video editing best way ?

[grahamricho]

Got 6 hours of holiday footage what i want to cut down to 1 hour and burn on a disc.
I have captured 2 hours of footage on th p.c which is a large file, is it best to edit it than add another 1 hour of footage and so on, or is it best to just capture all the 6 hours and then edit it all together..many thanks

im using video studio 8

[senu]

In the simplest terms, your one hr edit has to contain footage which while not nessesarily contiguous does show the event in a reasonably chronological way.

6 hrs is a lot: at 13g/ hr thats easily 80g excluding disc space needed for effects, transitions ie: renderfiles .

It is probably better to do the edit in bits if you can but you need to look at all the raw footage making a note of which tape and which timcode range ( segment ) within a tape your wish list is on.
Make an EDL ( edit desicion list) ie:decide what goes in and what stays out then only capture what you need to make the edit. If you later decide you want some of what wasnt captured easy go back to it

What some more advanced software do it "batch capture". This works by noting which tape and which timecode range the "wants" are.
This then allows you to scan all the footage, index what you want , these get captured as needed making the whole process more efficient
HTH

[rickyt]

I think this will get a bit complicated if you haven't done this thing before .6 hours worth of footage is a lot work with .As senu suggests , only capture what you need , this is the key . Personally , I would sit down with the tapes and cam connected to the TV with a piece of paper and watch it , making notes what bits you want to keep . You can write down the tape number and the bit you want to keep ie .time code .When done you can start with tape 1 and go to the time code [fast forward ]and capture that section . Eventually ,you will end up with a series of clips you will add together in your video editing program.No one would want to watch a holiday video or wedding video for 2 hours let alone 6 hours , so you may have to be a bit ruthless and just get the best bits .If there is alot of "BEST BITS" you can always make a second DVD [part/volume 2 ] .

[naebothernoo]

If you have enough space on your hard drive capture the lot in one file and then edit it on the time line it is a lot easier to keep track of.It also means everything is in chronological order.

[senu]

Originally Posted by naebothernoo

If you have enough space on your hard drive capture the lot in one file and then edit it on the time line it is a lot easier to keep track of.It also means everything is in chronological order.

I beg to differ...
One of the ways budget software ( and some more advanced programs) make editing easier is by "splitting" the captured file into scenes to make the work more bite sized and manageable. These may be real small spilt files or simply thumnbnails representation of time ranges ( proxy files) within the "master" file
6 hrs worth of video in one file would challenge a seasoned editor let alone a "learner". Besides try loading an 80g file in memory for play back . My computers ( and most I have access to) would be very dismayed at best, simply refuse to work at worst ( the latter scenario is more likely )
Even if capturing the whole lot is desirable( i dont think it is), It will still be better as separate files with a means of identifying what scenes belong where.
There is no doubt that even if they are all on the Hard drive, the hard work of sifting thru them cannot be avoided! hence my earlier suggestion to watch thru the tapes, noting important events , which tape they are on and where they start and stop on such tapes. (eg.A big wedding shoot :. 1) bride at home ,2) weddiing opening shot,3) marriage vows, 4) outside church..5) reception opening shot.. etc Imsure you get my drift :a list on paper)
Making up the video ( editing) is not about outputting your footage chronologially but using your footage to maintain a logical semblance of continuity. ( in short : you can use your shots in any order as long as the story gets told in the right order in the viewers mind)

I would have suggested a much easier edit for the OP ( for practice) , but seeing as he has what he has , the next easiest thing is to go thru the tapes and be a bit ruthless in not even capturing in the first place bits he will never use.
Between my original suggestion and rickyts' it will be a good starting point
HTH

[grahamricho]

Hi we did route 66 in the USA, we travelled 3000 miles in total in 3 weeks from Chicago to L.A and most of the footage i want but want to trim it all down, i videoed all scenes and videoed for longer than i intended to use, i thought i would for example ... if the video was of Albuquerque street scenes i would just cut the clips from say 15 mins to 1 mins with a backing track playing and dump the worst and keep the best but a lot just want trimming down, i thought tape is cheap so what video everything..many thanks

[senu]

You are on the right track ..but 6 hrs is much.
If you can imagine how you want your final video to look ( rough edit) even 90 min isnt too much but an hr is possibly ideal to keep it from getting boring .

Then in watching the tapes, have 3 categories of footage
1) definite "must haves"
2) maybe
3) nah...

You then have a list eg :tape one 02"min to 15min" Route 66 starts here...

You can capture all your "must haves" and trim during editing, if you then find that the video is too short ( unlikely) You can then go to the maybes.
This aspect of putting the video together is creative and relects your personal touch..this is hard to do without scanning all the footage at least once.
you are right tape is cheap but as time goes on you will probably shoot more "meaningfully" to minimise the hard work during editing. Still a bit more is better than too little
Hope you have fun doing it: I personally feel the most difficult part is deciding what stays and what goes and you can make it fun if you dont try to do it all at once

[grahamricho]

thanks but there are a lot of scenes were i want to give a taste of each city/town i want to end up with 2 second clips of different views with name titles of the city and then a longer bits were my kids are on the video and put some music backing the short clips, but when i shot the clips they might be 30 seconds long so each clip would be cut but most clips will be used but shorter versions of the clips .
If i edit /cut the first hour of tape will the file get smaller and smaller with the bits i do not use cut out then add more and do the same with the next hour and end up with 1 hour of footage ?

[senu]

Hmm....One of the ways to get that is to use stills rather than video, or capture stills from video footage and use them, 2-3 secs seems a bit short for the human eye to absorb : minimum of 6 secs is said to be reccomended.

Reflect for a minute on the way video editng works with NLE software
If your clips are unedited, the original footage is untouched and no new files are created until your final export// output.
If you do edit: the software will create newer files ( render files), to reflect the edit. this includes cuts transitions, titiles, music added etc.
During the edit you are going to end up with more Hard disc usage as a result.
Only when you have finished and wipe off all the render files etc do you get to reclaim your HDD space. Note that your originally captured video files remain unaltered unless you manually delete them

As such... yes for output your footage time will get shorter but it is a non destructive process and even trimmed bits can be regained it you go back to the original clip.

So simply put,Yes... you can get your 6 hr down to one hr by judicious trimming. It will require a bit of discipline letting go of stuff

I just feel , selecting the bit prior to starting the big project will get you organised and (hopefully) prevent dismay and confusion as you build up the Project from all 6 tapes to 1 ( in term of content) .
As stated above.you will have to be very quick and desisive in getting rid of stuff unless you want to make a part 1 and part2 if you cant bear to see all your beloved footage on the cutting room floor

[dejongj]

I would just go out and buy a bigger hard disk and capture the lot, not in one big file...Oh no, that is a big no no Senu said it all on that subject....No let the software do its scene detection and have it in seperate files....

Then I would quickly review on the computer, a lot quicker than on the camera and it saves the mechanisme of all that forwarding and rewinding on the camera....Then use different bins or whatever it is called for your software to put the footage in the varies categories, or if your software allows...Immediately make a story board out of it so you get the general idea...Before finishing the detail...

Too me this approach is preferrable to creating the EDL route which was great in the olden days when hard disk space was a premium but not today.......

Also Senu, aren't you showing your age by suggesting to create an EDL? To me that really seems to be a pre-NLE things....

To me as a general rule of thumb, a 1 minute long scene of the same subject is already getting boring...So surely you could get 6 hours into 1 hour....

[senu]

Jean Paul,
I agree that capturing the way you suggest is ideal.
The EDL is a bit old hat but batch capturing ( a very current NLE thing ) having reviewed tapes is not and that (batch capture) is based on the (aging)EDLs (sound) principle.
And ....true, the HDD have become frightfully afordable: 300g is now common place

However , going down from 6 tapes to I hr requires a bit of work and whether he watches it all on the PC or off the tapes it still needs to be watched at least once So the idea of selective capturing was offered to make the work of reviewing captured footage , a bit less cumbersome

[dejongj]

Originally Posted by senu

However , going down from 6 tapes to I hr requires a bit of work and whether he watches it all on the PC or off the tapes it still needs to be watched at least once So the idea of selective capturing was offered to make the work of reviewing captured footage , a bit less cumbersome

I was only kidding Senu...Everyone has got their own style, yours is really 'by-the-book', perhaps you even had official training, mine is slightly more 'quick-and-dirty'....I do agree, you have to sit through it all at least once....I don't think I have ever only sat once through it, at least several times...Then you make it up and see something is not right and cut it differently...Not an easy task at all, and it will cause many a late night....

[rickyt]

Yes , we have lots of opinions on this post . Really it's up to grahamricho to decide what he wants to keep in his video . He could , if he wants buy a DVD recorder and attach his camcorder and record all the footage onto a 6 hour DVD . But ,as he writes , he wants to cut it down to an hour or so . The ball is in your court ,my friend .First view all the footage and decide what are the best scenes. Make a story board of your holiday and decide what are the highlights and only capture the required bits. Capturing the lot !!!! oh ........ what a nightmare........upgrade your RAM ,Hard drive .........no ..no ...no

[grahamricho]

Hi thanks all...If i capture 1 hours worth then edit it down to 10 mins then render it and delete the old files so im left with a 10 mins of footage in a smallish file ,then capture 1 hours more footage , then cut down to 10 mins and render, can i add it on to the first rendered footage ? (would i not be able to flow from one piece to another would it be like having two seperte movies on one disc, i could not fade them in from one to the next ?)
as i said most of the clips /scenes i want i just want to shorten them, not discarge them...thanks

[dejongj]

Yes, you can absolutely do it like that.....And yes you can still fade those newly rendered movies into a big one.....