Renaming clips before starting projects

[Wayne Waag]

Paul,

I can only tell you what works for me. I’m sure there are as many ways as people so you have to find something that works for you. Like you suggest, the basic organization is by folders, e.g. Trip to Yellowstone, with sub-folders for Day 1, Day 2, etc., usually keeping video assets and stills separate. Since I usually have video from different cameras, I have found that renaming them according to date and time stamp is a very useful way of organizing for editing. For consumer cameras, software such as Play Memories for Sony Handycams, automatically rename according to date and time–e.g. 20160320182900. For others you may have to rename them using a renaming utility, being careful that the time you select is the actual date and start time. E.g. the file modified date for GoPro footage is the time recording ended, rather than when it started. Use of MediaInfo can be of use. At this point, you can lump all the footage from different cameras into a single folder and at least, you know that they are in chronological order.

The second part, getting rid of excess footage, bad clips, etc. can most easily be done inside of Vegas. Just drag a folder representing Day 1, for example, onto the timeline, set AutoRipple “on” and begin your basic cuts editing. Use of the keyboard shortcuts S(split), Alt-[ and Alt-] are very useful for quickly splitting and trimming off parts at the beginning and end of each clip. In this way, I usually eliminate 75% of my original footage. To keep just that footage, I use the Smart Trim function in Vegasaur so that only those parts of the original footage are saved. This can be extremely useful if you have fairly long clips and only want to save just a few parts. Once the basic cuts editing and trimming is completed, you can save the resulting files for archiving and use in your final project.

wwaag

[Aleksey Tarasov]

I can only add that you can also use Sort Events Chronologically 1-click command in Vegasaur. The sorting is based on the recorded date/time of clips or photos. If recorded date/time is not available, the file creation date is used.

Maybe the ability to batch rename files directly in Vegas would be useful, what do you guys think?

[Wayne Waag]

Aleksey,

Absolutely. The ability to change different date/time formats into a common one of your choice would be a very useful addition. I find myself usually renaming the 20 digit file names that the Sony software produces just to make them more readable by separating time from date with parentheses. Others may prefer different formats so having flexibility with ability to create favorites would be a must.

Off-topic from this thread, but another very useful addition would be to create watch folders, where files, when dropped into the folder, would be batch rendered according to render templates selected in your Transcoder. For MPEG-2 renders (few, these days), I still use Procoder which permits such watch folders. That would be very useful for those wanting to automatically create proxies or digital intermediates from their camera footage. Simply drag the files into the folder and the batch rendering begins.

wwaag

[Roger Bansemer]

I’ve been hoping Vegas would allow for a batch rename of files for years. My procedure is to rename all my files before I put them on the timeline but with the MP4 files I have now, windows doesn’t have the ability to view them by double clicking so I rename best I can.
Then if I want to save a project that has a lot of unwanted files in it, I remove those files from the timeline, and do a “save as” with only the files I have on the timeline to another directory with the “save media” option so only those events on the timeline will be moved to another directory.

Roger Bansemer – PaintingAndTravel.com