AVID EDITING NOTES

MULTI-CAMERA EDITING


• Talk to you director first before the footage is shot. Find out some way to sync up the footage (a common source timecode, common slate or the ability to sync up footage based on a common audio or video element
• If you Ctrl + Click on the Source Window with the Four Quadrants showing, it’ll show you which shot is which and you can change it

CREATING GROUP CLIPS MULTIGROUP CLIPS

• Group clip – crates a separate group clip out of a single set of master clips
• Multi-group clip – strings numerous sequential groups into a rough sequence
• The Group function allows you to sync clips based on a common source timecode, auxiliary timecode or marks placed in the footage
• To create a group clip, if using an IN and OUT mark for the sync point, load the clips and mark an IN point at the sync point at the start of each clip, or mark an Outpoint at the sync point at the end of each clip.
o In the Bin, select the clips you want to group together
o (Option) Sort the clips. The order of clips in the bin determines the order in which the clips are displayed when grouped together and displayed in the Source Monitor. Develop a good, consistent clip naming scheme
o Choose Bin – Group Clips. A dialog box appears. Select an option based on how you’re syncing your footage and click OK.
o A group clip appears in the bin. Rename the group clip.


MULTIGROUPING CLIPS

• Takes the Group function one step further, stringing numerous sequential groups into a rough sequence. Mulitgroups are also known as sequence clips
• For example, you’re about to cut a four-camera sitcom project. (The cameras by tradition are named cameras A, B, C, and X). Scene A consists of four takes. Multigrouping strings these takes together into a sequence. You can edit one take as you would any group clip, and you also have easy access to all of the scene’s footage
• Another example is, a Six-Camera music concert and each shooter is independent of the others, stopping and starting the camera at will (using Free Run mode). For this method to work, all shooters need a sync in-camera timecode generators (syncing their watches or slave to an external clock. Use multigrouping to piece together the shots. To mulrigroup the material:
o (Option) Sort the clips by name in the bin
o Select all the clips you want to combine in the multi-group
o Choose Bin – Multigroup
o Select an option in the Sync Selection dialog box & click OK
o The system creates a group clip for each take in the in and then creates a multigroup clip by stringing together these group clips. The multigroup clip has the same icon as the group clips, but the icon is preceded by a tiny plus sign

SETTING UP MULTICAMERA EDITING

• After creating a group or multigroup clip and you want to edit it in the timeline, load the clip into the source monitor and edit the clip into the timeline and name the sequence.
• To activate Multicamera Mode, with the new sequence in the timeline, choose Special – Multicamera Mode. All camera angles are displayed in the source monitor and have been synchronized by the Avid system.
• To deactivate Multicamera mode and return to Source-oriented editing, Deselect Special – Multicamera Mode, load a clip into the Source monitor, click in the Source Monitor position bar and enter another mode such as Trim mode
• To change between Quad Split and Nine Split modes, activate the Source monitor and choose Tools – Command Palette and click the Mcam tab
o Click the Active Palette button
o Click the Quad or Nine split button, depending on the number of panes you want to display in the Source monitor
o To switch to an additional bank of four or nine camera angles, slick the Swap Cam Bank button (you can swap banks on the fly while in Quad Split mode, but not in Nine Split mode
o To return to full screen display, deselect the Quad or Nine Split screen
o To display the clip’s name in the quadrant, hold down the Ctrl + Alt or Option + Apple keys in a quadrant (the clip name will appear below the quadrant)
o To assign a different clip to a quadrant, Ctrl + Alt + Click or Option + Apple + Click a quadrant and choose a different camera angle (or choose Sequence) from the menu that appears. Choose Restore Defaults from the menu to return to default angles


EDITING AUDIO IN MULTICAM EDITING

• There are 2 ways for setting up audio
o There is one audio source for multiple video sources (situation comedies and high-end music videos)
o In production, each camera recorded both audio and video and you want to access all of the audio tracks when you cut the program. This way uses the Audio Follow Video option
• Using the Audio Follow Video Option, this instructs the system to switch both audio and video for each camera angle. This overrides the Timeline track selectors and switches audio in track A1 only. Audio Follow Video edits appear in the Timeline as match frames (the transitions contain an equal sign)
• To set up Audio Follow Video, go to the Composer settings and activate the Second Row of Info option.
o Click on the Group Menu icon, which is in the second row of info above the source monitor and select video or audio channels from any clip in the group to patch the video or audio channels to the tracks available in the sequence.
o Choose the Audio Follow Video option to switch both audio and video for each. The Group Menu icon turns green
• You can select and patch group clip video and audio tracks, which are listed in the Group Menu.


EDITING A MULTICAMERA SEQUENCE

• To cut multicamear material, use the MulitCam keys to select different camera angles. These changes in the camera angles are recorded as cuts in the timeline
• Play the mulitcamera material in the Timeline (if you scroll with the indicator the camera angles update automatically).
• When you want to cut to a different camera angle, press one of the MultiCamera function keys. These keys can be mapped to other keys too.
o For Quad Split view, press function keys F9-F12
o For Nine Split view, press function keys F9-F12, and Shift + F9-F12
• A cut is made starting at the position indicator and ending at the end of the current segment (which could be the end of the sequence). The sequence updates when you play it.
• Proceed through the sequence by repeating steps 1 and 2. The sequence updates whenever you stop.


SWITCHING CLIPS WITH ARROW KEYS

• After you have edited the MultiCamera sequence, you can change any sement in the sequence to a different camera angle.
• To switch camera angles, make the Record Monitor active and place the position indicator within a segment you want to change
o Press the Up Arrow (previous in group) key and Down Arrow (next in group) key to switch the clip for that segment


ADDING EDITS ON THE FLY

• You can do this by pressing the Add Edit button or pressing a single MultiCam key
• To add an edit on the fly, load the group or multigroup clip into the Source monitor and edit it into a sequence.
o Play the Sequence
o Each time you want to make an edit, press the Add Edit key or a single MultiCam key (such as F9)
o The edit will appear in the timeline when you stop the sequence
• To remove any edits, Lasso the edit(s) to enter Trim mode and press the Delete Key or mark an In and Out around the area with the edits you want to remove and choose Clip – Remove Match Frame Edits
• After adding the edits, place the position indicator within each segment and use the Up and Down Arrow keys to switch camera angles.
• I can map M1, M2, M3 and M4 to F1, F2, F3 and F4


MULTI-CAM

Make sure all of my clips that I am going to group are in the same bin and go to the sync point in each clip and set an In Point at the proper frame, a pro shoot all the timecodes should match already. Then Shift and select each clip that I want to group together and then go up to Bin - Group Clips and it's going to ask me how I want to sync them by and select it and OK. It will make a new multi-group clip in the bin that I can rename to whatever I want. I would then load the the grouped clip into the Source Window. If I go to the Command Palette and to the MCam tab all my Multicam buttons will be there. I will need to see the Quad Split and be able to jump through the different images, so I should map the Quad Split button to the Source side and I should map the ability to jump through the different choices over on the record side and I can also map the multicamera angles (M1, M2 and M3) to my keyboard.

If I click on the Quad Split button I may just see one or two shots because I may have synced them to an in point and I would have to scroll down until they are all there.

If I get confused as to which quadrant is which, I just need to hold down the Ctrl + Alt or Apple + Option and it'll show me the name of the clips. I can only show 4 clips at a time but I can have more than four grouped together. I can change the order in the quadrant by having Camera 3 be in the top left spot where normally Camera 1 would go

There are a few ways to work with Multicam. First make sure I'm taking the audio from the correct camera angle. Click on the Quadrant looking button on the top of the Source Window. If I select Audio Follow Video it means that every time I change the camera angle I will change the audio to follow it. Pick the camera with the best audio, usually from the sound board or boom mic and select it for A1 and A2.

I need to set my in point on the grouped clip and click on the clip in the Source Window I want to have be my first shot. Then I can set my out point since it's one long take and then drop it into the timeline. Then play the clip. I will only be seeing one angle in the Record Window. Turn off my audio tracks in the timeline so I don't affect them. When I get to a good cut point I can do an Add Edit (Razor Blade). I can then change the camera angle by clicking on the button or key to Step Through Group of Clips and let the new shot play for a while and do another Add Edit and continue this process.

MULT-CLIP EDIT WAY #2 (FIRST WAY IS FASTER)

Instead of setting an in and out point for the whole clip and dropping it in the sequence, set an inpoint in the Source window and make sure the angle I want is selected and click play and when there is a natural pause where it would be good to go to another angle, set an out point and drop it into the timeline. Then click on another angle in the source window that I want to be the next edit and set an in point and click play until it's another good spot for an edit and stop the clip and place an out point there and place it after the first clip in the timeline and continue with this until I'm done with this group and then I can go back and trim the video to look better.
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