How to Get Carried Away With Multi-camera Shoots

Multi-camera Editing

Editing five camera views in Final Cut Studio.  The first view is actually the recording made with four cameras through a switcher.  Two views are “panic cams” to clean up the rough spots, and finally there is an extreme side angle from a camera on the platform to spice things up now and then.

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Perhaps you have shot a Christmas presentation with two or more cameras, but didn't have a switcher handy to mix the video live. Or perhaps you do as I do and add a few cameras to a shoot that can't get patched into the switcher. This is a job for a professional editing program like Final Cut Studio or Premiere. These programs can sync up all the tracks and play them back simultaneously so they can be edited in real time, much as one would do if a switcher had been used.

Why so many angles?
If you are using a switcher, you can still use additional camera angles and the multi camera editing software to enhance a special video. A locked-down camera set up on a wide shot can serve as a "panic cam" to cover mistakes. Try hiding a camera on the platform for an occasional unique angle on the action. I'm going to try sticking one on the catwalk for our Christmas production. If I survive, I'll let you know how it goes (Should that grated floors have so much give?).

Some Editing Principles
As you make your first pass, make sure all your transitions are motivated by the action, even if it's just a head turn. Let the pacing of the performance dictate the rate of edits. A slow song or dramatic moment should have longer shots while a fast song or action scene should have more rapid cutting. On your second pass, refine the edits and add transitions. Only use dissolves during slow songs or to show the passage of time. Of course if you are enhancing a video made using a switcher, you'll need to make sure the technical director is following these principles as well.

Color Correction
As a final touch, adjust the color and lighting of the different angles to match them as best as possible. If you are using cameras of different makes and models, this can be a real chore, even if they are properly white-balanced. But the filter settings for one shot from the camera should work on them all, making it more of a cut-and-paste task than shot-by-shot color correction.

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