Refining a multicam edit

In this movie we're going to look at refining your edit. Now, if you did a switch on the fly, you might have been a little bit too early or a little bit too late on the cut, but don't worry because you can use all the same editing tools on your multi-camera source clip that you would when you would be doing your regular edit. For example, if I take a look at this cut right here. (video playing) I would really like that cut to come just a hair later, just when she is actually turning her head, because the cut would be hidden by the movement.

And I can do that very simply with the Roll tool. I'm going to zoom in on my Timeline by pressing the Plus key so you can see how easy this is. I think that's a good point where I want the cut to really happen. I'll simply go over here, select my Rolling Edit tool or use the keyboard shortcut of N, grab the cut point, and snap it right to the playhead. So now instead of the edit happening too early, it happens precisely when I want it to. (female speaker: -- and the way we do that is through solar panels.) If I wanted to tweak it a little bit more right when she starts lifting her eyebrows, I can continue and modify it until I feel it's perfect.

(video playing) Now, suppose I wanted to actually make a cut at this point, and instead of being on the wide shot, be on him reacting to what she is saying. As I move my playhead down in my Timeline, you notice that it adjusts up here in my multi-camera source monitor. Well, if I just clicked on his face right there, what would happen is it would swap out the shot, and I would be going to a close up of him the whole time, and that's not what I want to do.

So let's jump back to the two shot and instead of just a plain click on his face right there, I'm going to hold down the Command key if I'm on a Macintosh, and if I'm on the Windows platform I'd hold down the Ctrl key, and then I would click on Camera 3. Take a look at what happens in the Timeline. Instead of swapping out the entire clip, it actually puts a cut at that point and then swaps the clip out from that point until the next clip. Let's play that back and see how it looks.

(female speaker: --and they way we do that is through solar panels.) So as you see, you don't necessarily have to commit to your original cut on the fly. You can always modify it after the fact. I'm going to go ahead and press the Backslash key so we can see our entire sequence, and I'm going to show you a couple of more really useful techniques when working in multi-camera editing. Another way you can actually make a cut and swap out cameras is the old-fashioned way of switching over to your Razor Blade tool and simply cutting wherever you want the camera to switch.

Now, once you've done that, I can simply right-click on any clip, go up to Multi-Camera, and choose which camera I want it to be on. So instead of being on the close up of him, I really think it would be nice to be on the wide shot, so a simple selection and a click, and you see that we go from a close up of her to a wide shot and then back to a reaction shot of him. (female speaker: Solar panels can be installed in your roof at home, or in a ground-mount--) So it's simple to swap out a clip by right-clicking on it and selecting the angle that you want.

Now, there's another problem that I have with this clip, and I'm going to use this to show you another great feature of the Multi-Camera Editing tool in Premiere Pro. At about 40 seconds in he looks down at his notes, and there's a long pause between when she finishes her first question and answers the second question. So what I want to do is simply slice off the end, and I'm going to throw it away. And I'm going to do that specifically to show you how easy it is to add more multi-camera source clips to your sequence. So if I want to slice this off and delete it, I can go get the Razor Blade tool and cut both the video and the audio, select it all, and press the Delete key to remove it.

Now, how do I add the next shot? Well, remember, we created that multi- camera interview, so I double-click on it in the Project panel, load it into the source monitor, and let's go find the point where he pauses and looks down on his notes. There it is. And I'm going to pick it up right when he turns his head and starts looking up, and asking the question and mark that as my In Point. And now I can perform an Insert Edit and place that clip directly in the Timeline. Let's take a look at that cut. (video playing) I was close, but not quite precise enough, so let me just back up, and we are going to actually tighten this edit up directly in the Timeline, even though it still is a multicam clip.

So I want to pick it up right when he starts talking, I'm going to go over here and select my Ripple Edit tool, keyboard shortcut B, and simply grab it, and just like we did at the very beginning of this clip when we removed all the footage after the clapboard, I can do the same thing here. (video playing) Our viewer would never know there were several seconds between the answer of the first question and the asking of the second question.

Switching back to the Selection tool, I can simply select this clip, queue it up to the beginning, and as long as I'm in my multi-camera monitor, I can hit Play and continue my switch. (male speaker: --how can it help to reduce carbon emissions in the atmosphere?) (female speaker: Solar energy is actually really clean. The manufacture of solar panels is done in a clean-room environment--) And once again, as soon as I pause playback, I'll step back so you can see it, all my edits are in place.

At first blush multi-camera editing might seem a little bit intimidating, but as long as you follow a few rules and with a little bit of practice, you will have it down in no time.