Options for organizing (particularly a long show)
 

Coming off of Avid/FCP I'm thrilled with most things I've been discovering about Vegas, but I'm a little concerned about how to adapt my mode of editing/organizing footage. Is there, for ex., any kind of plug in or way I can create Avid/FCP type subclips? W/o slated takes where there are breaks in the footage (eg a wedding I shot) how do people organize the mass of media to easily find later? Is log and capture the only option to have it labeled and broken down? What I used to do with DV (as opposed to film shows) was bring in the whole tape and subclip from there, e.g. clips broken into Bride w/ father, Best Man's toast, etc. which are nested in bins Pre-ceremony, Ceremony, Reception. I could find anything in a nanosecond. Now I'm at a loss as to what's the best way to go.

One way is to create regions in the trimmer and save those regions. These will then show up in the Vegas Explorer window (if you turn on that option) allowing you to quickly grab any sub-clip.

Another option is, obviously, to capture many smaller clips with scene detection.

A third option would be to create a series of tracks on the timeline, split the events between scenes, and place common events on the same track which will give you a single track per type of event. Then you'll know exactly on which track to look for that type of shot.

Also see this thread.

Thanks Edward, Rob. Will try out all you suggest. Edward, I sent you back a post on the So Cal group. You do get around!

This morning I was test driving log and capture. Works pretty much like other NLE's. But if there's something I really miss that I'd like to see carried over and included in later versions of Vegas (like color coding bins and tracks), where's the best place to write and request that?

Sony Product Suggestion Page:

http://mediasoftware.sonypictures.co...suggestion.asp

Edward, regarding using regions as you suggest, where's the toggle to change a clip's properties from "read only" media? It's not letting me save regions and when I right click to go into the clips properties, I don't see the option anywhere. Don't see it on the top either. And it's not in the manual, of course. It just says you have to do it, not how.

If the clip is truly "Read Only" in windows, You'll need to change the flag from Windows Explorer instead of Vegas Explorer.

Out of curiosity, what makes it "truly Read Only? This is just wedding footage I shot on my DVX. Was there a setting somewhere that I didn't have set right before capture? I cut the heck out of this stuff in FCP, so I don't quite get why Vegas is calling it that.

Speaking of capture, why did some clips come in with grey icons in the capture utility, and the second batch with blue? I did a log and capture on some, tried to let it rip and test Vegas' detect scene settings another time (which worked great). It's not a big deal, but I wondered what the difference in color signified.

Captured video should not be read only. I tested on a read-only clip that was read-only because it was copied from a CD. CDs are read-only so that attribute was copied as well. I'm not sure why a captured clip would be set to read-only.

You can verify the read-only attribute by using Windows Explorer, right-click, choose Properties, and see if the "read only" checkbox is checked.

Edward, I checked and none of the clips were Read Only in Explorer (of course... didn't make sense that they would be). But the funny thing is, I got that can't save cuz it's read-only media message twice, then I had to leave for work. But when I tried again later, everything worked fine. I saved regions with no problem and no message popping up.

It wasn't in the mood to be cooperative that early in the morning I guess. And why should it be. I'm often not! ;-)

Thanks again though for your quick responses.

> But if there's something I really miss that I'd like to see carried over and included in later versions of Vegas (like color coding bins and tracks), <

You can already color code tracks.

Right-click the track header> Track display color.

Gary

Yes, but not really. Not the same. Though I like the way Vegas does audio track colors, just not picture. And no color for bins and clips is a big one in my book. The ability to color code which clips I have/haven't worked on yet, in the media pool, would save a lot of time. Vegas is a great program and I'm thrilled with it, especially the fact that I can run it on a machine from Costco w/o a hitch. Absolutely amazing that. But there are some pro features it's behind on from a picture editing pov that are maddening. Shortcuts and things. Things which help differentiate at a glance the mass of media on a show with a lot going on and other things that let me cut fast. The trimmer for one needs work. There's no match frame that I've found that locates in your bins or pops up (into the trimmer would be optimal) the EXACT frame in your mass of footage, wherever it is, as opposed to just locating the entire clip in the media pool. I'd like to find a way (must be possible with a script of something) to remove in/out points with a keystroke in the trimmer, on the timeline. It's all too mouse based for my taste. Then again, a lot of these things may indeed be in Vegas and I haven't stumbled across them yet. (The manual is, shall we say, less than helpful.) I'd like to find a way to be able to toggle the tracks, getting rid of the pictures, showing the clip info (TC, clips names, etc.). Stuff like that.

Any of these things anybody has hints on is always appreciated!