Multiclip Editing Advice for Eight Camera Shoot

Hi all:

I completed an eight camera concert shoot this past Saturday. The shoot went well and the footage looks good for what it is. I am pursuing a "mixed media" aesthetic for this project so it is not important that the footage match in any way as it will all be radically manipulated in CC, possibly some with Magic Bullet to obtain several different looks. I think music docs can often work really well with a mixed media approach and I did not have anywhere near the budget to shoot with a real mobile truck, engineers painting cameras to match, broadcast level stuff.

My question is, what is the best way to approach doing a multiclip edit with eight camera angles? I have done up to four before. The last project I edited multiclip had only two angles, but they were both 1080 24p and my slower MBP at the time was having a hard time keeping up as far as playback without dropping frames. I reduced playback quality and made it through.

I now have a newer MBP, the Core i5, and it is a bit faster at least. I also have my trusty dual 2.3GHz G5. The MBP is running 10.6.3 with FCP 7.01, while the old G5 is running 10.4.1 with FCP 5.1.4. The difference is, all I have for drives for the MBP is a not really fast FW 800 drive vs. I have a pretty zippy SATA RAID on the G5, 8 drives, about 3TB.

1. Is editing multiclip with eight camera angles going to be more processor or drive dependent? Drive dependent, right?

2. I have a mish-mosh of formats to work with from the shoot, four Mini DV, one shot at 30i and three shot with DVX100s at 24p. The HD stuff is two P2 cameras, both shot at 720 24pN, a Canon 5D MKII shot at 1080 24p and Canon Vixia, AVCHD shot at 1080 24p over 60i. I know, I know, but these were the cams I had available to me. My plan is to record all of the SD stuff to P2, using my HPX170, then feed the SDI out of the 170 to my Kona 3 and hardware up-res all of the SD material to 720/60p. Then take those 720/60p files into the Cinema Tools/Compressor Optical Flow workflow to convert it all to DVCPRO HD 720/24p. The AVCHD and 5D MKII 1080 24p footage will also be ran through Compressor to arrive with 720 24p DVCPRO HD. I know that to use the multiclip feature, everything needs to be the same format, codec and frame rate, correct? Does this all sound viable so far?

3. Last concern is whether or not any of my hardware, whether the MBP with the slow drives, or the slow G5 with the fast drives can handle an eight camera 720 DVCPRO HD multiclip edit? Any thoughts? I guess I won't know for sure until I try it, but I am wondering if I should instead down res all of the HD material to DV and try to do the multiclip edit in DV res, then try to conform it back to HD? That sounds scary to me. At least if I do it the other way, at the end, my cut will be a completed HD 720 24pN clip, ready to distribute. But do you think that relatively slow hardware such as the stuff I have will be able to handle an eight angle 720 24p DVCPRO HD cut without dropping frames every time I try to edit?

Opinions and strategies welcomed.

Cheers,

Dan Brockett

>3. Last concern is whether or not any of my hardware, whether the MBP with the slow drives, or
>the slow G5 with the fast drives can handle an eight camera 720 DVCPRO HD multiclip edit?

Yes it can. I've done 8 angles on a G5. But you need fast drives to handle the throughput. 8 angles is about 800Mb/s, not including overheads. It's roughly the same setup you need for uncompressed HD.



www.strypesinpost.com

Thanks for the response Strypes. I was under the impression that each stream of 720 24pN was closer to 40 Mb/s? Does this sound right? You obviously do need 100 Mb/s for any of the none native DVCPRO HD frame rates but what about 24pN?

Dan

>I know that to use the multiclip feature, everything needs to be the same format, codec and
>frame rate, correct?

I haven't tried working multicam on different formats and I don't think I will be doing it any time soon.


> I was under the impression that each stream of 720 24pN was closer to 40 Mb/s?

You're right. It's between 40-50 Mb/s per stream for 24pN, so you'll need around 50 Mb/s of consistent throughput for each stream. Remember, that's not average. That's lowest dip.



www.strypesinpost.com

My friend you fail to plan and now you a have a huge mess on your hands.
Your biggest problem is frame rate and then format.
I think that you mention having DV so I would convert everything to DV at 60i.
It is not going to be pretty, but you would be able to multiclip edit.

God Bless,

Douglas Villalba
director/cinematographer/editor
Miami, Florida

[www.DouglasVillalba.info]
[www.youtube.com]
[vimeo.com]

Actually Douglas this is my own doc and I totally have planned it out, I was just asking advice on how best to make it work. I have been doing this long enough to know the proper way to have done this but since it is basically no budget and mixed media, I just wanted to see what was possible. Many of the cameras were borrowed so I had no way to pre-test this workflow before shooting. If it turns out that I cannot multiclip edit this, I will just do it the old fashioned way but I think that it can be multiclip edited with some careful prep. I have ran the Aja Speed Check utility on my G5 and I am averaging around 650Mb/s throughput so if I plan for 70 Mb/s for each of the eight streams, I should be okay with overhead.

I have plenty of time, no deadline and I don't mind converting all of these formats to other formats, thankfully between my HPX170 and my Kona 3, I have a way to do that with decent quality. Aren't I correct in thinking that as long as I convert all of this mess into one consistent low bandwidth format like 720 24p DVCPRO HD or DV, that my edit is possible? The question is can I get the throughput I need with the gear that I have or will I have to upgrade? If I have to convert everything to DV to do the edit, so be it, I am just reticent to do that because then I am taking native 23.98 formats like 720 24pN and converting them to a 29.97 format like DV, then I will have to re-conform. I just wrote the Cinema Tools article that appeared here and over at Ken Stone's site so I have a grasp of how to do that, but I would rather just edit everything as 720 24p DVCPRO HD.

I would never attempt anything like this on a client's dime but I do revel in being able to use low-end tools to accomplish something with high end results, I do it all of the time with cameras and lighting, why not see what I can accomplish with the same approach with editing?

So while I may have a huge mess on my hands, it was a planned mess and I do have a plan of action. I just have to find the best way to make it all work.

Dan