The best way to edit interviews with more than one camera is to use your edit software’s multicam function. The Adobe Premiere Pro version works quite well. I’ve written about it before, but there are differing multicam workflows depending on the specific production situation. Some editors prefer to work with cameras stacked on tracks, but that’s a very inefficient way of working. In this post, I’m going to look at a slightly different way of using Premiere Pro with multicam clips.
I like to work in the timeline more than the browser/bin. Typically an interview involves longer takes and fewer clips, so it’s easy to organize on the timeline and that’s how I build my multicam clips. Here is a proven workflow in a few simple steps.
Step 1 – String out your clips sequentially onto the timeline – all of A-cam, then all of B-cam, then C-cam, and so on. You will usually have the same number of clips for each camera, but on occasion there will be some false starts. Remove those from the timeline.
Step 2 – Move all of the B-cam clips to V2 and the audio onto lower tracks so that they are all below the A-cam tracks. Move all of the C-cam clips to V3 and the audio onto lower tracks so that they are all below the B-cam tracks. Repeat this procedure for each camera.
Step 3 – Slide the B, C, etc camera clips for take 1 so they overlap with the A-camera clip. Repeat for take 2, take 3, and so on.
Step 4 – Highlight all of the clips for take 1, right-click and select Synchronize. There are several ways to sync, but if you recorded good reference audio onto all cameras (always do this), then synchronizing by the audio waveforms is relatively foolproof. Once the analysis is complete, Premiere will automatically realign the take 1 clips to be in sync with each other. Repeat the step for each take. This method is ideal when there’s mismatched timecode or when no slate or common sync marker (like a clap) was used.
Step 5 – Usually the A-camera will have the high-quality audio for your mix. However, if an external audio recorder was used for double-system sound, then the audio clips should have been part of the same syncing procedure in steps 1-4. In any case, delete all extra tracks other than your high-quality audio. In a two-person interview, it’s common to have a mix of both mics recorded onto A1 and A2 of the camera or sound recorder and then each isolated mic on A3 and A4. Normally I will keep all four channels, but disable A1 and A2, since my intention is to remix the interview using the isolated mics. In the case of some cameras, like certain Sony models, I might have eight tracks from the A-cam and only the first four have anything on them. Remove the empty channels. The point is to de-clutter the timeline.
Step 6 – Next, trim the ends of each take across all clips. Then close the gaps between all takes.
Step 7 – Before going any further, do any touch-up that may be necessary to the color in order to match the cameras. In a controlled interview, the same setting should theoretically apply to each take for each camera, but that’s never a given. You are doing an initial color correction pass at this stage to match cameras as closely as possible. This is easy if you have the same model camera, but trickier if different brands were used. I recently edited a set of interviews where a GoPro was used as the C-camera. In addition to matching color, I also had to punch in slightly on the GoPro and rotate the image a few degrees in order to clean up the wide-angle appearance and the fact that the camera wasn’t leveled well during the shoot.
Step 8 – Make sure all video tracks are enabled/shown, highlight all the video clips (not audio), and nest them. This will collapse your timeline video clips into a single nested clip. Right-click and Enable Multi-Camera. Then go through and blade the cut point at the beginning of each take (this should match the cuts in your audio). Duplicate that sequence for safe keeping. By doing it this way, I keep the original audio clips and do not place them into a nest. I find that working with nested audio is rather convoluted and, so, more straightforward this way.
Step 9 – Now you are ready to edit down the interview – trimming down the content and switching/cutting between camera angles of the multicam clip. Any Lumetri correction, effects, or motion tab settings that you applied or altered in Step 7 follow the visible angle. Proceed with the rest of the edit. I normally keep multicam clips in the sequence until the very end to accommodate client changes. For example, trims made to the interview might result in the need to re-arrange the camera switching to avoid jump cuts.
Step 10 – Once you are done and the sequence is approved by the client, select all of the multicam clips and flatten them. This leaves you with the original camera clips for only the visible angles. Any image adjustments, effects, and color correction applied to those clips will stick.
©2022 Oliver Peters
digitalfilms 
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