Advice on Consolidating Scenes

BlueStreak wrote on 8/9/2008, 2:45 PM

I'd like some advice on consolidating scenes in my home movies. I like to focus on finishing the rough cuts one scene at a time - each scene as a separate project. I just seem to get overwhelmed and distracted when I have all 500 clips from a one hour shoot on the same timeline.

After I finish with the individual scene/project editing I pull them all together on the same timeline to create the main feature or use them individually as Special Features on my DVD. Another reason I do it this way is so I can render some individual scenes quickly for posting on my website.

The problem is I'm having issues with loss of image quality in the final output. I assume it has to do with multiple renderings/compressions.

Does anyone else like to work this way? Any advice on how to maintain my image quality on final output? Is there some rendered file format/project settings that work best for this? Thanks.

Comments

Chienworks wrote on 8/9/2008, 3:36 PM

Are your clips SD DV? If so, render to DV .avi. If you haven't added any effects or color corrections or titles then there will be no loss whatsoever. SONY's DV codec is extremely good so even if you have added 'stuff' the loss will be minimal. You can go through dozens of generations without noticeable loss.

If it's HD then the cineform codec is very good.

johnmeyer wrote on 8/9/2008, 4:07 PM

I have done hundreds of hours of home movies. My advice is to quit obsessing and just get them on DVD with some chapter stops. Do a quick cut to trim really long scenes or stuff that is botched, but don't spend much more time than that. Unless your family is different than mine, these will not be watched often enough or by enough people to warrant making them into some sort of art form. Also, between the fast-forward and the chapter control on the remote, any additional "editing" can be done by the viewer at the time the video is viewed.

To me, the amount of editing that can be justified goes up in proportion to both the number of different people that will view the finished project, and also to the number of times each disc will be viewed. Thus, home movies are at the lowest level possible.

The final reason for not spending time doing all sorts of edits and re-renders is that the most important part of doing home movies is to get it finished! There is one guy I know that has asked me for advice almost a dozen times in the past eight years about how to transfer his VHS tapes. He has bought equipment on multiple occasions, and I even went to his house to help him set up the first bunch of stuff he bought back in 2002.

To date, he has yet to complete the transfer of even one tape, because he keeps coming up with these grand schemes for what he wants to do.

BlueStreak wrote on 8/24/2008, 7:31 PM

John, Good tips - thanks for the advice. There's a lot to be said for just "getting it done".

BlueStreak wrote on 8/24/2008, 7:32 PM

Thanks for the tip on the Cineform codec.