Multicam Editing Lab Objective: Learn the advantages and techniques of multicam editing 1. Get a partner and log onto a Odd Numbered computer.

2. Launch Avid.

3.When the Project Window appears drive to the Lab computer’s Media Drive > 352 Deb > Avid Project Files > Multicam Cutting 4. Select “Multicam Cutting” and the project will open with all the media attached. Make a new Sequence. 5. Organize your media: after the clips show up in your bin. Control-click on the first column heading titled “Name” and choose “Sort on Column, Ascending.” This way, all your clips will be organized in order of Camera (A, B, C, X) and Take (1and 2).

6. Group clips: in your Cloudy Days bin, select the CAM A, B C and X clips for Take 1. To do that, Press and hold the “Command” key and click on all 4 clips individually and you’ll see that 4 of the 8 clips are selected in your bin. Make sure you don’t include any clips from Take 2

While the 4 clips are still selected, go to the menu bar on the top and choose Bin >> Group Clips. Or you can just use the keyboard shortcut Command + Shift + G. The following dialog box appears that will ask you how you would like to sync the clips. Choose “Source Timecode” and click “OK”

A new clip appears in your bin with the name highlighted as seen below. It is also indicated with a Grouped Clip icon.

Rename the new clip “Cloudy Days_Grouped_Take 1.” 7. Map the “Quad-Split” button to the interface: this new clip that you just created contains all 4 angles but in order to see those angles, you will need to map the “Quad Split” button to the interface. To do that, press Command + 3 to open the Command Pallet A new dialog box appears. Click the tab that says “MCam” and choose “Button to Button Reassignment” from the choices at the bottom. .

Then click and drag the button that reads “Quad Split below the Source Monitor as seen below.

Click the new button that you just mapped and double click the “Cloudy Days_Grouped_Take 1” clip that you crated. You should see all 4 angles appear in the Source window.

8. Create a new sequence: Go to your SEQ bin that you made earlier and create a new sequence. Title it “Cloudy Days_Seq” Double click this new sequence to open it. Go to your Cloudy Days bin and select the clip “Cloudy Days_Grouped_Take 1.” Edit the entire clip into your sequence by using the “Splice-in” function or by pressing “V” while the clip is still selected. 9. Enter multi cam mode: In the menu bar on the top, go to “Special >> MultiCamera Mode.” You can also use the keyboard shortcut “Shift + Command + M” 10. Watch the footage and get a feel for the scene!! See where the dramatic moments are, what you want to emphasize and what you need to avoid. Think about: What motivates an edit. Who’s talking. Who’s reaction we need to see. Who’s action we need to see. Are there angles to avoid at certain times, like a bobbled camera move?

11. Start editing: In your timeline, position the play head at the beginning of the show and hit Spacebar to play. You will see that all 4 angles in the left monitor are playing simultaneously in synch. The camera angle that has the green line underneath it is displayed in the right monitor.

Go through the entire show and as it’s playing, click on the camera angle you would like to cut to. This is editing live. when you hit “Pause” at any time, you will see that you’ve made cuts in the timeline every time you clicked on a different angle.

**Note on audio: As you see in the figure above, the cuts are only made in the video track and no cuts were made on the audio track. By default, Media Composer is set to use the audio from the first clip. In this case, there is no audio attached to Camera A but Cameras B, C and X have audio attached to them. So Media Composer is using the audio from Camera B for the whole show as you make video cuts in Cameras A , B, C and X For this project, audio was recorded in on boom mic so all cameras share the same audio track. However, in some projects, separate audio might have been recorded to each camera so you will need to make an audio cut as you make a video cut. To do that: In the Project window, go to the Settings tab and double-click on Composer.

A new dialog box opens. Under the Window tab, choose “Always Display Two-Rows of Data.’ and click OK

A new button appears in the top left corner of your Source Monitor. When you click it, you will see an option that says “Audio Follows Video.” This is the option you will need to choose if you would like to make an audio cut along with video. But you won’t need to do that for this lab so leave it as it is.

12. Refine the Cut: After you go through the whole show by editing live and switching to the appropriate camera angles, you’ve completed your first pass. You will now need to refine the cut. Position your playhead where you made your first cut on the timeline and press “U” to enter Trim Mode. You will get the pink double-roll trimmer

**Make sure you always make adjustments of a multicam edit using the double-roller. Using single-roll trim will result in out of synch action. Go through each cut and make adjustments based on comedic and dramatic criteria and when you think its appropriate for the scene. With multicam footage, which has a fewer number of takes for each shot, the rhythm of the show isn't quite as flexible as single camera shots with multiple takes. 13. Final Instructions: You must… - Fade In at show head and Fade Out at end. - Have a Title card in the opening. - Replace any camera bobbles that you caught with other shots from the same take. - You must replace Seven’s flubbed line “Girls don’t want...” from Take 2. You will cut this in as a regular edit, bringing it synced audio and video and addressing matched

action between takes. - You must also make the opening work, borrowing images from other places in Takes 1 and 2. - Have edited for dramatic moments, humor, character, and story information.

CHECK OUT: Once you’ve met the above criteria, the Pas and I will check watch the show starting 1 hour before the end of class.

Congrats, you can reedit a studio show or cut a performance with multiple cameras.