Importing 24hrs of DV footage, how would you guys do it?

[Ben Oliver]

honestly, i tend to be lazy and import everything in 1 hour segments….even gone as far as to digitize in 3 hour segments a few times.

then i just chop i up and go from there, never used dvd start/stop detect ever.

i know my editing teachers would turn over in there grave, but well, it gets the job done. ive been editing for about 5 years now, and never lost a clip of footage, or had an issue with this.

unless its a film where there are slates, ive never batch captured. its worked for me. thats my 2c’s

[Nick Ryan]

Just be careful… if the clips are too large and you wind up with a corrupt file down the road – you’ll lose that whole chunk.

Nick

[Kevin Monahan]

[Charles Grinbaum] I was doing batch captures and logging individual clips, its been taking a long time,”

Welcome to the wonderful world of editing. It’s supposed to take awhile to not only log your clips, but to add log notes
for each clip so that you can sift and sort the clips later when you are in the throes of editing. Your edit will benefit greatly
by taking this extra time. Rookie editors are in such a rush to get stuff in the computer that they miss out on a lot of the
time it takes to digest the footage in the brain – and that makes for a poorly organized edit session. Personally?
I hate to have to wildly flail around hour long clips. At the very least, subclip your lengthy clips and consolidate the media
to give you your separate clips.

Plus, FCP works much, much better when you are dealing with clips with short media files. Hour long clips don’t perform
quite as well when it comes to media management, speed changes and clean EDLs. I always think about keeping my
project media manageable and most importantly TOTALLY restorable should things go wrong. Short and discrete clips
take a long time to get into your system, but you’ll be glad that you did when you reach the finish line.

Not sure if Start/Stop gives you individual media files. If it does, then that would be fine. Just make sure to name the
subclips and to add log notes.

Kevin Monahan
Take My FCP Master’s Workshop!
fcpworld.com
Pres. SF Cutters

[Ben Oliver]

i guess it all depends on one’s take, i personally like to do my note-taking, etc, after everythings been captured, find it easier to do that way. i guess the fact is that you need to find a system that works for you. one can be very organized even with hour long clips captured, it all depends on how you like to organize your work. i have a very fast memory, so finding a clip in an hour long tape, is easier for me than most, maybe.

it also depends on the type of project, i mainly do documentary work, so having the entire hour, in one clip, is beneficial cause it helps me remember the order of things, easier then if i split it all up.

so think about the project yoru about to embark upon, come up with a plan. do evertything you can to backup as you go.

[Tom Matthies]

I agree. Even though it takes longer to capture I do individual clips, and it gives me the chance to review and actually look at the clips I will be working with in the edit. It comes in mighty handy later while editing when you hit the spot where you are looking for just the right clip. If you have actually looked at the source footage, you will have a much smoother time in the editing process and ultimatly have a better product. I’m an editor from back in the early linear days and I always tried to review all of my footage before beginning an edit.
Tom

[Ben Oliver]

i hear you, i wish i had the time in most cases. im working on a documentary that has over 90 hours of dv footage at this point, we started shooting in february, and its going to be finishes early july….theres just not enough time in the world, with my part time job (also editing) to watch it all. it also helps that i shot most of the footage, so i was able to review it as i captured it, lol!

thanks for the input,

-ben

[Kevin Monahan]

I think it’s OK to “Capture THEN Log” as long as you do take the time to make log notes and give every
subclip it’s own media file through consolidation. I’m old school and simply don’t want to deal with the
issues that hour long clips serve up. My conservative nature takes me longer to edit a piece, but it will
be a smooth process that causes less stress to my workflow overall. Like Tom, I’m a former linear editor
so I approach my edit sessions in the same way. View the footage>Make Notes>THEN Start Cutting.

I sure wouldn’t want to work on any doc or otherwise where I wouldn’t have enough time to review your
footage first. How in the world can you have an organized edit session if you’ve never even seen the
footage? That’s crazy-talk in my book. I need to spend time with my footage, mull it over, try
different stuff, rely on my notes, even make new notes after I’ve reviewed the footage. Only then,
do I feel comfortable enough to start banging out edits. At the very least, I’ll view my footage
before ingesting it. If I do a log and batch capture, I’ll review each clip looking for both content
AND making sure the quality of picture and sound is intact directly after capturing it.

I think I’ll remain old school
You “kids” can do whatcha wanna. 😉

Kevin Monahan
Take My FCP Master’s Workshop!
fcpworld.com
Pres. SF Cutters

[Ben Oliver]

i hardly consider myself a kid. ive been editing for 5 years, edited on avid, fcp, linear 16mm steenbecks, all that fun stuff. heck, ive even processed film dailies in my bathtub.

the issue you’ll run into staying old world,is that in the new world of podcasts, internet television, and the ipod, is that speed with quality will matter. timing is key. trust me, on my current documentary that i am working on, i would love an extra 4 months, but we’ll miss the window, and the disc won’t sell as well, and not be relevent. i work at harvard university, we don’t even shoot on tape anymore. its all shot on a firestore, transfered on our uber-fast connection to our server, then edited, encoded, then thrown back on the server for web retrieval by viewers.

times are a changin’

[Kevin Monahan]

[ben] “i hardly consider myself a kid. “
The winky meant I was kidding my man….

[ben] “podcasts, internet television, and the ipod, is that speed with quality will matter.”

Speed? Or Quality? Pick one ’cause you can’t have both! 😉
Keep on keepin’ on.

Kevin Monahan
Take My FCP Master’s Workshop!
fcpworld.com
Pres. SF Cutters

[Ben Oliver]

well at harvard, its speed. its also uber-boring talking heads teaching classes on string theory 😉

you have to mix to two together, speed and quality, and choose your battles wisely. myself, knowing that i had 3 months to edit a huge documentary, i figured capturing all the footage was the best choice, and gong through it later, being able to cut out the trash, and make sequences of the usable material. its just easier for me.

by the way, i was able to edit this all using my IBOOK, g4, with 1.5 gigs of ram, and daisy chaining 5 lacie drives together. i never once got a SBBOD.

maybe i have luck, i dunno.