Unless otherwise noted all text, pictures, captures and illustrations are by Mike Strong. Copyright 2003 - 2017 Mike Strong, all rights reserved.
Digital Video Editing

Two-Camera Cut

In this exercise we are going to use tape from two cameras shooting the same action and we will cut from one camera to the other. We will use only one of the two sound tracks for the output but we will need both sound tracks to help us match up the scenes.

This is a performance taped during Sierra Latina (27 Sep 2003) at the Music Hall in downtown Kansas City, Mo. The couple below is Rafael Labrado and Anya Berdeskaya. They had two separate pieces in "Latin Ballroom Suite" which was danced with a combination of four couples in various dancesport routines.
Camera: left side off the front of the stage.
Camera: right side off the front of the stage.
RealMedia Clip of the
Left-hand Camera operated by Mike:
56kb, 128kb
RealMedia Clip of the
Right-hand Camera operated by Nicole:
56kb, 128kb
RealMedia Clips of the combined pieces ( 56kb, 128kb, 256kb ) cutting from left to right camera.
   

The Exercise Files

Basic Concepts

  • Drop video the files from each camera into the video tracks, one above the other
  • Move the clips so that they are directly in line with each other
  • Split the video track of the clips so that you can show the lower clip by changing opacity in the top clip
  • Mute one of the camera's video tracks.

As you do this exercise you need to use these two video clips on the data DVD, each about 19 seconds.

  1. As with any project, start with Text for your name and username. That way I know whose piece this is.
  2. Drop the two video clips into the video tracks. Make sure their associated sound tracks are separated.

In this illustration one of the two clips is "inside" or "nested" in the lower video and top audio track while the other clip occupies the overlay video track and a lower audio track. NOTE: Once you drag and drop one of the clips to the timeline workarea you can further move the video and audio tracks so that they are on adjacent or non-adjacent tracks. They will still move left and right with each other so that the audio and video stay in sync with each other.

Here are the two tracks again, this time with the image from the preview screen (here placed next to and over the tracks). The image comes from the top track at the location of the cursor.

At this point we cannot yet see details in the sound tracks. We are going to use the sound tracks to sync up the pictures.

Expanding the Tracks

First: Expand the track left and right in order to get a better view of the sound waves. We will use the sound-wave pattern to align the sound tracks.

NOTE: Expand all tracks left and right by using the Up-Arrow (the down arrow contracts the tracks).
Expand the tracks further and notice the similar patterns between the two audio tracks. Two easy to identify areas are outlined in yellow here.
Keep expanding until you get to a size which looks likely to make alignment easier. At the point you see in the illustration on the left you can see that the patterns of sound occurence are very much the same but not exactly. The spacing is more similar than the actual wave forms. That is for at least two reasons: different cameras each recording their own sound and recording from different sides of the room.

Now move one of the sound tracks to fit over the top of the other track. (hold down the mouse and Drag the track).

Hint: It may also help to change the opacity on the upper track so that you can see through it showing both the upper and lower tracks.

Here we finally have a match. Unless the sound recorded by both cameras was fed to them from the sound board or other same source, the tracks will show waveform diffferences and slight timing shifts.

Close Up view of the above shot.

Both cameras recorded sound using their own built-in mics and from opposite sides of the stage. The speakers for each channel were also on opposite sides of the stage so that each camera had far more sound from one speaker than from the other.

That is why the attack times are the same even though the profiles differ.

For another example of the same process Click Here.

 

Event Splitting and Opacity Change

Now that you have the files aligned exactly with each other you can decide where to make the cut from one track to another. When you make the change you will want to change only the video displayed, not the sound track. This is music and any change in sound is very noticeable. If this were voice it might be easier to get away with a change in sound from one camera to another, it might even be what you want as one person speaks and then another. Just remember, sound is the most noticeable part of your VIDeo. so as good as your picture may be, you can lose all the attention on your picture if your sound suddenly goes haywire.

The easiest way to split a clip (don't do this, I'm just telling you) is to position your edit cursor at the frame where you want to split and then touch your "S" key on the keyboard. This will split all clips on all tracks in the editing window; all video and all audio tracks. Sometimes that is exactly what you want but in most cases with multiple tracks being used, you only want one or two tracks to split (We want TWO tracks and we have five tracks: 1)title, 2)top video, 3)lower video, 4)audio for the lower, 5) audio for the top.).

One other "problem" is that the video and audio tracks are still grouped so that the sound and video are always together. So we will need to "ungroup" our video and audio tracks and then split just the video track. Each clip, when it is placed in the timeline workspace, comes with the Video track and its corresponding Audio track already grouped. The video and audio move as a unit.

This may seem natural but grouping is extended in Movie Studio so that it is used in a wider manner. You can group any number of small events (clips and pieces of clips, audio and/or video) as you choose, in order to have a set of events which always move as a unit.

The first task then is to "ungroup" the video from the audio.

Right-Click on one of the clips (either track, video or audio). Choose "Group" from the popup menu and from the resulting sub-menu choose "Remove From."

Do the same thing to the other clip - again either video or audio track. If we had more than two tracks grouped you would want to make sure that you clicked only the video track in the group of "events."

 

Opacity

In order to see where to set up the cut from one camera's tape to the other camera's tape you need to see the video from both camera's at the same time. To do this you can adjust the opacity of one of the upper video track. This will let the lower track show through so that you see both pictures.

To change the opacity of any track Move your cursor to the upper section of the track. The cursor shape will change to a hand with a pointing finger. When you see this, hold down the mouse button and drag downward. A horizontal blue line will show along with a small text balloon telling you the opacity in percent.

You can move the opacity from 100% to 0% (totally transparent, as if not there). The hand cursor with the pointing finger will always occur at the location of the current amount of opacity which will always be shown by the horizontal blue line. So, if you've already changed opacity to 0% you will see the cursor change shape at the bottom of the video track.

NOTE: You can do the same thing with an audio track except that with audio you are adjusting the volume for that audio track.

Selecting the Cut Location

Place the cursor at various locations using the mouse. Once you are close, start moving the cursor with the left-arrow and right-arrow cursor keys on the keyboard. This will give you more control over the point you choose to make the cut.

Once you have the location determined ...

 

Splitting Events

This part is a bit tricky: You will need to click on each event you wish to split. If you hit the wrong part of the clip you will move the cursor. You want the cursor to stay put.

The best technique is to:
1 - get a close but still rough selection point by moving the cursor until you get what you want
2 - select each track you are going to split, right at the cursor position you want
3 - once selected, if the cursor has moved a little bit, just use the Left-Arrow and Right-Arrow to put the cursor back where it should be. This is your "fine-tuning" before the actual split
4 - hit the "S" button on your keyboard
5 - you will see that only the selected track have been split at the exact point you picked.

Look at both illustrations. Once you hit the "S" button to split the event(s) you will see small notches between what are now two events abutting each other.

 

Multi-Camera Editing in the Pro Version

NOTE:
This is not the version available in the labs but it is nice to take a look at utilities in the pro version which make life easier.

Vegas Professional, since version 8, has had a multi-camera editing method. In multi-camera editing you are able to highlight more than one video track into a single multi-camera track. Then, in multi-camera edit mode you will be shown all camera views at once in the preview window. If you are viewing on an external monitor you can view each camera in a much larger picture area on the other monitor. You "switch" from camera to camera by merely pressing a number key on your keyboard for the numbered window, as if you were on a video mixing board, selecting cameras.

Here is what two displays next to each other look like. On the left is the regular work area with the small preview window in the upper right. Because we have the "external monitor" button pressed we see the preview in a larger version on the external monitor. Which ever view is current is shown with a thin frame around it. Above, the lower left camera is current.

Above is a capture animation of several frames worth of the working-area preview (upper left corner in the illustration above). In the center bottom of each camera view is the track name for the audio track. At the bottom right is the number of each camera as assigned by Vegas Pro. Clicking that number on the keyboard selects that camera, making your edit.

In this example I've named the tracks: "Tight Camera" (upper left), "Wide Camera" (upper right) and "Roving Panny" (lower left). There is nothing sacred about any track names. In the pro version of Vegas, all tracks and track names start out as blank. Anything you name them should be a name which makes easy sense to you.