Workflow advice

[jeffw]

I've got my hardware and software up and working, but what's the best process?
I'm using MSP6 with Pyro and an OpturaPi.
What's the best way to organize my workflow?

Capture, rough-out clips, assemble, edit, render, and then "print"?

Mostly I'm interested in my options for how to capture and rough-out my working clips.

How should I capture?
one long clip and then cut it up?
many small clips of just what I want?

When trimming the captured footage is there a way to discard unwanted footage to save diskspace? Without creating a new video file?

I think there was a thread about this a month or two ago, but I can't find it (and I've searched).

Thanks,
jeffw

[wkulecz]

If you are using w2k I'd vote for capture the whole tape at once and then cut it up.

You can do something else for an hour instead of babysitting the camcorder looking for the good stuff. Setup a timed capture a few seconds longer than your duration.

Also minimizes wear and tear on the transport mechanics with no need to cycle FF, RW, Play, etc.

If you are on w9x best you can do is 4GB chunks which is a bit over 18 minutes. In which case trying to get device control working for batch captures based on timecode would then probably be worth the effort. You can them scan thru the tape writing down the approx. in/out times of the clips you want. Then type them into the batch capture dialog and let the computer do the tedious part.

--wally.

[Brian Ellis]

Jeff

I belong to "capture the useful bits" school. It not only saves on disk space but it takes a lot of the strain off the editing system. If you capture a 60 min tape to end up with 10 min of useful stuff, the other 50 mins are in memory (RAM or virtual memory, going in and out from the video files, hunting on the HDD and so on) as long as your editing session is open, hogging uselessly resources which could be better used for rendering and suchlike.

My technique is to record the whole DV tape straight onto a VHS (analogue), not using a computer, and then decide what I want to use, identifying suitable start and stop points a second or so before and after. I then start capturing from the DV tape, switching on and off the capture at my identified points, in a single run (no undue wear and tear). I then cut in at the frames I want in the editor, discarding just the odd second or so. Where this system is less efficient is where I want a sound track to be continuous, but the shots not, but this is rare, in my case. If the sound does not need to be high quality (as is often the case if using the camera mike), I can dub it in later from the VHS tape, though.


FWIW

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Brian (the terrible)

[This message has been edited by Brian Ellis (edited 14 October 2000).]

[wkulecz]

Brian,

Put in the effort to get device control and batch capture working for your DV camcorder!
It'll automate that last step where you are babysitting the camcorder starting/stopping the capture.

Media Studio Pro seems to do great on the 8-10GB single capture files I've used so far other than the initial loading when its building the audio "previews".

I've 256MB RAM, I opted for a "slow" PIII 500 and put the savings into memory and disk space.

--wally.

[Brian Ellis]

Wally

Thanks for the advice, but my mini-DV is far too old to allow such luxuries. It has one output, analogue, and no inputs. OTOH, although it is 3 times the size and 5 times the weight of anything available today, it does give superb results with a massive 3-CCD optics. Can't afford anything as good with DV i/o, and no-one seems to want to make a mini-DV drive for computers at an acceptable price (cheaper to buy a camera, which is just plain daft.

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Brian (the terrible)

[This_Idiot]

Ya pays yer money and takes yer choice.

Coming from the "old school", and still running relatively small HD's, I definitely approve of previewing footage to get an idea on what is worthwhile capturing. I use a pen and paper to note down likely mark-in/out points. Then I'll run the tape and perform enough captures to keep me busy for an evening. Typically, I'd reckon this to be about 4 to 5 minutes footage, and would consist of segments of around 10 seconds.

I'd then preview the captured clips and cut them to useful size and assemble them onto the timeline. Depending on the software that I'm running at the time, I'd then apply any filters required and leave the machine to do it's stuff for as long as it takes. Repeat this for as many evenings as it takes to capture and filter the footage.

Then, get working on the transitions, mebbe previewing to make sure it all hangs well. Finally I'd apply background music and voiceovers and then render then lot.

Lastly I'd burn as much as possible to CD for project backup, and perform an output to tape.

But there you are, I'm an old-fashioned boy. If you have disk space to burn then by all means capture the whole lot at once and discard the unwanted bits.

[A_BIT]

I'd then apply any filters required and leave the machine to do it's stuff for as long as it takes. Repeat this for as many evenings as it takes to capture and filter the footage.

It seems you run all clips through filters. Doesn't that introduce quality loss? What do you mean by required filters? I've only used filters for special effects. I must be totally absent on the subject!