Help me understand multicamera workflow and audio

[scottt75002409]

I'm getting confused about the best workflow to edit multi camera in Premiere. Here's an example project with a list of what I'd like to do —

-Sync externally recorded audio to picture — three-track WAV files, consisting of two lavs and boom, and two Alexas transcoded to ProRes 422.

-Create a multicamera clip that can switch between cameras both in the source monitor with audio-follow-video a la Avid Media Composer, and that plays back a mono mixdown of the WAV file.

-Cut these clips into a sequence, have each clip maintain the ability to switch between A and B camera, have it cut in all three wav tracks, and also be able to match back from either picture or audio to the original multicam clip.

-Have any audio or picture adjustments made in the timeline be on a clip-by-clip basis. For example, I can adjust the gain on any WAV clip in the timeline without affecting the others I've already cut in.

From what I've read and watched it looks like the "merge clip" function is not the way to go anymore (?) so I should be creating multicamera source sequences. But I'm confused about how to create these clips and have them cut in a way I can understand, especially with how Premiere is treating multichannel audio.

Thanks!

[excited_Genie16B8 · Accepted solution]

You may have to change up your work flow to accommodate the way PP handles multicam.

For starters, the Source Monitor generally isn't used for multicam at all.  You work directly in the sequence using the Program Monitor in multicam view.

I recommend the following method for multicam creation.  For step 4, select only the video track to Enable.

Manual Multi-Camera Method

[scottt75002409]

Thanks for responding, Jim.

I'm with you on creating the multicam clips using the manual method — and I can cut them into a sequence.

Just to clarify, I'm not interested in using the ability to switch / cut on-the-fly, this is just to sync up two cameras that are shooting at the same time so that I can keep them grouped throughout the edit — for example, one shot is a close-up of an actor, one is a wide shot, and they're filming simultaneously. So while I understand you saying the source monitor isn't generally used for multicam, in my case it's where I do most of the switching — before cutting a take into the sequence.

The confusion at this point is how to deal with my audio — the external audio recorder has recorded each individual track (Lav, Lav and Boom) and condensed them into a polyhponic WAV file.

When I bring these WAV files into Premiere, what should I set the Audio Channels to so that when they're grouped with the multicam they're each a distinct track panned center in the multicam source sequence? I'd also like it so that the multicam clip, once cut into the program, behaves like a mono mixdown that allows me to match back and overcut with only one or two tracks (say, for example, I only want to use the LAV or the Boom for a particular take).

[Trevor_Asq]

I tend to avoid multicam audio as it’s a bit of a rats nest but...

are you best setting up your multicam sequence as a 3 output multichannel and route the 3 sources to the 3 outputs (probably with 3x mono tracks routed to individual sequence outputs)

You *should* then be able to cut in from the source monitor (which is a perfectly normal multicam approach IMO) and  which audio sources to cut in (I’d cut them all in and mute sections you don’t need)

Try it - then try flattening to ensure it behaves as expected.

[excited_Genie16B8]

So while I understand you saying the source monitor isn't generally used for multicam, in my case it's where I do most of the switching — before cutting a take into the sequence.

I'm just not sure you can make that work in PP because of the way it handles multicam.  That's why I was suggesting you may have have to adapt your work flow.