These clips sure like to get OUT OF ORDER, don't they?

K

KuriousJorj

Active member
I've been working with the P2 cards now for around 6 months, and good lord, these clips sure are a pain to keep in the same order they were filmed. (and it is REALLY slowing down my work!)

I can see half a dozen different places during the entire process where this could be occurring; from initial filming, to unloading P2 via laptop to external HD, swapping with 2nd P2 and repeating, (putting each tape's worth of footage into a "New Folder" under the main project folder on the HD) formatting the first and filming more, opening clips on Vegas timeline on the laptop to verify footage, then finally moving that external HD to my editing PC. I have all systems set to put "arrange files by - name"

Anyhoo, on the Vegas project media bin, they're also arranged by name. But even when I initially verify the order on the laptop Vegas timeline, they're sometimes already out of order!

Is it somehow because I re-format the P2 every time I swap it back in and start filming again? (after of course verifying that footage on the laptop Vegas to make sure I've got it) Is it because I put each tape's footage in another "New Folder?" (am I supposed to copy the contents of EVERY DAMN SUBFOLDER into the same 'master footage' folder? (what an inexcusable pain in the ass if so!)

Is this why the clips will not stay in order? Are they not alphabetical/numerical in order, since I reformat each time? Or is it because they're not in the same, big folder?
 
I think you've lost the bubble on the P2 workflow. Each recorded card will contain a CONTENTS folder and a LASTCLIP.TXT file, that's all. These two items should (your choice), be dragged to a uniquely named folder; e.g., PROJECT_P2_1, and so on. How hard is that?

Every time you reformat, the clip numbering sequence begins again at 0001xx. It is the "xx" that is unique, and is created randomly so several 0001 clips do not conflict. But by keeping your raw CONTENTS in separate unique folders, you never have clips mixing.

Now as far as managing your clips after conversion, Logging, or whatever you do, is a separate issue, but this process gives you the oppotunity to name your clips uniquely. Don't forget you also have a timecode on each clip to keep them in chronological order.
 
Yeah, that's what I do.

CONTENTS and LASTCLIP.TXT each go into their own folders. All of THOSE folders are in the general project's folder.

Yeah, I'm thinking the TIMECODE is what I need to be using; in fact, I think I DID use that once on a project, and it worked out fine...
...will need to look at that again.

BTW, usually on the laptop Vegas timeline (when I verify after intial copying, amidst filming and swapping cards), I usually pull en mass clips from each card to the timeline, keeping them seperate card-by-card. Not sure how in that situation they could possibly get mixed up.
 
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By timecode is the way to do it in Vegas.

Would be nice if Raylight would recognize and display the UserClipName; that would be a gigantic help if you use the metadata effectively.

(Raylight Ultimate does have metadata slates, but they're way too tiny to be of much use and you can't arrange clips in the media pool with them.)
 
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