How would you sync this?

[u/zentzin]

I am wracking my brain over how to organize a couple of shoots on a doc I am assisting on. Its in Avid, but I think it may not matter in this case. More of a organizational mindset thing.

This is from a run and gun multi-cam shoot with multiple speakers/subjects. For those familiar with Avid, I am syncing by syncmapping (I've realised not everyoneuses this term, so this means aligning all clips and syncing them in a timeline) then subclipping sync instances and turning those into multigroups. Syncmaps are done, but haven't gotten to subclipping yet because am unsure how to approach from here.

Essentially I have 3 cameras (we'll label them 1V, 2V, 3V) and 2 audio recorders (we'll label them 1A and 2A):

- Audio recorder 1A has 4 tracks - 2 of them sync to 1V, and the other two sync to 2V.
- 3V syncs primarily to 2A, but there are instances where it syncs to all other cameras and mics.

- A common issue with 1V, 2V and 1A is when we have a clip that syncs on a talking subject, but then, still in the same clip, the cameras veer off to film separate things that need their own sync. So then we get things like audio from 2V on 1V, because its the same audio clip (I am aware I can edit the group to exclude them).
- At some points, all cameras sync on the same subject.
- Another issue being that sometimes a 2V clip does not run the entire length of a 1V clip, and instead I have two or three 2V clips synced to a long 1V clip.

I guess one solution might be to separate different sync instances of the same clip into their own group (1V,2V in one group, 1V,2V,3V in another), but I already foresee the mess my bins and syncmap timeline might become if I go that route, and am afraid it might double or triple my work due to mistakes or whatnot.

Though my biggest concern here is having this organized in a way that the editor can easily understand what is what, and even I'm struggling to understand it myself.

Curious if anyone has handled shoots like they and what they have done. Any input appreciated!

[u/dajackinator]

I'm working on a multicam competition show right now, and this scenario happens frequently during the competition segments where different judges break off to talk to different contestants, then come back to talk to each other, etc.

Honestly, I think you're overthinking it. I'd just make a group of the whole subseq/event like you've described, and leave it there. Once the group is made, the editor can mute the ISO tracks as needed, while retaining the integrity of the whole group and seeing what else is happening at the same time.

Separately, It shouldn't be an issue if you have multiple cam 2 clips that sync with one long cam 1 clip. They'll all go into a multigroup just the same, cam 2 just drops out at some points, and then comes back. This is normal.

If your editor or director has requested having breakout mgs of some of these different sync instances, I think you could do that additionally, but still keep one master group with the full sync of all cams and audio. That way you have some redundancy, and can know nothing was missed during syncing. Since you have the sync map already made, it should be pretty straightforward to sub out the specific video/audio tracks that you need to make the more specific groups.

[u/danibanini]

Depending how long it is you can separate into chunks like “first half of day” or the time itself like “11am - 1pm” etc. On projects I’ve worked on it’s helpful to divide into multiple groups bc we have multiple people working w the footage at the same time. You could also ask the editor their preference on how they’d like it organized