Tips and Tricks for long videos

[Michael Rhodes]

Hi all. What are your favorite tips and tricks for dealing with very long videos (in addition to proxy editing)?

If this question gets a good list of responses, I'll volunteer to assemble them into a single, organized reference doc/post.

This is my first day on the forums. Have to give big kudos to Borate and Nat for their consistent, professional and helpful replies--even when sometimes the original posts show a ton of frustration. 

I saw the sticky thread about proxy editing. Will try that. Might be difficult for me because I usually need to see detail during the editing process. For example, I need to be able to see a moving soccer ball on GoPro footage of 90 minute soccer games. It's easy to see when the ball is near the camera, but when it's at far away parts of the soccer field, it's hard to see in very low resolution. 

My typical tasks include:

• Merging 5 to 8 mp4s of 4GB each
• Doing a static zoom on the entire 90 minute video (to maximize size but capture the whole playing area) 
• Exporting to 1080p @ 30 fps
• Uploading to Youtube
• I also create highlight videos where I lift just pieces of the footage, occasionally zoom on the action, sometimes repeat clips in slow motion, etc.)
  • I'm also interested in any tips others might have for watching a game, cataloging potential clips for highlights, and then quickly lifting out those clips into one sequence. I've done a few of these now and finding new ways to optimize that effort each time. Perhaps some others have some stellar tips for this too! 🙂

Best, Mike

[Michael Rhodes]

Related question...is there a way I can toggle the preview building off and on? If I just want to add one effect like zoom across all clips, and want to merge the clips in the one operation...I can apply the effect but I don't need to preview the whole video. I just want to start the export without having the export task compete against preview building for CPU, GPU, memory and disk I/O.

Best, Mike

[borate]

Some thoughts...

Proxy editing for large files can improve workflow, but they need not be reduced to the very lowest resolution.

A global zoom might best be applied after all other effects/edits are completed and the project saved AS, so as not to overwrite earlier saves.

Open a new blank sequence 2, click the SEQUENCE tab in the bin and import Sequence 1 into Sequence 2.  Overlays and audio will not show, but they are there.  Sequence 2 is now a single clip of all Seq 1 material.  Apply the global effect.

This procedure can also be employed to break a project into clips which can be exported and later assembled.  That can be useful for a lengthy effort that becomes unwieldy, and may apply to your second query.

If a direct YouTube upload fails, use their uploader after VP export to an approved YT format.

To lift segments of a master clip, place the clip on the timeline.  Split out the desired first segment, then drag it to the bin.  A new clip with only that content will be added.  Split out another clip and drag it ... and so on.  When all the pieces are stored in the bin clear the sequence and assemble the clips onto the blank sequence.

[Michael Rhodes]

Thank you Borate! I may have several follow up questions about your response over the next few days. First is...in relation to your last paragraph...where can I find the clip bin? I see bins for Sequences, Video Files, Audio Files and Images. I can also create new bins, but I don't see one for clips. If I drag a clip from my timeline up to the bins area, then my clip is dropped into the Video Files bin. It will have the same name as the video file that it came from, but with the suffix of "(1)". Is this the same as dropping it into the clips bin?

Your guidance above helped me a ton!

You've doubled the speed of applying my effects + exporting. It was taking about 9 seconds to render 1 second of content. Now I'm under 4 seconds to render 1 second of content. This means that the processing should complete in 6 hours instead of 12! Thanks again.

Thanks again for your super fast response!

Best, Mike

[borate]

The (clip) bin is simply the upper-left space where those tabs lie - video, audio, images, and any new tabs that you create.  It works precisely as you describe.