How to organize your video...

liquid wrote on 8/9/2009, 7:23 PM
I'm fairly new to Vegas, but I've got most of it figured out. But what still baffles me is how to organize my clips. What I'd like to be able to do and what seems intuitive is to be able to double click on a file to open it in the trimmer, then I'd go through it assigning and naming regions. When I'd gone through all my relevant clips and properly cut them up and named them, I'd like to have some kind of a master region list that I could pull up and just grab my regions one by one and place them in the time line where I'd want them. Can one do this or something like this?

I do the same thing now, sort of but it's messy and never works. I grab a file, open it on the time line then try and get some clips out of it and start editing together a film from these bits and pieces. That's all find and dandy until I have to start over again. If I have to start over again, I have to go through every stupid clip again!

I know I can name regions in the trimmer, but I don't see the point in doing it because I don't see where they come up again? They must come up somewhere otherwise what would be the point of having them in the first place.
I wonder if anyone could help me, or explain to me how they make sense of their video clips.
Thanks

Comments

PeterWright wrote on 8/9/2009, 7:38 PM
You're almost there - in Vegas Explorer, enable Regions view, and all those regions will be visible, and can be dragged from there to the timeline.

When using this approach, I always name my regions carefully so that they are listed in the order I want to use them - e.g. "A01 Approaches door" "A02 CU hand on door knob" "A03 Door opens from inside" etc.
liquid wrote on 8/9/2009, 7:41 PM
I've been digging around and I've heard people refer to sub clips, but I don't have that option to save from the trimmer into sub clips, nor do i find references to sub clips in the help file...is this because I'm using a platinum version? I really hope not...that would be a core feature to leave out and render this version of Vegas just a toy...But I'm getting ahead of myself here...
liquid wrote on 8/9/2009, 7:41 PM
ahhhhhhhhh.....OH MY GOD...THANK YOU!!!!!!!!! tHIS IS exactly what I was hoping for but I just could find it.....yahoo...I"m off to the races....cheers to all of you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
liquid wrote on 8/9/2009, 7:43 PM
i'm importing files shot a long time ago and either way I like to go through every thing manually...:-) Thank you very much for responding to my post....I love forums like this...:-)
liquid wrote on 8/9/2009, 7:50 PM
However, for some reason the regions don't all seem to save. When I make a selection and create a region, shouldn't it show right up in the regions list? Well it's not...I must be doing something wrong. It says in the help file to hit "s" in the trimmer window to save regions and markers but this doesn't seem to be working either...?
Also, when I seem to delete one, it doesn't go away...could there be some other place I should be looking for deeper editing of the regions?
PeterWright wrote on 8/9/2009, 8:14 PM
I don't know about the hit "s" instruction (should this be Ctrl / S ?), but I always click the floppy disc icon in the Trimmer, which saves Markers and Regions. Once this is clicked, the Explorer Region View will show the region once refreshed (the double arrow icon).

Similarly, if you delete a region in Trimmer, click the Floppy Icon to save, then when Explorer is refreshed, the region will disappear from the list.
liquid wrote on 8/9/2009, 9:11 PM
It's so weird, but it really just doesn't work. The "s" thing I found in the keyboard shortcuts. But if I hit the floppy icon it doesn't work either...?????????? I really wonder why....
PeterWright wrote on 8/9/2009, 9:30 PM
Well I carefully tested this out before posting - it works every time here.

Are you definitely clicking the "refresh" icon in Vegas Explorer after saving the Region in Trimmer?
liquid wrote on 8/9/2009, 9:41 PM
As crazy and incompetent as it may sound...YES! I have tried everything I can think of. Saving then hitting refresh included.

I have also tried creating regions in the time line to see if it makes a difference but this too isn't working, but the regions are obviously being saved as they open up just where they should ever time in the trimmer or the time line just not the region list view.

If you go to preferences, there is a box you can check off that says "Automatically save trimmer and markers and regions with media file". I have tried turning this on and off too yet nothing.

I'm really baffled. I can't find any posts about this either so it's obviously just me and not a bug. However, it's so simple and I can't see what on earth I'm doing wrong!
I wouldn't blame you if you didn't even believe me when I say that I'm hitting save then refresh (which seems like a lot of work just to save a regions but anyway) but I swear I am doing just that and I'm drawing a blank on what else to try.
I get snagged sometimes with little things like this so I'll keep trying to change something until I figure it out........but for the moment I'm really scratching my head.
liquid wrote on 8/9/2009, 9:46 PM
Just figured it out and I'm not really happy with the answer. I have to click on the file name in the explorer first, then it will show me what regions are associated with that file.
I am looking for a master list however. Seems to me a big waist of time to start clicking on every file I have to find a particular region....no? So if I have a hundred clips, and I take the time to name each region when I want to go back and insert a particular region into the time line I'll have to click through all my clips until I find the right region....that can't be right?? I tried doing select all to see if I could by-pass this and that doesn't work.

I guess I could solve this by naming my clips too (when they come off the old memory card they're named SCDXXXX) but that's an extra hassle too and i still won't have a master region list.
liquid wrote on 8/9/2009, 9:47 PM
Not only that, but I just realized that when I save a region, then hit refresh it deselects whatever clip I had selected so now I have to go back and find the right clip too...? lol.....it just all seems to backwards...no?
PeterWright wrote on 8/9/2009, 10:43 PM
Yes, the Trimmer Regions are only accessible once that clip is selected.

You may prefer to create sublips in the Trimmer, then these can be saved in Project Media in whatever folders suit your needs.

One difference to watch for - the in/out points of Subclips are fixed, whereas Regions can later be extended to other parts of the main clip. To avoid this being a problem, it's a good idea to leave a spare second or so at either end of the subclip, for trimming purposes.
liquid wrote on 8/10/2009, 9:20 AM
I guess then I'll have to look into how other people set up their work flow...I assume I must be missing something and there must be some intelligent intuitive way of organizing large amounts of clips into some kind of easy workable work flow.

I've looked into using the media bins and stuff, but I find it cumbersome to have to have my hand stuck on the mouse, click on the folder I want in the media bin, click over to the explorer select my track and then do it all over again.

I will do a deep search for workflow habits and then start a new thread if I can't find enough detail.
Thanks for your time people....:-) I really appreciate this kind of camaraderie.
kairosmatt wrote on 8/10/2009, 9:50 AM
Never knew what the region view was all about-very cool! thanks guys!

My 2 cents on workflow: it seems to very a bit, project to project and depending on my whims, which is why Vegas is a great tool in a way. There are more than one way to approach workflow.

You can definitely do it the import to bins, set in/out points, subclips and more bins, and I believe this is the more traditional editing way.

One way I end up using alot is having multiple instances of Vegas open. On the first one I'll just drag all the clips there. Sometimes I need additional instances if I have more than one camera or very different shooting days. The other instances of Vegas become sequences within the main project-sometimes I know what these sequences will be, sometimes I come up with new ones as I go through.

Then I start playing through all the material, and cut and paste sections to other instances of Vegas were they will work in that particular sequence. While I'm going through all this, I will use markers and regions to leave notes to myself.

Once I do all that, I refine each sequence. Then I nest them all together in a master project to see how they all work together and make more changes. This is where having notes from the beginning helps out.

It seems kinda messy when I write it out like this, but it definitely works for my brain. I am also curious as to how others get through all their material.

kairosmatt
xberk wrote on 8/10/2009, 9:53 AM
Call me old fashion, but I use hand written logs.
Example: clip of 10 minutes length file name "Clip1"
I review and am interesting in "Pan left to Sexy lady" at 2 min 20 seconds.
and "Close up Old guy throwing football" at 5 min 50 sec.
Get it? Easy to find later -- no markers or regions required (but helpful)

If you make these logs in something like Excel or some database you can sort them but usually I find handwritten faster to do with my own shorthand (CU for closeup, PL for panleft etc etc) . I work section by section trying to log and then edit a section and go on to the next section.

If you have 10 hours of video and want to cut it down to 10 min. YOu have a job ahead of you no matter what the workflow. Get on with it.

Paul B .. PCI Express Video Card: EVGA VCX 10G-P5-3885-KL GeForce RTX 3080 XC3 ULTRA ,,  Intel Core i9-11900K Desktop Processor ,,  MSI Z590-A PRO Desktop Motherboard LGA-1200 ,, 64GB (2X32GB) XPG GAMMIX D45 DDR4 3200MHz 288-Pin SDRAM PC4-25600 Memory .. Seasonic Power Supply SSR-1000FX Focus Plus 1000W ,, Arctic Liquid Freezer II – 360MM .. Fractal Design case ,, Samsung Solid State Drive MZ-V8P1T0B/AM 980 PRO 1TB PCI Express 4 NVMe M.2 ,, Wundiws 10 .. Vegas Pro 19 Edit

Dominated wrote on 8/10/2009, 6:55 PM
why don't you try and name them as you ingest/capture your footage . Then when you open you project media you can create separate bins with the media you want under titles that you can have easy reference to . I hate to say this but there is no easy or time friendly way of organizing your media but if done properly you can save yourself a lot more time down the road with a little bit of time invested at the start of your project.

PS... I do believe you can change you setting to allow you to DBL click your media and load it in the trimmer---options --preferences---general tab and it is somewhere near the bottom