2 cam mix suggestions?

[Comos]

Me and my bud filmed a band's live set a while ago(with permission). I used a mini dv cam and he had the good 'ol vhs-c. I plan on importing both full shows via firewire with windv. I'll probly use the audio off the vhs-c copy because the Canon mini dv mic really sucks for live recording. Anyone have any suggestions on what would be a good way to toggle between the 2 cams with the 1 audio track without it taking me all day? Any help would be great. Thanks!

[Richard_G]

All day, more like all week! Did you turn either cam off during the gig, or did you just let them both run continuously? I do this sort of thing with stage shows but with 3 cams. I start them all up and let them run for the full duration, transfer the footage to hard drive and use the soundtrack to sync them on the timeline in Ulead Mediastudio Pro. I can then cut from one shot to another. I can also remove individual soundtracks or vary the levels to mix them together (I also usually have a clean soundtrack recorded straight of the stage sound mixer). Bear in mind that for a show consisting of four 45 minutes acts, I tell my clients that they won't see a finished video for a month, that's how much work it can be.

I can't think of any other way of doing it without the clips being out of sync with each other or the audio.

[greymalkin]

it may be more difficult than that as well..theres no way to guarantee that vhs-c will play back perfectly in "real time" so you may have sync issues between the 2 even if you get them lined up in the beginning. I had the chore of trying to sync up the audio recorded off cd to a vhs of the same event that was a major pain.

[Comos]

Both cams have the full set recorded. I think this might be tough. I'll probly try using Ulead with the timeline thing. Thanks for the replys.

[edDV]

I've done the same thing in Premiere. The major task is syncing all the tracks. Concerts are easier because there is usually a pause between songs. For weddings and mass events, camera flashes help rough match camera tracks.

Premiere (and others) allow zooming track views right into the audio waveforms for fine matching. Often you will find that cameras run at slightly different speeds*. You will need to either edit track speeds or unlink audio segements to match a different camera.

Once all the tracks are aligned, then you can cut and combine the various video and audio sources. This is the easy part.


*pros will genlock all cams in a multicam shoot. This used to require sync cables to each cam, but can now be done with RF.

[dphirschler]

I wrote a few functions in AviSynth for this purpose. The way I would do it is to watch both at the same time (stack vertical) and make notes when to change camera angles, then go in and code the script.


Darryl

[edDV]

I wrote a few functions in AviSynth for this purpose. The way I would do it is to watch both at the same time (stack vertical) and make notes when to change camera angles, then go in and code the script.


Darryl

Have you considered the need to sync audio from the opposite camcorder?

[dphirschler]

I've never had the problem synching two camcorders. I even sync in audio from DAT no problem.


Darryl

[edDV]

What cameras are you using? I can't even get a PD150 and two VX2000's to run at the same speed.

or is lip sync not an issue?