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 with footage it can choose between. Clips disabled by another tool or by hand don't count, and neither do clips of an excluded type. If fewer than two tracks qualify, the dialog says Fewer than 2 camera tracks have footage left to choose between. and Run stays unavailable. 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.

Run Classify first. Camera Selection ranks each clip by the shot type Classify gave it, so a track that mixes face and screen clips is ranked clip by clip. Clips labeled Scene count as the wide angle and sit at the bottom of the list by default. Graphics, Animation, and Film clips are excluded by default. Unclassified clips always compete, rank below every listed type, and can't be excluded.

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If the dialog says motion analysis is out of date because a source file changed, rerun Detect Motion.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 priority 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. To change the priority, turn on Customize camera priority. Move types up or down with the arrows. Turn on Exclude beside any type that shouldn't compete.
4. 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.
5. Set Pacing toward Relaxed for longer shots and fewer switches, or toward Eager for quicker cuts.

The priority list shows the shot types present in your video clips, such as Face or Board. The list stays empty until Classify has labeled your clips. A camera counts as active when someone looks into it or its footage shows action. Talking alone doesn't make a camera active. When several cameras are active, the higher type wins. When none is active, the person speaking decides the shot.

Your order and Exclude choices change the project as soon as you click, even if you then click Cancel. Save the project to keep them. Turn off Customize camera priority to use the default order and default exclusions again. Your custom choices come back when you turn it on.

Clips of an excluded type are never chosen and never cut. If Camera Selection disabled clips of that type during an earlier run, applying the new plan re-enables those earlier changes within the current scope. An excluded clip on a higher track still covers whatever camera is chosen below it.

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, 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.