Making Video Clips

[Jim Morawski]

Now that I have successfully copied a Video DVD of old home movies to my hard drive, I want to break the file into multiple clips ( perhaps 100), so that I can edit them for later use.

The help screens make frequent reference to video clips but have not found any reference on how to make them.

I see a cut, copy and paste command but cannot find how to determine the start and end of the cut or copy.

I see a split command, but have not determined what it does. ( F1 is not bringing up any help informtion at all).

I have used Roxio audio editing quite extensively but am having a hard time relating video editing to audio editing. The look and feel is completely different.

[Guest mlpasley]

Video editing is slightly different, but you're on the right track with the 'split' function.

 

Do you want to delete the original video and keep only the clips for later use? If so, you'll have edit out the portions you don't want to keep and to do a File\ Output video to....video file or DV camcorder (I use DV camcorder to keep the best quality clips)

 

Here's the process. Drag the video onto a storyline. Switch to the Timeline View. Play or drag the orange bar to where you want to split the video, right click and do a 'split' (or use the icon). Continue until you have it split into wanted and unwanted scenes. Delete the unwanted scenes. (Your original video is never changed.)

 

Now here's what I do, but others do it differently. Insert a black Color Panel between each scene that you want to keep. The purpose of the color panel is to allow you to easily break the video into scenes later. The program will automatically break the video into scenes based on changes in light in the Media Selector (I think it's a right click function.) Now do a File\ Output video as.....DV Camcorder ( or choose Show ALL and pick the type of file that you want) and you should get a new and smaller movie.

 

DO NOT use transitions between scenes at this stage. Transitions will use a portion of each scene and you won't be able to recover those portions if you decide to use a different transition in your future movies.

 

Now if hard disk space is not a problem, you can just keep the original video on the computer and make as many different productions from the original video as you'd like. But if you're like me and have a lot of 'sky' and 'feet' in your video, it will be worth the effort to make the editing cuts and keep only the portions you want to keep.

 

*If you want each individual scene as a separate movie, you'll have to 'split' out the part you want to keep and do a File\ Output production for each scene.

[Jim Morawski]

Video editing is slightly different, but you're on the right track with the 'split' function.

 

Do you want to delete the original video and keep only the clips for later use? If so, you'll have edit out the portions you don't want to keep and to do a File\ Output video to....video file or DV camcorder (I use DV camcorder to keep the best quality clips)

 

Here's the process. Drag the video onto a storyline. Switch to the Timeline View. Play or drag the orange bar to where you want to split the video, right click and do a 'split' (or use the icon). Continue until you have it split into wanted and unwanted scenes. Delete the unwanted scenes. (Your original video is never changed.)

 

Now here's what I do, but others do it differently. Insert a black Color Panel between each scene that you want to keep. The purpose of the color panel is to allow you to easily break the video into scenes later. The program will automatically break the video into scenes based on changes in light in the Media Selector (I think it's a right click function.) Now do a File\ Output video as.....DV Camcorder ( or choose Show ALL and pick the type of file that you want) and you should get a new and smaller movie.

 

DO NOT use transitions between scenes at this stage. Transitions will use a portion of each scene and you won't be able to recover those portions if you decide to use a different transition in your future movies.

 

Now if hard disk space is not a problem, you can just keep the original video on the computer and make as many different productions from the original video as you'd like. But if you're like me and have a lot of 'sky' and 'feet' in your video, it will be worth the effort to make the editing cuts and keep only the portions you want to keep.

 

*If you want each individual scene as a separate movie, you'll have to 'split' out the part you want to keep and do a File\ Output production for each scene.

[Jim Morawski]

Thanks for thr 'Crash Course' in editing video. It is a lot of new concepts to me and awhole new vocabulary. Do I have this right - a split creates a clip which may be one or more scenes? And, a scene is the video between two splits?

 

Where I am still a little confused is where you say ".... do a file\output video to...video file or DV camcorder ... ". Where is this actually putting the somewhat edited file. I would want to save it on my hard disk as an .mpg file for further editing, and perhaps make a DVD version for review on my TV. That whole command when I look at the screen confuses me.

 

Many thanks again

Jim

[james_hardin]

You are correct. If you use Save in a video editor, it does nothing to the file. It merely saves a series of notes to itself concerning how you intend for that file to look/behave…

 

The advantage of a Save is that the same file can be used many different ways and the different Projects can be loaded into DVD Builder.

 

Football game example: You have one full clip. You load the clip and split and delete everything but the 1st Quarter, then Save as 1st Quarter.

 

New Project, load the clip and do same for 2nd Quarter.

 

New Project, load the clip and …

 

You could end up with 4 quarters, Halftime and maybe Great Plays. All this based on one clip.

 

In Builder you might want to make a DVD of just the 4 quarters, and another one of just the Halftime, for your perverted cousin. And yet another including everything for your Super Fan brother, who is still trying to remove the paint from his face.

 

6 VW projects based on one unaltered clip and 3 DVD projects based on variations of those VW projects.

 

On the other hand you could have done the Output As 6 times and rendered 6 separate clips.

 

Plan for the intended output first then pick the best way to get there. Most folks start without thinking and find after much time invested they wish they had done it another way.

[Guest mlpasley]

This is confusing, so let me clarify the terminology.

 

When you do a 'split' you are creating a 'scene' which is an editing term and is only created in that one production in VideoWave. There is another way to create scenes and that is to switch to the Collections view in VideoWave, then right click on the video in the Media Selector-Collections and choose Scene Detect. That will split the video into scenes based on changes in light.

 

I think what you are trying to accomplish is to take a 'scene' and save it as a separate 'clip' or standalone movie file for future use. When you make a Production in VideoWave or DVD Builder, that Production does not change the original video or give you standalone 'clips'/files.

 

To get the standalone mpeg's that you want, drag the video onto the storyline. Split out the portion that you want as a standalone movie. Delete all the parts that you don't want from that storyline. Now Do a File\ Output Production to.... and choose Video File for DVD Authoring\ Best. That will give you a standalone 'clip' (mpeg2) that you can assemble into final movies using VideoWave and DVD Builder.

 

File\Output production as..... will put another 'clip'/movie onto your hard drive that will contain only the footage that you want. The movie will show up in the Media Selector just as your original video does.

 

Hope that helps.

[bobstripower]

This is confusing, so let me clarify the terminology.

 

When you do a 'split' you are creating a 'scene' which is an editing term and is only created in that one production in VideoWave. There is another way to create scenes and that is to switch to the Collections view in VideoWave, then right click on the video in the Media Selector-Collections and choose Scene Detect. That will split the video into scenes based on changes in light.

 

I think what you are trying to accomplish is to take a 'scene' and save it as a separate 'clip' or standalone movie file for future use. When you make a Production in VideoWave or DVD Builder, that Production does not change the original video or give you standalone 'clips'/files.

 

To get the standalone mpeg's that you want, drag the video onto the storyline. Split out the portion that you want as a standalone movie. Delete all the parts that you don't want from that storyline. Now Do a File\ Output Production to.... and choose Video File for DVD Authoring\ Best. That will give you a standalone 'clip' (mpeg2) that you can assemble into final movies using VideoWave and DVD Builder.

 

File\Output production as..... will put another 'clip'/movie onto your hard drive that will contain only the footage that you want. The movie will show up in the Media Selector just as your original video does.

 

Hope that helps.

 

well,now Im confused myself, Im also fairly new and you guys have helped me alot--are you 2 guys disagreeing on the best way--Mr Hardin seems to be saying do a Save,but Mr Palsey seems to be saying File/output Production to--but the earlier post said output to DV camera,and this says output to Vidoe file. Does it make a difference as to intended use for which one he chooses-bob

[Guest mlpasley]

well,now Im confused myself, Im also fairly new and you guys have helped me alot--are you 2 guys disagreeing on the best way--Mr Hardin seems to be saying do a Save,but Mr Palsey seems to be saying File/output Production to--but the earlier post said output to DV camera,and this says output to Vidoe file. Does it make a difference as to intended use for which one he chooses-bob

 

No. We're not disagreeing. It's just 2 different methods.

 

For the VideoWave Save.......If you have room on your hard drive, you can do all your editing using the original video and Saving your VideoWave productions. You can also use video from several different captures and combine them into one production if you wish. Most people use this method.

 

For the File\ Output.....If you have a lot of video that you don't want to keep on your hard drive, it may be worth the effort to do the File \ Output production to keep only the portion that you want to use in the future. This person captured from a video DVD, so they were forced to capture the entire footage on the DVD to their hard drive.

 

For example, you have one hour of video that you captured of a child's baseball game, but you only want to keep the five minutes that your child scored a home run and you don't want to use it in a production anytime soon. The File\ Output production will allow making another movie of only 5 minutes, and the original video can be deleted from your hard drive.

 

As to the difference between dv avi and mpeg..... this poster asked specifically how to save his editing as an mpeg2 file. That's why I changed my advice from dv avi to mpeg2. It really depends on what type of footage you tend to use for editing.

 

Does that help make it clearer? I was answering a specific question and there are many different solutions depending on what type of video you're working with and what your final goal is.

 

If this person had been capturing from a video camera or using a capture card, only the portion that he wanted to keep could be captured manually into separate files.

 

I hope that doesn't make it more confusing.

[bobstripower]

No. We're not disagreeing. It's just 2 different methods.

 

For the VideoWave Save.......If you have room on your hard drive, you can do all your editing using the original video and Saving your VideoWave productions. You can also use video from several different captures and combine them into one production if you wish. Most people use this method.

 

For the File\ Output.....If you have a lot of video that you don't want to keep on your hard drive, it may be worth the effort to do the File \ Output production to keep only the portion that you want to use in the future. This person captured from a video DVD, so they were forced to capture the entire footage on the DVD to their hard drive.

 

For example, you have one hour of video that you captured of a child's baseball game, but you only want to keep the five minutes that your child scored a home run and you don't want to use it in a production anytime soon. The File\ Output production will allow making another movie of only 5 minutes, and the original video can be deleted from your hard drive.

 

As to the difference between dv avi and mpeg..... this poster asked specifically how to save his editing as an mpeg2 file. That's why I changed my advice from dv avi to mpeg2. It really depends on what type of footage you tend to use for editing.

 

Does that help make it clearer? I was answering a specific question and there are many different solutions depending on what type of video you're working with and what your final goal is.

 

If this person had been capturing from a video camera or using a capture card, only the portion that he wanted to keep could be captured manually into separate files.

 

I hope that doesn't make it more confusing.

 

Thanks alot--i have alot of HD space and have been just saving the production as admsm file and been doing fine.I save the production as an ISO file and put it on my external back-up(500GB),but i was curious as to the different saving techniques--thanks again

[Guest mlpasley]

Thanks alot--i have alot of HD space and have been just saving the production as admsm file and been doing fine.I save the production as an ISO file and put it on my external back-up(500GB),but i was curious as to the different saving techniques--thanks again

 

That's a good plan for keeping and backing up final productions.

[Jim Morawski]

This has been a good discussion and I have picked up a lot. However the longest journey starts withthe first step. And, my first step has not been to good.

The video file I want to break into clips is 3+ hours long. What I thought we were saying was I could split the first scene, save it as a MPG file, delete the scene from my original file and save the file as a shortened file. Each time I would clip off a scene my original ( or copy of) would get shorter. I would be able to start and stop my editing.

I did the following:

Did a split after some junk at the beginning, and deleted it. OK

Did a split on the first scene I wanted to break out, and did a 'save production as... It created a DMSN file not a MPG file. I looked for " File\Output video to .." but could not find it. However I do remember seeing it a few days ago.

I guess what I want to do is to keep creating a shortened MPG file, that I could do additional spliting on from time to time.

I guess my main problem is that I cannot find 'File\Output video to..."

[Guest mlpasley]

File\ Output PRODUCTION to.... should be under the main menu at the top of the program. It's further down the menu as File\ Save as.

 

I have a suggestion to do the editing as you want to do it, because as you've discovered, it doesn't quite work the way you want it to. There are 2 ways to do it.

 

1... - Put the entire video onto a storyline. Split the video where you want the first scene to begin and end. DO NOT DELETE THE UNWANTED VIDEO YET. Now do a File\ Save to show the changes.

 

- Next, do a File\ Save As..... and make another copy of the production.... ie. productionnamescene1. The purpose of this step is to save your original editing and work with a copy of that production. Production files don't take up a lot of hard disk space in case that is a concern.

 

- * Now with the second production open, delete the unwanted video from the storyline and do the File\ Output Production to.....Video File\ DVD Authoring\ Best or whatever type file you want.

 

- Once you have the file done, go back and open the ORIGINAL production, split out the next scene.

 

- Do another File\ Save as......productionnamescene2 and repeat from *.

 

Basically, this method will allow you to keep 'chopping off' scenes and making them into separate files while keeping track of what you've already edited.

 

2. The other method would be to delete the video from the original production once you've done the File\ Output Production to...., then drag another copy of the original video onto the storyline, split out the next scene and do the next File\ Output production to....

 

Neither way is 'better'. Choose whichever method fits your editing style.

[Jim Morawski]

It's always darkest before the dawn.

 

Finally figured out what my problem was. After clicking on 'Output Production to" there is a small menu that pops up saying 'Do you wish to save the changes you made to ..." I kept clicking 'yes'. I tried clicking 'no' and I got the selections you mentioned (Video, DV Camcorder, etc.). Works great. I choose Video which creates an '.avi' file. Now I will try your suggestion of 'DV Camcorder' and may even get brave enough to try automatic scene splitting.

 

Thanks again for the lessons and your patience.

 

Jim Morawski

[bimicher]

It's always darkest before the dawn.

 

Finally figured out what my problem was. After clicking on 'Output Production to" there is a small menu that pops up saying 'Do you wish to save the changes you made to ..." I kept clicking 'yes'. I tried clicking 'no' and I got the selections you mentioned (Video, DV Camcorder, etc.). Works great. I choose Video which creates an '.avi' file. Now I will try your suggestion of 'DV Camcorder' and may even get brave enough to try automatic scene splitting.

 

Thanks again for the lessons and your patience.

 

Jim Morawski

 

Actually if you made changes you should click Yes when it asks "'Do you wish to save the changes .." otherwise all your editing changes, etc you made will be lost. At this point all you are saving is a "list" of the editing to be applied to your video, images etc, no actual video is created at this point. After you have saved your project (to a dmsm file), you then get the selections you mentioned.

[Guest mlpasley]

Finally figured out what my problem was. After clicking on 'Output Production to" there is a small menu that pops up saying 'Do you wish to save the changes you made to ..." I kept clicking 'yes'. I tried clicking 'no' and I got the selections you mentioned (Video, DV Camcorder, etc.).

 

I tried this and this is what I found.

 

If you put a video on a storyline, do your editing, and then choose File\ Output production to..... then select 'yes' to save the changes, you'll get a pop up menu where you can save the production. Once you have saved the production, you should get the output selections.

 

IF you do a File\ Save As BEFORE you try the File\ Output production to....., then you go directly to the output selections.

 

I recommend that you do the File\ Save As to save your changes.