Automatically number each scene on-screen?

johnmeyer wrote on 7/13/2004, 7:35 PM
I just filmed a softball pitcher. The best pitches will go on a DVD which she will send to college.

I want to create a working DVD that the pitcher and her coach can look at, so they can decide which pitches to include on the final DVD. I would like to put a number on the screen for each pitch so they can tell me which pitches to use. Each pitch will be in a separate event.

Question: Is there any way to get the overlay to automatically number itself? I can use text, but then I'll have to do over a hundred edits (and I may do this again for another player soon). I thought of using timecode, but those numbers are rather long. Any other ideas?

Comments

Randy Brown wrote on 7/13/2004, 8:06 PM
I recently did something similar with about 140 clips. The best way I could find was to make the fist text with a "1" and copied/pasted all along the upper track and then changed each number...pain in the butt...I hope someone has a better idea John.
Randy
apit34356 wrote on 7/13/2004, 9:20 PM
a temp. solution is to put a timeline clock in a corner, ( like on the track). then the coach can tell you the timeline for your edit.

AJP
johnmeyer wrote on 7/13/2004, 9:51 PM
Randy,

I just slogged through it. Poor girl actually threw 138 pitches. Yikes! I did what you did, namely edit each text effect. apit's suggestions is a good one, but I thought the timecode might get confusing (even though it is very accurate). If I have to do this again, and I don't come up with a better solution, I think I'll use the timecode idea and just live with whatever communication problems it creates.

Thanks to both of you for your replies.
Grazie wrote on 7/13/2004, 11:36 PM
. .er have I missed the point here? If one went to Scene Detect - they are all separate scenes yes? - and set the Scene Detect to name to something like "Baseball_ " . .wouldn't each one come up with a progressive numebering ready to appear on the t/l as numbered clips .. .

Grazie
johnmeyer wrote on 7/14/2004, 12:33 AM
wouldn't each one come up with a progressive numebering ready to appear on the t/l as numbered clips .. .

I was trying to get the numbers to appear on-screen so the coach can look at the video and tell me what pitches to include (e.g., 19, 5, 34, 99, 22, etc.). Timecode doesn't really work because it doesn't let the viewer specify the scene.
Grazie wrote on 7/14/2004, 1:32 AM
Ah . .yes of course . .

Okay Put everything up on the timeline . . . run a t/c through everything, print to VHS tape . . let the coach write down what he/she wants . .better still, get them to directly einter into an EXCEL or WORKS spreadsheet. You get back the *.XLs or *.wks sheet .. copy and paste into Edit Detail view . .you've got markers! Use the markers.. . . this any good .. ?

. .I'm sure there are gonna be drawbacks and I might have got it wrong .. but this logging and stuff comes up periodically . . .

Grazie


Grazie
epirb wrote on 7/14/2004, 2:50 PM
Just thinking out loud...but I wonder if it could be done easier with or using the sub-title track . ie; if you created ahead of time in notepad or whatever subtiltes 1,2,3,etc then import....Need to think about it somemore ,just thought i'd post the idea ,to get more head's to think about it.
Former user wrote on 7/14/2004, 2:54 PM
Another option, although maybe not a very good one, is to record your voice counting the pitches on an audio track. Then they just have to listen and mark which ones they want. You keep your project file with the recorded VO and select from that.

Dave T2
johnmeyer wrote on 7/14/2004, 3:53 PM
epirb,

The subtitle idea is very interesting. I already have a script I developed that creates a region for each event and automatically numbers that region. There is then a script that Sony provides that takes these regions and exports into a file that can be imported into DVDA.

The only thing I am not sure of is whether I can cause the DVD player to start with the subtitles on. I think I remember a post about this a month ago, but I didn't pay attention.

....

I just tried it, and it almost works. I can't get the subtitles to default in the on position, and DVDA complains about overlapping regions because I used a crossfade between each pitch. I can fix the timecodes in Excel prior to exporting, so I can fix that problem in a flash.

Thanks for your excellent idea!
epirb wrote on 7/14/2004, 4:07 PM
Good, I just planted the seed, the script idea sounds great ! maybe you'll end up developing a script that could have many other uses for doing what your looking with the numbering concept.
Run with it...RUN JOHN RUN !
I for one look forward the results of your ingenuity!
RexA wrote on 7/14/2004, 10:12 PM
>>The only thing I am not sure of is whether I can cause the DVD player to start with the subtitles on.

I was just reading a recent thread in the DVD Arch forum about this yesterday. You can't do it explicity but there is an easy work-around that one of the Sony guys described. (That is, if I remember what they were talking about -- I never tried it.)

Here is the path to that thread:

http://mediasoftware.sonypictures.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?MessageID=299501&Replies=7&Page=0

Hopefully you can copy and paste that to get there. If you have problems finding it, tell me and I'll post it as a link.