Working with Multi-Camera Sequences in Premiere Pro (v24.5)

Multi camera editing… It seems like most editors either live in the world of long-form multi-camera sequences or they almost never use that workflow at all.

For a lot of editors, you might regularly find yourself starting with a lengthy interview shot with multiple cameras, but only about 60-90 seconds of it end up in the final 3-5 minute finished product, probably mixed with other interviews and substantially covered with b-roll. In which case, you’re most likely pulling the sound bites that are in the script, and only once they’re all assembled and whittled down do you then think “okay, what does the second camera angle look like and how can I use it to cover my edits or use it to dramatic effect?” 

But sometimes you’re going to end up with a long multi-camera sequence that needs to be edited for a more or less real-time end product–say, an interview or a panel discussion. Consider this a refresher. 

There are two methods you can use to synchronize your footage and audio.

For the first method, one simply needs to select all the necessary video and audio clips in the project bin, right click and select Create Multi-Camera Source Sequence.

Then select audio track channel as the synchronize point.

Give premiere a beat or two (or ten, depending on the amount of footage and the specs of your machine) and Premiere will do its thing, creating one or potentially several multi-camera sequences. These can be identified by their new multi-camera icons in the project bin.

Sometimes this first method won’t quite work on everything. I know, total pain. If this happens to you, don’t worry. The second method is to just grab those clips and bring them into a new sequence. Normally, one would select all the clips in the sequence, right click them, select synchronize. Use the audio track channel option. (For this, I usually set the audio track channel to mix down, especially if the clip has multiple audio tracks.)

If this doesn’t work, it may have to be done the old fashioned way via the slate clap. Whatever the method of choice/necessity, once you’ve got the clips synced up, select them all and right click. Select nest. Now right click your nested sequence and select multi-camera > enable.

Then right click inside your program monitor window and select Display Mode > Multi-Camera. Bingo bango, you’re in business.

You’ll see your camera feed options on the left side of the screen and the edit preview on the right side. When you hit play, you’ll see a yellow box around whichever camera is selected.

If the sequence is playing and you hit 1 (for camera one) or 2 (for camera two), etc, you will see this box turn red. This means the edit is being recorded.

If you stop playback, you will notice edits have been made on your multi-camera sequence. You can now go back and fine tune those edits as necessary. 

Audio tip: 

When you’re looking at the multi-camera view, in your program monitor, you can right click that window and see an option at the bottom for Multi-Camera Audio Follows Video. This can be checked or unchecked.

If it’s, say, an interview with just two speakers, each with their own isolated camera feed and audio is running directly into those cameras, having the multi-camera audio follow the video is probably fine. If, however, you have 2 speakers with those same two cameras, but there is also a third camera which is a wide shot, as well as room audio for an audience, perhaps also a music track, you definitely won’t want the audio to follow the video. In that case, you’ll want to do a separate audio edit and drop that in the sequence, making sure that Multi-Camera Audio Follows Video is unchecked. 

Happy editing!

Robert Higgs (Editor/Archival Manager) has more than 20 years of experience working in video in a wide range of functions, including editing and motion graphics, audio mixing and sound design, script writing, interviewing, camera operation, project management, directing and producing.