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In Adobe Premiere Pro 2015, you cannot sub-clip a multi-camera source clip, which is a shame, because sub-clipping is the most useful way I've found in Premiere for organizing segments of an extended interview.

I have a 2-hour multi-camera clip from an interview for a mini-documentary. My normal mini-doc/corporate workflow is:

  • import footage
  • watch and tag (sub-clip) footage
  • create rough cut by adding sub-clips to a sequence and fine-tuning

Now that I've got a multicam interview, I want to preserve this workflow or find an alternative. I've considered creating a sequence for each interview segment, but that requires a lot more interaction with the UI, slowing down the workflow. Yet it's important to organize these clips, because this interview may get used in multiple productions over the next several months, and I only want to watch and tag it once.

Question: Is there a way to tag multicam clips in Premiere that achieves the same organizational goal as sub-clipping?

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  • Maybe I am missing something, but I don't understand your question. In a multi-cam sequence when you select which camera you want to include in your final clip you are essentially "retagging" your video. You create implied subclips as you watch the multi-cam sequence. So isn't that enough? What more would you need? You watch the multi-cam sequence only once.
    – kazanaki
    Jul 10, 2015 at 16:04
  • "but that requires a lot more interaction with the UI, slowing down the workflow". If you go from one camera to multiple cameras, there is an added complexity anyway. There is no avoiding this complexity. More interaction with the GUI is inevitable when you deal with multiple cameras.
    – kazanaki
    Jul 10, 2015 at 16:07
  • Good question, @kazanaki. My multicam clip is 2 hours long, but I'm only going to use 10 minutes of it in one video, then 3 minutes of it in another... I want to preserve the whole clip (it's an interview) and tag various points in the interview so I can easily find them when I need them for the next video.
    – Crowder
    Jul 11, 2015 at 13:00
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    Then in that case I would use simple markers on the video. And have a note somewhere (a simple text file) where each marker is described.
    – kazanaki
    Jul 11, 2015 at 16:23
  • Thanks to a tip from the editor I've been working with recently, I've started to build a sequence with all usable clips from an interview in it, cutting out the white noise.
    – Crowder
    Sep 27, 2015 at 19:24

2 Answers 2

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I was recently editing a 5-camera short film with Premiere. Over 7 hrs worth of footage. Lots of going back and forth over the clips. Lots of trying different angles. All that over many weeks. Yet, we never got lost or confused about what was happening or where things were.

  • Create your multi-cam sequence.
  • Log all camera angles individually by using a lot of markers and/or extended markers. Label those markers clearly and consistently: mention the subject discussed and whatever interesting thing the interviewee does (facial expression, laughter, hand movement, etc.)
  • Maybe use a marker-color per subject-matter.
  • I would make sure to keep the original multi-cam sequence cuts-free. Just duplicate it as many times as you need to: that way you can always come back to it, a clean slate, if and when the cutting gets messy.
  • Edit the interview by copying and pasting bits that deal with similar issues to as many sequences as you have subject matters. Duplicate those initial "sub-sequences" and edit their duplicates down, as the director and you see fit.
  • Make sure that you name those "subject-sequences" clearly. Let's say one is about "Boats". Call the first one "151031_Boats_E01" for the date, the subject matter and the edit number. Then the duplicate would be called "151031_Boats_E02", etc. Duplication is you friend. Use bins, etc. I'm sure you have your workflow already anyway.

That way, you should be able to get back to your edit and the various subject matters over the course of a few months without finding yourself lost.

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  • Could you share a screenshot example of the color markers? This is a wicked good answer.
    – Crowder
    Nov 3, 2015 at 13:00
  • Do the markers show up in the subject-sequences?
    – Crowder
    Nov 3, 2015 at 13:02
  • You can choose to bind the markers to the source clips or to the sequence itself (a better option if you send the project over to an editor located abroad or in another city). But, yes, they should appear in your multi-cam sequences.
    – CyanideBaby
    Nov 3, 2015 at 13:41
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Here's what I do, however I will admit Premiere's buggyness seems to flare up with this workaround.

  1. Sync the cameras into a multicam seq
  2. Open the multicam seq
  3. Nest each camera angle (track) into its own seq
  4. Open each camera angle seq and ad an adjustment layer to correct all clips to match other camera angles
  5. Open the multicam seq in the source monitor
  6. Set I/O point for a notable moment
  7. Drag image from source monitor to project panel (creating a duplicate multicam seq which holds your latest I/O data)
  8. Name that duplicated multicam seq based on the description of the moment
  9. Since each copy of the multicam seq has inside it a separate instance of the camera angle sequences any CC effects you apply to the camera angle sequences in one copy of the multicam clip will not be replicated in the other multicam copies. By doing CC via the adjustment layer inside each root camera angle sequence you can make CC changes to the camera angles at any time and they will be instantly reflected in every multicam copy used.

As you can see this level of nesting nears inception insanity and Premiere can bug out a bit. The biggest warning is to make sure all your audio sources and sequences/multicams are the same sample rate or else your exports are going to take ages for audio previews (Adobe please fix this). If for example you recorded with a 96K external recorder and your clips all have 48K audio, I recommend turning all your sequences 96K and deleting all other audio in your sequences. In terms of audio also don't add any audio effects (this includes volume changes) in your nested sequence or audio waveforms won't show up.

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  • This is essentially my workflow. Except I simply add markers in the multicam sequence, and then put the multicam sequence in the final sequence at the section I want. But the tip with the individual camera sequences within the multicam sequence is spot on. This allows you, as Alex said, to properly manage your color-matching which is imperative if you are using different cameras.
    – Alex
    Apr 13, 2017 at 23:39

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