Premiere Pro CC: Multicam Cookbook

Posted on by Larry

This “cookbook” is designed to provide a checklist to quickly create, view and edit multicam sequences in Adobe Premiere Pro CC.

Creating a multicam sequence is simple if you follow these instructions. A single sequence can contain video, audio, and/or stills. Premiere Pro calls these “multi-camera sequences,” because this is a special sequence that contains more than one clip. (I call them “multicam sequences,” because the term is shorter.)

NOTE: Multicam editing is NOT the same as audio mixing. Use multicam editing to edit your video, then, in a second pass, work on your mix.

A single multicam sequence can contain video, audio, and/or stills. While you can mix and match codecs, frame size, frame rate and scanning, you will get the best performance if all these match. Of these, matching frame rate is the most important.

GET IN SYNC

Before creating the multicam sequence, all elements need to have a sync point. You can sync using a common:

Syncing on audio is the slowest, timecode is the easiest and my preference is using clapper slates and Ins, because I never have the gear on set to send matching timecode to all cameras. If you use clapper slates, it is easiest to mark the clap with an In. If you use markers, all markers used to indicate a sync point must have the same name, though they need not be the first marker in the clip. Syncing on audio requires all clips have the same audio recorded on them, which rules out using this technique to sync still images.

NOTE: The speed of your storage will determine how many clips you can edit at once. If performance is an issue, transcode the clips into proxies. You can edit at least 3X the number of clips using proxies than camera native media.

BUILD AND EDIT A MULTICAM CLIP

  1. Create a sync point for each clip, unless you are syncing using timecode or audio.
  2. Select all elements to combine into the sequence in the Project panel.
  3. Create a multi-camera source sequence. Choose Clip > Create Multi-camera Source Sequence. (You can also select this option by right-clicking one of the selected clips in the Project panel.)
  4. In the Create Multicam Sequence dialog, select the sync method. (As a note, you can also add clips to a multi-camera sequence after it’s been created.) Then, in that same panel:
    1. Audio > Camera 1. This plays audio only from the first clip in the sequence.
    2. Audio > All Cameras. This plays audio from all audio sources.
    3. Audio > Switch Audio. This changes the audio source as the camera angle changes.
  5. To open a multicam sequence for editing, right-click the sequence in the Project panel and select: Open in timeline. When the multicam sequence is displayed in the timeline, click the Mute button for each audio track to turn it on or off, as necessary.
  6. Double-click to load the multicam sequence into the Source monitor.
  7. If necessary, click the Wrench icon in the lower-right of the Source monitor and select Edit Cameras. This allows changing the display order of clips by dragging the clip names up or down, as well as the ability to make angles inactive, or active, by checking or unchecking the boxes to the right.
  8. If necessary, set an In and/or Out for the multicam sequence in the Source monitor, the same as with any other clip you are about to edit into the timeline.
  9. Open the sequence in the timeline into which you want to edit the multicam sequence. (What you are actually doing is editing a sequence into another sequence.)
  10. Edit the multicam sequence into the timeline.
  11. In the Program monitor, click the Wrench and choose Window > Multi-camera to edit the sequence. (The image grid automatically includes all current angles in the sequence, up to 16 images.)
  12. Click the Playback button to begin playback.
  13. To change angles, either click the camera image in the Multi-camera Monitor, or type Control+1 – 9 on the main keyboard (not the keypad).
  14. After editing, to replace one shot with another, put the timeline playhead in the shot you want to change and click the image of the new shot in the Multi-camera Monitor.
  15. To cut and change angles, place the playhead where you want the cut to occur and Command-click the new image in the Multi-camera Monitor.
  16. Adjust and refine edit points using the roll trim, and other standard trimming techniques. (Avoid using a ripple trim to prevent jumps in the action or audio.)
  17. Add transitions, or effects, and polish as necessary.
  18. When editing is complete, select the entire multicam sequence in the timeline and choose Clip > Multicam > Flatten. This reduces the stress on your hard disk by only playing the angles that are active in the timeline.

NOTE: Once flattened, you can not “unflatten” a multicam sequence for additional editing.


Bookmark the permalink.

8 Responses to Premiere Pro CC: Multicam Cookbook

  1. Lee Byers says:

    Larry, could you duplicate a multicam sequence and flatten one copy of it, keeping the other “unflattened” in reserve in case the client asks for changes down the road? Not that changes ever happen of course.

  2. alex says:

    Hi Larry,

    Longtime fan first time caller. I love using multicam to batch sync clips that have jammed timecode. But I also love having access to my sequences in the timeline AND in the preview monitor at the same time. So I usually copy all content from multicam sync and paste into a blank sequence. As I mentioned, this allows me to be able to open sequence in preview and then open in timeline. I in/out + insert into my edit sequence with ease!

    The big issue I’m facing: when i insert into the timeline, i like to keep nesting *off* so I can access all the audio channels upon insert. But this precludes the use of match/find frame– it sends me back to the raw clip (without the synced audio).

    If I were to keep the sequences as multicam clips, I can no longer view/manipulate the sequence ganged to the preview monitor.

    Does that make sense? Is there anything you recommend based on what I wrote?

    Thank yoU!

    • Larry says:

      Alex:

      This is both a very non-standard and very innovative way of using multicam clips.

      However, match frame will always go back to the source clip, there’s no way to get it to jump to a sequence that contains the clip.

      Larry

  3. Kevlar says:

    This ls great, up until the last step. No matter how I’ve selected the clips or sequence, my Multicam item in the Clip menu remains grayed out.

    But I suppose I can just copy/paste into a new, flat sequence.

    • Larry says:

      Kevlar:

      Interesting. I’m away from my editing system for another week, due to my move, so I don’t have an immediate answer. Perhaps another reader can help.

      Larry

  4. MF says:

    How about if you want to replace a source clip or two in that multi-cam sequence? For example say you get a better quality source video for the same camera and you want to replace it while keeping all your edits. I can’t find how to do this anywhere!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Larry Recommends:

FCPX Complete

NEW & Updated!

Edit smarter with Larry’s latest training, all available in our store.

Access over 1,900 on-demand video editing courses. Become a member of our Video Training Library today!

JOIN NOW

Subscribe to Larry's FREE weekly newsletter and save 10%
on your first purchase.