Working with a lot of footage

G

GL2guy

Active member
When you are starting a new project in your NLE (ie. Premiere Pro)... and you want to make a clip thats about 10 mins but you have about 3-4 hours of footage to pull your cuts from, what is your general workflow for sifting through that 3-4 hours of footage to find the stuff you want to use?

Do you import all 4 hours of video into your NLE then review each clip and delete the "bad" ones... later sequencing the good ones? Or do you cut out all the fat before you even get to your NLE?

Would love to get your advice or suggestions on what your workflow for this is. Thanks!
 
I would import all the media.

I set up the project window colums with a delete column.

I preview and log on the run in the project window viewer and tick the clips I want to delete.

I then do a sort on the Delete Column and select them all.

Next I make them Offline which has the option to delete the files from the H drive .

I then delete the offline files from the project bin.

Simple and efficient.

Be careful to select the Deletes carefully
 
I copy each tape to a seperate DVD with a TC burn and just make a list from the DVD. For projects with alot of footage I dont like being tied to the edit station when I'm reviewing footage so I pop it into the DVD player and get out my legal pad and have a snack. Its more relaxing for me. Then I just type up my list and batch cap in Premiere. Also a good method if a client wants to review the footage and pick clips.
 
How do you copy a tape to a DVD with TC burn?

BTW - my suggestion works only if you have captured using Scene Detect or P2. This means all the clips are separate.
 
Analog decks. We have a sony HDV deck and a JVC DVD recorder/HDD/DV deck. I just make a composite copy and turn the display on on the sony and hit record on the JVC. Its low tech but for this type of thing it works great.
 
I see...

You then have to capture again once you have done a paper edit and a batch list and then log it again in the project.

Seems a long way to do it to me but to each their own...

....you could always record straight from the timeline to DVD and save a lot of real time capture. Go hi tech!
 
yeah these are projects with 20+ hours of hdv footage and I'd rather only cap the 10% I'm going actually use. I dont really see either cap as any work since its unnatended for an hour at a time. We've got two computer's side by side. One does the grunt work and I can do work on the other. Its not the most effecient way by any means, but it allows me to take paper notes and have something to consult later. Id rather not try and use the notes in Premiere or anyhting like that. The pad is always with me and always easy to see. And 50% of the time the shot lists get made off site in the client's hands. Like you said to each his own. Alot of workflow is personal preference and there are always compromises to any workflow.

Now in a p2 world then its a whole new story...
 
Always interested in others workflows. Thanx for sharing.

P2 is very cool by the way and I am virtually tapeless now.
 
When I'm filming I usually do a timecode log sheet and mark down the timecodes of every take. Then I mark down if it was good, bad or ok. Now you can go to each good take and capture.
 
Tucker's mentioned something interesting - I dont have takes in my long form stuff. Its all documentary style stories, questions, answers. Sure I take some notes about whats good and not, but they are nowhere near as exact what could be taken on set of a narrative. If you are talking about doing this for narrative work I'd definitely go this route.

shooter - yeah p2 workflow is so fantastic. My largest client has their own cameras and their HDV so most of my "real" work is stuck in a tape based world... I'm getting ready to do my own documentary though on p2 and am so thrilled about the post workflow that my head is going to explode. Really looking forward to being able to review footage and make notes in the metadata that night. p2cms rules!
 
Hey Jeff

Do your homework on metadata before you get into it too far.

I am not sure how much metadata is currently accessible by the NLEs.

I use Premiere CS3 and FCP and they do not read or access metadata apart from file info embedded in the header.

P2 Viewer does both read and write it, if thats a starting point and helpful to you.
 
Yeah the metadata is pretty worthless in Premiere - I was mainly going to do it to have some form of notes and info when sorting clips and such. Having looked at it more this morning and playing with p2cms I think may yellow legal pad may come in handier :) Pehaps I just need to play with it more, but it just didnt seem all that useful. I guess I might think differently if Premiere showed the metadata though... Thanks for the heads up though. Luckily this project actually has a decent timeline so I can test this all out before I have to go shoot :)
 
I find customised columns in the project window do all I need.

I log and type as I view the clips (huge Premiere advantage over other NLEs).

CTRL- C and CTRL-V are my best friends when doing this.

Unfortunately no way to print it out - but I never need that anyway.
 
I think for this next project I'll have to give Premiere's clip data a shot. I just havent tried to use it much so I am just not used to it. I could see where you could do all your managaing quickly and easily with a p2 workflow after looking at it for a bit. I think my p2 workflow at least and maybe even tape will be making a change... Thanks for sharing your workflow shooter, I think you may have me converted :)
 
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