Multiple Cameras Into iMac with FCP5

Hello... I have to shoot a meeting with three or four cameras. Should I go out and buy a video mixer, a digitizer, and a hard-drive recorder... or is there an easy way to shlep my iMac G5 with FCP5 and simply connect the cameras to it and then use the multi-cam function to switch between cameras?

Thanks so much for the help!


Scott

FCP is an editing system; it's not a live switcher. If you really want to switch live you have to use am external switcher. If you have one with FireWire out you might be able to capture the switched feed into FCP, though I'd test it with your equipment before I'd say for certain.

i just did this exact thing earlier this week for a 5 hour non-stop shoot. and the most bulletproof way IMO to handle it is to shoot on tape. start one camera about 60-90 sec ahead of the rest and address tape changes on each camera in the same manner. that way at least one camera is running at all times and you will have overlap (for edit) for the better part of an hour tape.

works a treat!

a little more work in post, but at least you know you have everything and can still edit to your hearts content.

Run all your cameras with microphones (make sure they work!!), get them all running and then give a good "clap" of the hands before the talking starts. If you have to run more than one tape in each camera due to run time of the shoot then give a clap at the start of each new run of tape. The clap will be your reference point to align all your camera angles in FCP. You set your "in point" for each camera angle as the start point with each tape. Then you do your angle selection in FCP. I use the keyboard shortcuts for camera angle selection during the offline edit. Allows you to get a more natural edit in a shorter space of time.

I had this odd thing happen when I updated FCP (forget which update) where it blew out the standard keyboard shortcuts for multicam shoot button bar settings. I had to reassign the keyboard shortcuts manually. Not a big deal. If you have to do this and you haven't done it before, the manual is your friend.

As well, read the manual for of multi-camera shooting techniques and Diana Weyland's book on FCP 5 is very good and has a chapter on multi-cam shooting with FCP that will get you up and running in a confident manner within a few hours.

Don't know whatever happened to this, but somebody might want to follow up:


Recording two cameras on a mac
[peterwiggins.com]

Peter

the clap isnt necessary, and in fact may disrupt the meeting. you can sync it up simply by matching the hard consonants from the presenters.

check this out...

Multiple Cameras recorded live into MAc using Capture Mug SD.

14day trial period
[www.bigmugsoftware.com]

here is some added info - IF you plan on using multiple overlapping tapes to cover your event.

i would open all the tapes before the show and roll about 30sec or so. as if you just try to capture beginning of tape to end of tape you are very likely to run into this:

[www.lafcpug.org]