iMovie Audio Question

[flynz4]

I am a novice at editing movies... but I want to start. I have 25 years of SD camcorder videos that are all imported into my iMac. I also have some HD video recorded in October at my daughter's wedding. I would like to start with just creating a single movie of just the full wedding ceremony. Then I can make a shorter video compilation of the entire wedding day (pre-ceremony, ceremony, reception).

For the full wedding ceremony:

• Camera 1 was at the front of the church and was moved to new locations occasionally... or panned to different events.
• Camera 2 was mounted on a tripod the rear of the church and filmed a continuous wide view of the wedding

What I would like to do is:

• Use just the audio stream from camera 2 throughout the wedding ceremony.
• Primarily use the video from Camera 1, but occasionally fade to Camera 2 during camera movement

When I switch video streams now... the audio changes with the video stream. This is not what I want... I would rather have a single continuous audio source from camera 2. So my questions are:

1. How do I continue to use just the audio from Camera 2 irrespective of which video stream is playing?
2. I am pretty sure that the video cameras are not time synchronized (we didn't explicitly do this prior to the wedding). Is there some way to do this so that the audio and video are time matched?
3. Does iMovie do this, or do I need a different editing package?

Thanks in advance.

/Jim

 

[Dave Braine]

You need to use iMovie's Cutaway feature. Open iMovie's Help and search for Cutaway. Click on "Add a cutaway clip". Easier than trying to explain it.

 

[flynz4]

You need to use iMovie's Cutaway feature. Open iMovie's Help and search for Cutaway. Click on "Add a cutaway clip". Easier than trying to explain it.

Thank you Dave,

Since the audio source will be from camera 2... and 95% of the video will be from camera one... it seems that I will need load the entire wedding from camera 2, and then add cutaway clips for 95% of the wedding video from primary camera 1. Is that correct?

One thing that I didn't mention earlier... is that the owner of camera 1 used a new boom mic... but unknowingly had the switch turned to off... so we have no audio from camera 1. It is unfortunate, but luckily for us the continuous audio from camera 2 is acceptable and consistent.

How easy is it to synchronize audio from one camera, with close up video from a 2nd camera. Is lip sync very difficult to accomplish? Do the two cameras drift from each other, or is video timing pretty consistent?

At some point, I would love to take a video editing class... I think this will be an enjoyable passtime.

/Jim

 

[Zwhaler]

The easiest way to do this is to take the video from camera 2 from beginning to the end of the ceremony and put it in the iMovie timeline. Then detach audio from camera two (this doesn't affect playback it will behave the same as it did before it was detached when watching it play on your screen). Now you can find the places where you want to cut to camera 1 and make 2 "splits" in the video (leave audio without changing it) one where you want the cutaway to camera 1 to start, and another where you want it to end and go back to camera 2. Then find that scene from camera 1, match the duration in the media window, then drag it onto the place where you made the cuts in camera 2 and click "replace", that will make a cutaway between cameras while leaving the audio the same. You will have to make precise edits in order to sync the sound perfectly, but that is part of the fun of video editing

remember you can always "command + z" or undo if you make a mistake.

 

[flynz4]

The easiest way to do this is to take the video from camera 2 from beginning to the end of the ceremony and put it in the iMovie timeline. Then detach audio from camera two (this doesn't affect playback it will behave the same as it did before it was detached when watching it play on your screen). Now you can find the places where you want to cut to camera 1 and make 2 "splits" in the video (leave audio without changing it) one where you want the cutaway to camera 1 to start, and another where you want it to end and go back to camera 2. Then find that scene from camera 1, match the duration in the media window, then drag it onto the place where you made the cuts in camera 2 and click "replace", that will make a cutaway between cameras while leaving the audio the same. You will have to make precise edits in order to sync the sound perfectly, but that is part of the fun of video editing

remember you can always "command + z" or undo if you make a mistake.

Thank you again... I've found the "detach audio" command.

I realize that I am asking basic questions... but you probably have no idea how helpful this is to me! I can't wait to get home tomorrow and start editing! (I am traveling now, and away from my video footage).

Since the majority of video will be from Camera 1... is it possible to detach the audio as you mentioned... then delete all of Camera 2's video and replace it with Camera 1's video? Looking through the audio features of iMovie, it seems that you can "pin" audio to a particular frame. If I was to do that... I would have most of my video and audio synced (I hope) and then just replace the small amount of "bad camera 1" video with "good camera 2" video.

Which leads to the next question... from experience, if I was to "pin" camera 2 audio to camera 1 video precisely to the correct frame... would that persist over the timeframe of an entire wedding (~1hr) , or would two cameras naturally drift apart requiring continuous resyncs?

/Jim

 

[Macmonter]

You need to use iMovie's Cutaway feature. Open iMovie's Help and search for Cutaway. Click on "Add a cutaway clip". Easier than trying to explain it.

I have iMovie 08 and the search in HELP shows nothing for "cutaway". Is this feature only in newer iMovie editions?

I have often wanted to do what flynz4 is attempting, but I've given up thinking iMovie 08 is not capable of it!

 

[flynz4]

I have iMovie 08 and the search in HELP shows nothing for "cutaway". Is this feature only in newer iMovie editions?

I have often wanted to do what flynz4 is attempting, but I've given up thinking iMovie 08 is not capable of it!

I am using iMovie 11 and it does have a description of Cutaways... as well as instructions how to add, delete, and change the appearance of cutaways.

Here is the introduction:

A cutaway clip is a video clip you paste over another, usually related, clip in order to show two different elements of a single event. You could show someone about to enter a surprise party, and then cut away to a view of the people waiting inside, for example. Cutaway clips are also useful for covering portions of a clip that aren’t very good.

When you add a cutaway clip, it covers an equal portion of the video clip you added it to, so that the entire duration of the final clip doesn’t change.​

The bolded part is what I really want to accomplish... using the "full wedding view" to cover times when the main video camera is moving. Of course... it is further complicated by the fact that my desired audio track is on the secondary video clip.

I've got some great suggestions here, and I am looking forward to trying them out tomorrow. I am first going to attempt to detach the audio from camera 2... and see if it can stay aligned with camera 1. Somehow I doubt that will be good enough... but it is worth a try.

/Jim

 

[julesw]

So a low budget tip for next time. I have directed 5 camera shoots for TV shows and if they couldn't be locked together timecode wise then I 'd step in front ask everyone to check they were rolling picture and sound and shout yes, then I would clap.

That way you get a visual point to match (the hands touching as they clap) and and audio clap sound to match too.

Another no budget way is to roll and then film the other cameras timecode off the lcd so you have a visual reference.

And always stress to your operators do not cut unless instructed.

 

[flynz4]

So a low budget tip for next time. I have directed 5 camera shoots for TV shows and if they couldn't be locked together timecode wise then I 'd step in front ask everyone to check they were rolling picture and sound and shout yes, then I would clap.

That way you get a visual point to match (the hands touching as they clap) and and audio clap sound to match too.

Another no budget way is to roll and then film the other cameras timecode off the lcd so you have a visual reference.

And always stress to your operators do not cut unless instructed.

The things we learn with experience. Thank you for the tips.

Not only didn't we do that for the video... we didn't even synchronize the 5 cameras. What I ended up doing was download each camera into different Apperture 3 projects, and then use a visual cue (me walking my daughter down the isle) to adjust the timestamp on the cameras. I also learned how to use A3's "time offset" function because of that mistake.

/Jim

 

[Dave Braine]

I have iMovie 08 and the search in HELP shows nothing for "cutaway". Is this feature only in newer iMovie editions?

iMovie8 was a VERY basic video editor, so it's possible that the cutaway feature is not there. I'd suggest upgrading to iMovie11. It's only a few £/$s and is so much better.

 

[flynz4]

Thanks to everyone for the help. I was able to use the "detach audio feature to get the audio track down (along with camera 2 video)... and then used the cutaway feature to overlay camera 1 on most of the wedding.

I did the project in a few hours... and now it is rendering overnight. Success!!!

Thanks again for the help!

/Jim