You’ve shot an amazing interview or podcast for social media content with multiple angles, and everything looks good on set. But once you hit the edit bay? Chaos.

Audio drift. Mismatched angles. Color inconsistencies. What should be a smooth multicam edit turns into hours of unnecessary cleanup. Interview and podcast editing turn out not to be for the weak.

We’ve seen these pitfalls firsthand, rookie mistakes, yes, but even seasoned editors fall into these traps. This post is here to help. We’re breaking down the five most common multicam editing mistakes and showing you exactly how to avoid them.

Whether you’re editing in Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve, or Final Cut Pro, or using extensions for whichever video editing tool, like the Adobe Premiere Pro plugin and AI video editor, Cutback, to automate rough cuts or animated captions, or juggling a complex workflow, avoiding these mistakes will save you time and your sanity, especially in the face of client revisions.

1. Throwing Unprepared Clips Into a Multicam Sequence

Importing footage without prepping it is like cooking without reading the recipe; it might work, but it’s not going to be pretty (or should we say tasty).

Before you create a multicam sequence:

• Color correct source clips individually. Color-mismatched footage will jump out at your audience immediately.

• Apply audio effects or cleanup (like denoise or limiter) to the raw footage.

• Rename your angles. “Camera 1” and “Camera 2” won’t help when you’re mid-edit.

Pro tip: In Premiere Pro, open multicam clips in timeline view to edit the source camera clips directly. Color and effect changes here carry over to the entire project.

2. Skipping Sync Best Practices

Sync issues are the fastest way to ruin an otherwise solid multicam setup. It's not just about lining up footage. When you edit multicam footage, it's about preventing drift, desync, and confusion later.

The fix:

• Always match camera time codes or use audio waveforms to sync. Automatic editing tools are the best way to make sure your files are matched perfectly through AI-powered features. Keep these in consideration as well to prevent slaving over matching waveforms.

• Double-check frame rates, even a mismatch between 29.97 and 30fps can cause chaos.

• Use reference audio from each camera or recorder as backup, even when you're planning to use external mics.

The bottom line: one small sync issue compounds into hours of delay. You can prevent these issues by using an AI editing tool that supports audio waveform sync and semantic chunking, but your fundamental foundation has to be solid.

3. Manual Overload: Not Using Keyboard Shortcuts or AI for Video Editing

Still scrubbing through timelines and slicing with the blade tool to change camera angles?

You’re wasting time.

What to do instead:

• Set up keyboard shortcuts for multicam switching (e.g., 1–9 keys in Premiere Pro).

• Nudge cuts precisely with arrow key modifiers instead of dragging clips manually.

• Use Premiere Pro plugins such as Cutback, which can automate camera switching based on speaker detection or pacing. Utilizing an AI plugin for Premiere Pro that can automatically distinguish the tracks in your multi-track sequence by track, video, and even better, can automatically switch between the two, will save you the pain of dealing with this admin.

These micro-improvements add up. The difference between a 10-hour edit and a 5-hour edit? Workflow.

4. Ignoring Transcript-Based Editing

You don’t need to scroll through hours of footage to find one quote. That’s 2022 energy.

Transcription = faster editing.

• Search your transcript for keywords or names.

• Cut around moments semantically, not just visually.

• Repurpose highlights for social without watching the entire interview again.

Note: Semantic video editing means video editing that prioritizes the meaning and context of the videos more than the visuals. This method can be easily utilized through text-based editing and by using time-saving transcription editing over timeline editing.

By generating accurate transcripts and video chunking your interview based on speaker or topic, it’s like having a map for your footage. It also makes it easier for you to remove repetition and remove silences.

This time-saving editing method will give you more time to worry about other nitty-gritties like clean background removal, caption animation, or even give you more time to find B-roll and other creative nice-to-haves.

5. Exporting Without Flattening Multicams

Multicam sequences are powerful, but they’re heavy. Unflattened timelines mean your editor is trying to process all angles, even the ones you didn’t use, which can significantly slow down your workflow.

Check out our article on how to set up your storage for faster and smoother video editing to learn more prevention tactics.

Symptoms of an unflattened sequence:

• Long render times

• Playback lag

• “Preparing audio” taking forever

The solution:

• Duplicate your sequence.

• Right-click > Multicamera > Flatten.

• Export from the flattened version.

Your export is faster. Your project runs smoother. And your final video won’t choke your system.

Recap: How to Do Multicam in Premiere Without the Headaches

Here’s your quick checklist:

• ✅ Sync footage with timecode or audio waveforms

• ✅ Color correct and rename source clips

• ✅ Use shortcuts and tools (like Premiere Pro extension Cutback) to streamline editing

• ✅ Edit from transcripts, not just your memory

• ✅ Flatten before export to avoid system overload

You don’t need a big production crew to get multicam editing right. With smart tools and a few process tweaks, your content will look more professional and take half the time to edit.

Ready to make multicam easy? Try Cutback’s AI-powered multicam editor and let it do the heavy lifting for you.

For more in-depth knowledge about the ins and outs of video editing, check out our latest posts on the Cutback blog or our YouTube channel. You can also join Cutback’s Discord community of like-minded video editors.