[psmith2.0]

Wasn't sure where to post such a thread, but I played it safe and put it here in Genius Bar.

My gut tells me that I can do this (since all the footage goes into that project well/library at the bottom and can easily be grabbed and dropped into whatever project you're working on. To be specific, I'm taping my little niece's first school performance (a musical that promises to be a complete hoot, knowing what I know ).

Instead of me walking around with a camera and the entire thing being a handheld affair, it hit me (I have access to two cameras) that maybe I could set one camera on a tripod in the back (or even midway back, or on the side, in an aisle, turn it on and use it to film/cover the entire stage from that constant vantage point), and then do the regular thing with the handheld where I can get closer or zoom in on specific action, etc.

Then I could mix and match footage from each (use the long stationary footage as transitions between stuff on stage, etc.). Then I could just lurk closer to the stage and capture close up action or numbers, knowing that the other camera is getting "the big picture" and the entire stage.

I might not do it if it becomes a logistical hassle. But I was just curious to know if it is possible with iMovie '09. I believe it would be...I can't imagine why I couldn't pull whatever footage from the library I wanted, regardless of project, right? And with that nice Precision Editor feature in '09, I should be able to easily match up any action or movement (someone walking across the stage, shown from a wide shot, and then, as they stop to deliver their line or sing their song, cut to the closer footage from the camera I'll be holding near the stage.

I assume iMovie is up to the task? Can't imagine why it wouldn't (and no...buying/learning Final Cut Express in the next 7-8 days is not an option...let's limit all answers/talk/suggestion/advice/tips to iMovie '09, please).



This is something for immediate family and friends (and isn't a paid gig), so I don't have to get into the weeds too much in terms of "perfection", or getting excessively anal about lighting, audio, etc.. But I thought it might be easy enough to set a stationary camera up in the back to occasionally cut to? Just gives the finished thing a bit of variety in viewing angles.

[iFerret]

I can't see that being impossible or too hard to do.
Hell, I've done it in Windows MovieMaker before with decent results.

Although I'm not familiar with iMovie, preferring to use Premiere for its Adobe CS integration, I can't imagine it would be too much different. I'm guessing the 'library' is similar to the media browser, in which case surely you would just have to import (or whatever) the footage from both cameras and work with it as you say.

I can't imagine why not, anyway.

I think you should definitely pursue having two cameras - as I said, I can't see why it's not possible, and having two cameras gives you more opportunities and freedom anyway.

[psmith2.0]

I agree. Might make for some nice variety. Plus, being a freebie/family job, it's a nice "practice" opportunity to try this with. Yeah, I can't imagine any technical reasons...the footage is all down there in that holding area, and you can pull any footage into any project.

Cool. It's next Monday, so I've got about a week to think it all out.

[jdcfsu]

I've not done this, but I don't see why it'd be a problem. When you import video to iMovie you designate the event the video gets imported to so if for some reason you can't import it to the same event (I don't know why you wouldn't be able to) you can create a new video event.

Then when you're working on the actual project you can switch between video events you want to use. So I see worse case scenario you have to switch back and forth on the video clips pane while dragging into the timeline.

[sunrain]

Unless iMovie has changed, the main problem is dealing with the lack of multiple video tracks in the program. I did this once with iMovie a few years ago and my workflow was to use the audio/video tracks from camera 'A' as a baseline. Then when I wanted to cut to camera 'B', I'd figure out the length of the cut and remove it from the main timeline and replace it with the footage from the 'B' roll.

If you are synching to specific sound and action (rather than doing a montage video) you'll need to make sure these cuts are specific down to the individual frame. You're basically manually doing the work that a SMPTE timecode generator would do in a much more elaborate recording situation, so if your cuts are off by much more than a frame, you'll start to notice lapses in synchronization.

[psmith2.0]

Ah, I see. That's the sort of thing I was hoping to hear about, and learn.

I was thinking about this earlier, and was hoping to simply use the audio from one of the sources (probably the closer camera), and use the occasional cutaway/far shot between action, or set the overall, but strip the sound from it completely and just have the single audio from the other running throughout. But I need to investigate this further.

But I can see where match-ups might be tough if I don't do them right.

I'm going to do a few tests this week...put a stationary camera somewhere, maybe focused on the street by my house, then go out in the yard, closer to the street and film some cars passing and then come back inside, load the footage and see if I can make some sense of it (matching up movements, removing sound from one, etc.). Just so I can know if it's worth it, and if I even need to take a second camera next Monday...

I know that Macworld iMovie '09 demo (by that other guy who wasn't Phil) featured a little section where he used the audio of the boy jumping in the lake from the closer camera, and kept that sound going over the cutaway shot from further away). Here's the QuickTime tutorial on it from Apple's site.

It'll be interesting to learn about this in the coming days...