Pick Camera Angles with Camera Selection

Camera Selection builds a multicam cut on the timeline. It chooses the camera for each stretch, then disables the other video angles after you approve the plan.

Prepare the footage

Camera Selection needs at least two video tracks that aren't excluded. Each track appears as a camera in the dialog. Unlock the video tracks the tool will change before applying a plan.

For a better first pass, run Face Tracking and Detect Motion on the camera footage. Face Tracking tells Camera Selection when someone is present, speaking, or looking at the camera. Detect Motion helps it recognize activity in content footage. Transcripts help it place cuts near sentence boundaries.

Classify identifies camera types and can mark cameras as scene or excluded. Check those suggestions before running Camera Selection.

If part of a previously tracked file falls outside its Face Tracking coverage, the dialog lists the missing footage. Use Process missing, wait for Face Tracking to finish, then run Camera Selection again. A camera with no Face Tracking or motion data can still compete as a fallback.

If the dialog says motion analysis is out of date because a source file changed, rerun Detect Motion. Camera Selection ignores those old motion results.

Choose the cameras and range

1. To work on part of the edit, set an In and Out point or select clips before opening the dialog. Any selected clip, including audio, defines a time range.
2. Open the Process menu and click Camera Selection….
3. Turn on Scene for a wide or room angle. Turn on Exclude for any camera that shouldn't compete in this run.
4. To change which camera types get priority, turn on Customize camera priority and move the types up or down with the arrows.
5. Choose Entire timeline, In/Out range, or Selected clips under Scope. The dialog starts on Selected clips when you have clips selected, otherwise Entire timeline.
6. Set Pacing toward Relaxed for longer shots and fewer switches, or toward Eager for quicker cuts.

The priority list ranks camera types, such as Face or Board, rather than individual tracks. When several types show speech, someone looking at the lens, or action, the higher type gets priority. Your custom order is saved with the project. Turn off Customize camera priority to use the default order again.

Excluded cameras don't compete in the new plan. If Camera Selection disabled footage on an excluded camera during an earlier run, applying the new plan re-enables those earlier changes within the current scope.

Review and apply the cut

1. Click Run.
2. Review the Decision log, the amount of footage that will be disabled on each lane, and any warnings. If the plan has no decisions, none of the competing lanes had eligible footage in the chosen range.
3. Adjust the camera priority, Scene, Exclude, Scope, or Pacing if needed, then run it again. Any such change clears the old plan.
4. Click Apply when the cut looks useful.

Applying the plan splits video clips where needed and disables the losing pieces. It doesn't delete or move clips, and it doesn't change audio. Disabled footage behaves as described in Cut and Delete.

A scoped run leaves the rest of the timeline alone. One exception is footage that overlaps cuts from an earlier Camera Selection run. The scope can grow enough to reconsider those whole pieces instead of leaving a partial old cut behind.

Running the tool again replaces its earlier choices within the new scope. It re-enables only footage that Camera Selection disabled, so clips disabled by Rough Cut, Detect Umms, or by hand stay disabled.

Press Ctrl+Z once to undo everything from the most recent apply. If the timeline changes while the dialog is open, close it and reopen Camera Selection…. Run a new plan before applying it.