, after you capture, you will have 2 long clips (one from each camera) that you can put on the timeline & align once. After you have them aligned in the timeline, you should unlink the audio tracks from the video tracks, and then you can do your video cutting in the timeline and the audio can remain sync'd with both video tracks throughout.
If you start/stop either camera, you will end up with multiple clips, each of which will have to be aligned individually on the timeline - laboriously, one by one - and I can assure you that is a real b**.
The alternative is either a video mixer where you do your transitions in real time (as if you were broadcasting live) and feed them to a single recording deck or some pretty expensive equipment to sync audio & video between the two cameras.

Two camera footage: one drop frame, one non-drop frame

We recently were delivered a batch of tapes for a two camera project that we're doing the post work on. The timecode was jammed to synch the two cameras. Unfortuantely, one of the cameras seems to be drop and the other non-drop. As a result, the tape that is showing as non-drop stops every couple of minutes for a timecode break in order to synch up with the jammed timecode.
The reality is that there is no break in footage in the sense that this footage was recorded as a real-time 30 minute presentation, but because timecode is being jammed, and because the tape was being recorded in non-drop frame, Final Cut cannot capture this footage in its entirety.
My only thought would be to capture through S-video out and place the footage on a timeline, and force the sequence timecode with the appropriate timecode.
Has anyone run into this issue before and know a better solution? Or if the above solution will work?

Update: Rather than S-Video, we're setting the FCP capture setting to non-controllable device. That will give it higher quality, and so far, that is capturing just fine without the breaks.

Two different clip settings on one timeline

Hello All,
I am combining clips shot with two different cameras on one timeline.
For best quality results of the image, what sequence settings and then export choice should I use? It is a 4 min film that I would like to export as QT or MPEG-4 movie file.
In FCP, both clips look crisp and sharp. I tried various export formats in compressor, but the output always returns the clips from camera 2 de-interlaced (the edges of objects are not smooth but zygzagy).
Clip settings from camera 1:
frame size: 1920 x 1080
video rate: 23.98 and some in 29.97
compressor: Apple ProRes 422
Pixel Aspect ratio: square
Field dominance: None and some have Upper (Odd)
Clip settings from camera 2:
Frame size: 720 X 480
Video Rate: 29.97
Compressor: DV/DVC PRO- NTSC
Pixel Aspect: NTSC- CCIR60
Field dominance: Lower (Even)
Thank you for any suggestions,
Izabela

hazel - if you're making a DVD, then you're going to be using NTSC SD settings - so that's the "send to" compressor - and in compressor you will choose a DVD format, etc.
But if you are creating a digital file to play from a laptop to a projector, I am suggesting you set your frame size to the most common pixel width of most projectors; 1024 x 576 precisely so you do not have to make any adjustments on the projector. You are basically running VGA out (or DVI) into the PC input of the projector and running a quicktime or wmv file and the projector will not have to re-map the image. All of my editing takes place on a mac, and quicktime is my fav but in the corporate world I often have to produce PC friendly files that they take and project with conference type LCD projectors. I do it all the time - this is a good way to go if you are in a similar position.
On larger scale productions, we stay mac based and use high-end projectors and switchers, etc. But when you are handing your edits off to normal corporate meeting attendees they often try to embed them into powerpoint or at least run them in windows media players. If this is the case for you, then I am saying create custom frame of 1024 x 576 if your content is 16:9.

Two-camera editing via timeline?

I'v filmed a pop group and am now editing the footage. We worked with two camera's and sound was recorded separately with a digital Edirol recorder, plugged into the PA-system. That audio-clip is used as the foundation for my editing. I synchronised it on the timeline with the (uninterupted) video-footage of the A-cam (sound of which is unpatched). Now I want to overwrite some parts of the A-footage by better, more dynamic, shots from the B-cam. Is there a way to just put the footage of the B-cam on another video-track and edit from one timeline-videotrack to another? Or does the cutting of the B-cam footage have to happen in the viewer and then do an overwrite edit to the A-cam track? Putting it in the timeline and editing from there would save a lot of synchronising effort. I hope I express this question clearly enough, English not being my native language...

I'm editing in the timeline, where there are already three audio-tracks (two stereo linked to the video trakc from camera A, and 1 WAV-file from the Edirol digital audio recorder )and one video-track. I try to drag a clip (the B-camera footage) - with no in- or out-points but with sound- from the browser to a new video track. Patch panels for the existing tracks on the timeline are in the 'patched' position.
So far, I edited clips from the two camera's by three-point editing in the canvas overlay (drag to the 'overwrite' panel), but that means I have to synchronise the clip in the viewer first, which is very timeconsuming. I was thinking that, when I could put the entire B-cam clip in a separate videotrack in the timeline, I would only have to synchronise it once, and then edit parts of it into the A-cam track.
Message was edited by: Concertpix
Message was edited by: Concertpix

How can I get two cameras to aquire at the same time rather than one after the other

I've got (2) PCI-1428 cards, Two Uniq Vision cameras with power supplies, cameralink cables, and IMAQ-D6804 cables. Both cameras are being triggered by the same switch, but they are not grabbing images at the same time. Right now it is triggering one camera as desired, but the other doesn't aquire until after the time-sensitive event. On the next test, the two camera will trade these roles. I am using 2 cards, so they should acquire at the same time. How do I change it so that they grab images at the same time? Thank you for your help.
Deater

Hi Deater,
Thank you for your post. Triggering from two cameras at the same time may be a little trickey, but it can be done. There are multiple ways to tackle this problem. If you have a RTSI cable, you can RTSI the two PCI boards together internally to lock them in HW. You should also be able to use the triggering line on each board.
One of the best methods for triggering multiple boards is called GenLocking. The following Developer Zone page describes GenLocking more fully and has several examples to help you out: http://zone.ni.com/devzone/conceptd.nsf/webmain/a387b5c0ac6f6f4e86256c87005fcddf.
The "HL Grab with two boards.vi" shipping example is also a good example of the code needed to trigger two individual boards in LV. I found a similar post that may be of some help as well: http://forums.ni.com/ni/board/message?board.id=230&message.id=2691&requireLogin=False
Hope this helps!
Thanks,
Scott Savage
National Instruments
Applications Engineering
www.ni.com/support

TS1292 When I scratched the code, the letters came off with. I can read two X, one Z, S, R, and N, the rest are illegible

When I scratched the code the letters came off with. I can read two X, one Z, S, R, and N, the rest are illegible

Try here > iTunes Store: Invalid, inactive, or illegible codes

I have a video made with two cameras, in two tracks. Sometimes only one camera is running (because t

I have a video made with two cameras, in two tracks. Sometimes only one camera is running (because they both turn off at certain clip lengths). I'm trying to cut them together using the multicamera window, but I get no audio from track 2. How can I get audio from track 2. (My kludge is to cut the original audio from track 2 and move it into track 1.)

Good Grief! Now that I know the answer, I can find it all over the place. But before, I got so many google references that just told me it couldn't be done! That made me think the answer must be obscure -- when it was really simple, and should have been obvious to me.
The lesson seems to be: do more work looking around the panels and menus of the program itself before trying to look in "help" or "google".
Thanks, again, Jerry, for your consideration.

Mixing Drop Frame and Non Drop Frame In One Timeline

We did a 7-camera multicam shoot of a rock concert over the weekend. Upon capturing we realized two of our camera operators were shooting Non Drop Frame mode while the remaining 5 were shooting drop frame. Can someone describe to me how I can eventually get all seven cameras into one timeline? I realize I might have to output/convert the non drop frame stuff. And since we're one the topic, I'd also like to ask (in case I find this out later) what I might do if we find a camera that shot 24P (29.97). Thanks in advance!
G5 DUAL QUAD & 2 X Power PC G4 (Dual 533) & 550 TiBook Mac OS X (10.2.x)

There is nothing different about the footage from the cameras...they all run at 29.97fps. The only difference is in the way the timecode NUMBERS are treated. Drop frame code simply loses 2 numbers (00 and 01) every minute except for every 10th minute. That's it. They all run at the same speed, so putting them all in the same timeline shouldn't cause any problems.
Trying to make a multiclip based on timecode will be a problem, however. You will have to find a common frame on all and use that.
Shane

Editing a movie with video from two camera angles

I made video of the home birth of our third child using a miniDV and a Nisis DV6 camera. The DV6 has very lousy sound, but some of the DV6 video was critical to use for a period of time. I imported the overlapping clips, exported the audio on both, muted the DV6 audio, then moved the audio from the miniDV clip so it lined up with the DV6 audio. With a little more fading in/out on the audio from the two tracks I seemlessly/gracefully switch camera angles and preserved good audio.
I have a comment (a wishlist item) and a question. I wish I would have had the ability to take the two overlapping video clips, line up the audio waveforms and at the same time overlap the video clips on the timeline. I wish I could have then played both clips at the same time with the ability to switch between the two camera angles. I would take the ability to view both camera angles without the ability to switch between camera angles in real time, but then I'd wish I had the ability to specify which clip to use at any point in the timeline rather than having to manually insert the video from one camera angle or the other the other then insert a transition. Does any Apple-compatible video editing software thats provide some or all of the capability I desire? If Apple software developers are out there I hope you think this might be another great innovation.

As David and Karsten said: FinalCut Express is really the software, you are looking for. I have only worked with it twice (unfortunately I am still waiting for my - first - Mac now for two weeks, so as a Win-user I had no chance to have a more intensive look on FCE). But it is a great program.
What David said about the learning: It is quite easy. I have learned digital video editing on Adobe Premiere and on a Avid-machine, which is nearly the same as handling FinalCut. You'll perhaps need one evening. But after that you'll have the basic knowledge for editing your videos. The rest comes step by step. It is just learning-by-doing.
Another advice: Adobe Premiere Elements is also a good program for what your want to do. But it is much cheaper and a bit easier to learn. For editing simple home-movies perhaps the better choice. It has even a build-in DVD-authoring.
Greets
Stefan

With Muti-clip gone from FCP X, is there a new way to sync two cameras with FCP X

With Muti-clip gone from FCP X, is there a new way to sync two cameras with FCP X

I film with two cameras then copy the files from each camera into their own folders. I then use ClipWrap to convert the MTS files into AIC. If the recording was one long contiguous session, many cameras will split the MTS files into 2GB chunks. ClipWrap will Convert Multiple to Span to reassemble them properly. With the AIC .MOV file from ClipWrap, I then use FCP X to Import the MOV files from camera 1 and camera 2. I prefer to do it that way versus using FCP X Import from Camera. I then move the clip from camera 1 onto the timeline in the "primary storyline" (FCP X terminology). I drag the camera 2 clip above the camera 1 clip and line up the audio from the two cameras while that audio is still attached to the video so everything stays in sync. FCP X has a way to automatically sync two soundtracks, but I have not gotten around to that yet. With camera 2's clip attached to camera 1's clip as a "connected clip" above the camera 1 video, I then do an edit to go between the cameras as seems best to me. When the connected clip of camera 2 video sits above the camera 1 video, it will take priority over the camera 1 video. I then split camera 1's video clip taking out sections when I want to go back to the camera 1 view. Of course I can trim camera 2's clips until I get it the way I want it. Since FCP X uses the magnetic timeline concept, and camera 2's clip is "connected" to the camera 1 clip, as you split and trim camera 2's clip, everything will stay in sync across the two camera "tracks". When there is no camera 2 video above the camera 1 video, camera 1 video will be seen. When camera 2 video is above camera 1 video, camera 2 video will be seen instead. With a single editing pass, I can then do all the editing I need to go back and forth between two cameras. The same concept is expandable to other camera "tracks" as long as you are using vertical position in the timeline to determine which camera is seen when. If you would like for it to look like a multi-camera track composit like before FCP X, you can simply select all your clips and make a compound clip out of it. You will then see the multiple camera clips side by side in a single "track". Double click on that "clip" in that "track" to go into the structure and editing individual "tracks" around if needed. Think of a compound track as what a sequence used to do. Anyway, there may be other, and easier ways to do this, but with a single edit through my recording, I can easily and visually cycle back and forth between camera views. It's just that things are called differently now ... and, as of this time, we do not have a single button camera switching function to let us view multiple cameras simultaneously and switch between them using a keystroke for each camera. Still, I have a way to do it, and it has worked very well for me, in fact I was pleasantly surprised at how easily I could do multi-camera in post. Hope this at least gives you one option. Others may have a better way. Best wishes.
stephen

Two 5Ds, one imports ok, one doesnt.

We typically shoot interviews using two Canon 5D Mark IIIs. The footage is imported into Premiere so we can cut from camera 1, to camera 2.
This work could be completed by one of two stations here at the studio.
Lately, this workflow is working fine on Station 2. But when Station 1 imports footage from both cameras, Camera 2 only imports audio.
When Station 2 creates a timeline of both cameras, and that timeline is opened on Station 1 to work on, all the Camera 2 footage is "Media No Found".
None of the footage has moved, its in the same place on the same drive.
Even when opening a file from Camera 2 on Station 2, it errors and only imports audio.
Only difference we see when comparing file info is the Data rate for the two cameras.
Please help!

The issue, I guess...was that one camera was set to ALL-I and the other was set to IPB. We switched camera 2 to ALL-I, tested it and it worked.
This explained the different data rate when comparing files.
However, the question still exists - why did it work on one PC and not the other PC if both are running the same version (5.5.2) of Premiere?
Is there something in settings I'm missing?

Two cameras/One Timeline

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