Two cameras with one audio

[acsnell]

I have no idea what I'm doing with video editing. I've been posting some flying videos to YouTube using Hitfilm and have been cutting the long videos to a manageable length. Many of the flying videos on YouTube I've seen cut back and forth between two or more cameras in the cockpit with the headset audio coming from the main camera as the only audio. I've just picked up a second camera and can't figure out how to cut and paste the second video and only use the audio from the main camera. Can someone walk me through this (step by step for a senile old man)?

[Cornucopia]

Something like this is best edited with a full-blown NLE (non-linear editor) app, such as Adobe Premiere, DaVinci Resolve, etc.

The general way this works is that, when you import your clips, each video clip has its own accompanying audio. When they are bound together like they normally are, they are "ganged" (as in, "in a gang").
They will end up needing to be Un-Ganged so your video edits don't edit the audio.

I would usually do it like this:
1. Import Cam A and Cam B
2. Put Cam A on one Video Track/Layer and Cam B on another Video Track/Layer
3. Temporarily apply a global track effect where you see 1/2 of Cam A layer & 1/2 of Cam B
4. Edit for Main Content, cutting out outtakes, etc. Once that is trimmed down,
5. Un-gang your tracks' V + A, then EITHER...
6. Do a series of mark-in + mark-out on selected segments of the view you DON'T want to keep, and then delete them, ending up with an A / B layer checkerboard, and...
7. If necessary, Cut + Paste one Video layer onto the other video layer, such that the 2nd video layer ends up with all the clips in their order, but...
8. If not necessary, leave the 2 layers alone and the top layer will visually overlay/replace the bottom layer at that point. (whether to do this or not depends on if you expect to have transitions between view/layer clips, or separately adjust cam colors). OR...
9. temporarily Shift-select Video tracks, and gang them together, so actions will affect both.
10. Do an Edit Slice at all the mark points, then Un-gang the video and again cut out alternating segments to make the checkerboard like 7 & 8
11. Remove that temp PIP/Wipe/Window effect on the videos so each clip is solo in fullscreen
12. Once done, apply any other global FX, and audio Fade-ins, outs
13. Mix & Render, Done!


Scott

[Bwaak]

You either genlock one camera off the other if your cameras have this function (consumer-grade cameras do not have it), or you start them up off the same timecode generator.

There are portable timecode generators that can output timecode in audible frequency range, so it can be input into a camera as if it were external audio, the camera would not know it is timecode. Then you process the resulting video using special software, that would convert audio track into timecode. Usually you have at least two tracks (stereo), so you would use one track of each camera for timecode. Then you align clips from two cameras by timecode.

Or, if you run both cameras from start to finish, you just clap your hands, then during edit align these claps on both audio tracks, and voila - the remaining of the tracks will be in sync.