is it safe to rename my clips?
 

Hi... I have so many more clips now that I'm not capturing from tape - - my bins are overflowing with clips, and they all have the same 'name' (number really), differing only by one digit. In other words, it's harder for me to know what's what.
So I'd like to rename str30360_01 (a shot of a woman walking down the street) 'woman walking', etc. But is there a downside to this? If I ever have to re-link, or whatever, will it be a problem if I've renamed my clips?
(Avid Media Composer/MacBook Pro... in case this matters)
Thanks,
Malcolm

This would probably only matter if - for whatever reason - you needed to recapture. But with the file based workflow as that offered by the XDCAM EX standard, there really is no such thing as recapturing; having archives of your original footage enables you to just copy a lost or damaged clip again to your bin.

Of course, you should keep track of your name changes, as otherwise you would have to copy much more from your archive than necessary!

As the there is an option to set the filename prefix in the camera menu, I wouldn't change this - only the remaining portion from digits to something more meaningful. I don't know about Mac/Avid, but under Windows the real shooting date/time stamp is removed by the Clip Browser at rewrapping to mxf, anyway (which is a bad thing), so the numbers are really meaningless, anyway...

thanks Piotr,
O.K., so I guess I'll go ahead and rename clips - - as a way of organizing my shots before I start editing. Then if I open a bin, I'll see 'c.u. feet, pavement' and 'tilt-down from building' instead of 'str30369_01' and 'str30365_01'. Easier for me this way.
But if I have to make a note somewhere that I've changed 'str30369_01' to 'c.u. feet, pavement', it's going to take a lot of time! (well, just this one wouldn't, but if I do this with all my good takes...)
Do I really need to keep track of all these name-changes?
Cheers,
Malcolm

Malcom, if I recall you have the Vortex training DVD. Your current situation with all of its confusion is thoroughly covered about 34 minutes into the video. Hope this helps you to focus. Cheers

I second that - it'd be interesting to know those training DVD's clip naming convention proposals, and how they fit within our adopted work flows...

You're right, Barry, I do have the DVD. And it's about time I pull it out and run through it again. I do recall that, after my first viewing, I took Doug's advice and gave my clips a prefix... I'll check to see if he talks about more evocative names, once you get the clips into your NLE. If I learn anything I'll report back.
Cheers, Malcolm

Malcolm - did you learn anything from Doug's DVD on this subject? I too - like anyone who hasn't logged and named clips in Clip browser - am faced with a bin full of clips that have numbers as names. Changing browser view to icons instead of list is useful, I wonder if there are other tips from users?

[QUOTE but under Windows the real shooting date/time stamp is removed by the Clip Browser at rewrapping to mxf, anyway (which is a bad thing), so the numbers are really meaningless, anyway...[/QUOTE]


Piotr, i rewrapped some footage to MXF using clip browser on my pc, then had to take a copy of those MXF files to my shooting partner for use on his mac, we shot a wedding together so he needed both halves of the day/footage for editing.
When we viewed the footage at his house on the mac, he pressed a button somewhere on his editing program (FCP 6.0.5 i think) and the full time appeared on the screen, something like 5:34:29, HR:M:S's.

Paul.

Paul, this might as well be the capturing (or more precisely, rewrapping and saving to disk) timestamp...

Just trying to check, using vegas pro 8. I had the time displayed on the preview screen the other day but can't find how to get it displaying again.
Can someone tell me so i can check and confirm if the time is removed when rewrapping.

Thanks.
Paul.

On the preview screen you only can have the timecode-FX displayed.

However, you seem to be forgetting that at shooting time, your time code can also be set to date:time.

OK.
I just checked on vegas, on the video track clip> right click>properties>media and there's a greyed out box with the time of the event in it, i'm going throught the clips and they're all the same time as they were shot at the shoot, not when i rewrapped them later in the day so the information is there.
But i still can't find how to have this time displayed on the vegas preview screen.

Paul.

Date:time, do you mean clock ? This is what i have displyed in the EX screen on the top right. This is what was shown on my friends mac.

Paul.

Yes, I mean clock. Try to set it to something different than your current PC system time, shoot some test clip and rewrap it mo mxf; then see what Vegas shows in clip> right click>properties>meedia, in the greyed out box ...

I'm not using clock as my timecode, because there have been some problems reported when capturing this format.

As regards the timecode on the cam, which is most appropriate to use ?
I usually have clock displayed so i know the time, simple as that.
I'm off on another wedding tomorrow so i'll make a mental note of the exact time of the first shot outside, first shot inside etc.

Thanks Piotr.

Paul.