Splicing concert video...how difficult is it?

wbtczn wrote on 11/7/2005, 6:31 PM

I'm going to be recording a church chistmas concert next month, and I'd like to use 2 cameras -- one for the full choir / orchestra and one for the soloists. My question is, how difficult is it to cut and paste the video while ensuring the audio stays accurate? What I really want to do is use the audio from the camera that is recording the choir / orchestra. It will be hooked up to a couple of microphones that will be used to pick up all of the sound within the sanctuary.

As an aside -- would it be feasilble to record the choir / orchestra in wide screen and the soloists in 4:3? I'm not sure the camera I will use on the soloists has widescreen capability.

Thanks in advance!

Comments

IanG wrote on 11/8/2005, 3:32 AM

Easy! You'll need to have something like a hand clap to synchronise to, but after that you can put the footage from one camera on one video track, the footage from the other camera on another video track and just keep the one audio track. Rather than cutting and pasting, you can split the events on the timeline and remove the bits you don't want. It's possible to increase the transparency of the unwanted sections, rather than deleting them - that will increase the rendering time! If you want crossfades you can adjust the transparency at the start and end of the events. Picture in picture can work well too.

I'd get some footage of the sanctuary, inside and out, and some of the local area - you can then cut away to those shots and still keep the audio. Even if the choir are the most photogenic thing on Earth, you'll always get someone standing up and walking in front of the camera. If you can video rehearsals, that would give you some extra audio to cover up coughs and other unwanted noises*, as well as adding some interest by showing the build up to the event.

Ian G.

* It's a law of nature - the crying baby is always right next to the microphone!

toners wrote on 11/8/2005, 5:26 AM

IanG, that's a great tip. I am getting ready to do much the same thing with a wedding ceremony video - interspersing footage from a camera on a tripod with handheld closeups of the couple and cutaways to the audience, etc. Been scratching my head over how to do it and maintain the audio sync. Thanks!

wbtczn wrote on 11/8/2005, 4:34 PM

Ian - thanks for the input. When you mention the handclap, I'm assuming you mean a consistant sound / image from both videos that allow me to know for sure where I am at...correct?

As far as the other suggestions -- rehearsals, cut-aways, etc. -- awesome suggestion! We have two performances and at least one full rehearsal with the orchestra, so I should be able to get a lot of great footage! Thanks!!!

JodoKast wrote on 11/8/2005, 5:03 PM

Don't mean to hijack this thread, but something IanG said caught my eye. Cutting clips instead of just making them transparent will increase render times? I've always wondered exactly what the effect on rendering was between the two, but when I questioned it over in the Vegas forum, I caught a bunch of flak. Is it a substantial increase, or something that's noticable, but doesn't make much difference when you consider it's usually a few hours to render something?

IanG wrote on 11/9/2005, 1:24 AM

>Don't mean to hijack this thread, but something IanG said caught my eye. Cutting clips instead of just making them transparent will increase render times?

Sorry, my comment was ambiguous! That should be the other way round - making them transparent increases the rendering time. It's something that came up in this forum a while back so I tried an experiment. I don't remember the numbers, but cutting out the unwanted footage was quicker. It wasn't much of a surprise - the app is having to do more work if it's adjusting the transparency.

Stripes,
>When you mention the handclap, I'm assuming you mean a consistant sound / image from both videos that allow me to know for sure where I am at...correct?

Exactly! That's what a clapper board is for. In fact you don't need the clap to be in the video, you can move the a/v from both cameras so that the sound of the clap is in synch. The wave form on the audio tracks is a big help because something like a clap has a sharp peak you can use as a reference point.

Ian G.

JodoKast wrote on 11/9/2005, 6:25 AM

I wasn't sure if there was any effect, but if there was, that's the way I would have thought it. Glad to finally get an answer on this. Like I said, I had asked this in the Vegas forum once, and was treated, what I felt, rather rudely.

wbtczn wrote on 11/9/2005, 6:24 PM

Thanks Ian. I'm sure it'll be a long editing process for the newbie here, but I'm excited to try it. We're installing a new sound system just in time for this, so I may try to burn the audio to CD and use that as the track instead of the camera audio.