2 cam HVX200 shoot

[TWJP]

Hey all...

I've got a 2-camera shoot (HVX200) coming up and and we want to be able to link up our footage, time code wise for 2 camera editing in post. We can't link via Firewire cable because of distance issues... is there another way to do this? We won't really have time for proper use of slates and such, so we at least want our footage to line up.

Also, we've had some trouble with the P2 Firestore in the extreme Arizona heat... it just flat out overheats. Are there any other portable storage options that can handle the higher temps better?

 

[DJDecay]

If your situation involves hitting record for a clip, and taping it for some time and turning it off, you can line them up in your editing software w/o using proper TCG.

Final Cut and others will let you align the footage on the offset, based on timecode.
In theory if you trip the cameras at the same time you'd have maybe 1-5 seconds of CAM A being earlier than CAM B. They'll both run at the same settings like 720P for example at say 30FPS. So the P2 cards will run out at the same time (if you're doing this in takes.)

Then all you need to do is sync to the in-camera audio for both clips to play it sort-of in-phase mode on the stereo pairs. You can hear digtal audio line up, as it will start canceling itself out and making a flanger/phazer effect.

But this type of alignment indicates "Multi-Clip" style edit, which means your software already supports IN/OUT offset points.

But cutting for Only CAM A and CAM B (unless its a live event) I would skip multi-clip anything, the only thing your footage needs to sync to is external audio.

So align the clips based on internal mic sound. Takes about 2 minutes from the in-point. Don't go crazy, without a TCG they may drift anyway and need a little slip adjustment here or there.

If you were dealing with say 4 or 8 cameras then I'd understand CAM A/B is easy to do w/o TCG or FW Sync or Slates. Just match the color scenes up in the cams via SD cards.

 

[DJDecay]

Oh yeah, forgot. For utmost smoothness use a third recorder for sound, this way neither CAM A nor B are recording sound via their XLR jacks, but a third independent source is getting your master sound. Then you won't have to unlink the 4 channels of audio for either CAM A or B and sound is seamlesly coming from another location.

I'd assume you want this for some sort of live perfomance or music performance, as in no other reason you'd need tight TCG sources.

Remote/Master TCG sources run at +$2.5k to $17k. and will need whaky mini-XLR connectors LTC and just something I would not get into for a shot of two sizes.

Also the HVX infrared remote will trip both cameras to record almost simultaneously. Could be used to bridge the gap between operator A and operator B's timing (or if its one person running both).

I used to clap or click my fingers to "slate" the shot when I had no time for proper slate or when the two cams were faced in different directions and required two TCG sync slates. Don't forget this audio event can be in the END of the shot, shoot and then the offset is computed on the OUT point, not the IN point.

 

[Dick Campbell]

I use a camera flash to sync two cameras. Since a flash is only about 1/30,000 of a sec, it occupies only one frame and you can use this on each track to sync. Works great for multi-cam in FCP.

 

[DJDecay]

I use a camera flash to sync two cameras. Since a flash is only about 1/30,000 of a sec, it occupies only one frame and you can use this on each track to sync. Works great for multi-cam in FCP.

Yup. Exactly, this would work perfectly as well. Although during live some artists hate getting flashed .