Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0 Studio Techniques

The goal of a multiple-camera shoot is to record the same action from a variety of angles, getting different shots of the same moment. In a professional environment, such as a newsroom, multi-cam shoots are live and edited as they are shot. The command center of a multi-cam shoot is the control room, which houses a small screen for every camera and a switcher. The live director sits in the control room and calls out which cameras to cut to. The live editors then execute the edits on the switcher. Because the shoot is live, the cameras are automatically synchronized.

Without the luxury of multiple monitors and a live switcher, syncing your cameras requires a little more ingenuity: You need to first establish a clear sync point at which all of the cameras record the same thing before they record their individual shots. That sync point will be identified as the same moment in physical time, even though it exists at different tape positions in each camera that is recording.

Notes

If you are setting up a multi-cam shoot where some cameras are recording separate angles and cannot all identify the same image, you can use a camera flash bulb instead of a slate to create a sync point. Recording a slate relies on seeing the hinged clapper come together or hearing the clap; however, a flash bulb creates a short instantaneous burst of light that covers a very broad area. Because the moment of the actual flash can be isolated as a single frame of video, the frame of the flash occurring can be your sync point. After you recorded the sync point, keep all cameras recording until the shots are complete.

An excellent way to establish a sync point for multiple camera shoots in which all cameras can record the same image is to clap a slate, like they do in the movies. This is the technique I used when recording the multi-cam footage for this chapter. First, you point every camera at the slate and start each camera recording. Clap the slate closed, and then continue recording with each camera until you have recorded all of the necessary material. After you establish the sync point, do not stop any of the cameras mid-shoot. If a camera does happen to stop, you must establish an intermediate sync point for that camera to be synchronized with the other cameras. Recording a new slate mark with the stopped camera and one of the already synchronized cameras, which continue recording, is usually enough.

Once you get your footage into Premiere Pro, you'll use the Clip menu's new Synchronize feature, which enables you to synchronize your clips based on a variety of parameters (Figure 27.1). Jump into the first lesson and see how it works.