Topping/tailing captures

[F***@adobeforums.com]

Hi, am currently experimenting with the demo of Premiere Pro.

I've managed to capture a sequence from my camcorder, and I now simply want to delete frames from the start and end as it captured frames from scenes which I'd now like to get rid of, which are otherwise taking up valuable disk space.

As an example, I made a graphical illustration showing a 10 minute clip/capture, but I'd like to keep (and save) something like just the red area only:-

<Loading Image...>

I have read the manual but unfortunately I can only seem to see that Premiere will let you soft "trim" a capture - setting punch In and Out points, but not being able to actually hard-delete the frames outside of these In/Out markers. Fair enough, depending on the work you do you often need this 'soft-trimming' so you can do proper fade ins/outs to avoid abrupt visuals at the start and end points, but I need to actually crop the capture(s), as I'd now like to delete the unwanted minute long tail ins/outs to save disk space.

Thanks!

[D***@adobeforums.com]

Have a look at Scenalyzer Live. It's a great capture tool and includes lots of extra things not in Premiere - like trimming clips, amongst many others. Very highly recommended by many people on this forum.

And you can trim clips you've already captured, too!

www.scenalyzer.com

[P***@adobeforums.com]

Scenalyzer Live should be a part of your toolbox, no doubt about it. Meantime, one way to accomplish what you're after is to use the Work Bar Area and FILE/EXPORT/Movie. Bracket a clip section with the Work Bar and export/movie (making sure to select the Work Bar option, not "Entire Sequence", in the export options). You'll get a separate clip of the bracketed area.

[F***@adobeforums.com]

Thanks guys. To be honest I can't believe such an expensive/pro program like Premiere Pro would lack this seemingly basic feature.

Will check out Scenalyzer, and am also considering moving over to Vegas Video or Digital Fusion 5.

Cheers :)

[J***@adobeforums.com]

In defence of Pro, if you're concerned about disk space that's not the fault of the program - if it's that low that trimming a few frames here and there makes a difference then you'll be running into problems all over the place.

Secondly, in a professional environment (and bear in mind this is Pro we're talking about, not Elements, which is the consumer version) I'd question whether such precise trimming at the capture stage is that common. Every shoot I've ever done starts with new tapes and what goes onto the tape goes into the edit suite - the rough in/out settings are more than adequate for trimming false starts.

Thirdly, when capturing is tied into a hardware solution (such as cards by BlueFish, Matrox or Canopus), it's common for the actual process to use the software tools provided by that manufacturer. I'm not sure I'd want Adobe to spend too much time developing a part of the software that I and a great many others will never use.

At the end of the day, if you can afford to switch to another editing program and pay the money for that, surely you can afford to buy some more disk space :D

Jon

[Jeff Bellune]

Plus, you're talking about destructive editing versus non-destructive editing.

If you edit the actual source file on the hard drive, then your changes are permanent and final. PPro doesn't work that way.

[F***@adobeforums.com]

Hi Jon, thanks. I haven't bought any video editing progs yet. I am a complete amateur with regards to video stuff as I'm primarily a music engineer, but wanted to dabble with a bit of video to go along with it, and also edit a few DV tapes for family. My camcorder's just an amateur Sony DCR-HC42E.

I tend to take a lot of video snippets with a view to sort through them properly afterwards at the Edit stage where I can have a proper look at it, instead of filming a pre-set "storyboard" where everything's already pre-planned and worked out as in a professional environment - one in which you're most likely referring to.

Therefore, in my case, topping/tailing would be beneficial - not for "trimming just a few frames here and there", precise or otherwise, but for cutting out whole sections of video. I'm not overly worried about disk-space at present, I'm just thinking about the long-term storage of the project after it's been edited. A lot of data within captures would remain un-used and redundant because I couldn't hard-trim them, and would take up potential disk-space which would otherwise be useful for other, future projects. I mean, where would be the logic in that?

I hope it does not seem so idiotic now I've explained it. :)

But I will follow the previous suggestions given.

Thanks

PS > Sony's own bundled capture and editing program with the camcorder was truly terrible, as you can imagine, so I was forced to look for alternatives.

[F***@adobeforums.com]

Hi Jeff, destructive editing is what I was after. Let's call it a "pre-editing" stage, before proper editing is carried out.

As a musician, for example, I would find it absurd if you were forced to keep an hour-long high fidelity uncompressed dirge of an audio capture just to retain a 10-minute work of genius somewhere in the middle of it, when cutting/pasting editing of an album or the like.

When you originally capture the event you might not know what requires the chop until you look at it in greater detail (in a studio environment with better speakers, better outboard tools, better monitor, etc.) in such a 'pre-editing' stage where you are then in a better position to decide what should be deleted permanently and what shouldn't.

[P***@adobeforums.com]

I too would like to see the kind of clip editing option in PPro you're looking for. The option is there but it's in the form of a workaround as described above. But don't overlook the "Trim Project" feature in PPro's Project Manager. When editing is complete, "Trim Project" will extract just the parts of larger clips actually used in the project, creating exactly the space-saving final version you're after.

[Craig Howard]

If you capture using scene detect you will find that you can remove the "rubbish" and save disk space very easily.

You can also batch capture in to out points.

If you want to trim a long clip, just export the section you want to save ....then delete the original source clip.

All these methods are identical to Audio processes and PremPro does not force you to keep anything.

[c***@adobeforums.com]

To be honest I can't believe such an expensive/pro program like Premiere
Pro would lack this seemingly basic feature.





destructive editing is what I was after.




Ppro 1.5 included the project trimmer. Here, you can place your "soft" trimmed clips on the timeline, then run the project trimmer (with the correct settings). It will produce "hard" trimmed copies of the clips, leaving the refuse on the "soft" floor. You might consider this a work-around solution to your problem; I would (see below).

Having said that, Scenalyzer is a better tool for this. Much better. In the near past, a GP was usually the family's complete medical answer. Now, you go to a specialist for skin, heart/lung, feet, GI tract, etc. These guys know their disciplines. So does Scenalyzer.

Keep Smiling

[F***@adobeforums.com]

Thanks, does Scenalyzer obtain better (quality) captures than the Adobe capture facility, when streaming MiniDV via iLink (firewire)? Or are all captures the same, regardless?

Cheers :)

[J***@adobeforums.com]

DV is DV is DV. As long as you get the frame, you get all the quality there is.

Jon

[c***@adobeforums.com]

All captures are the same. Simple data transfer.
"Quoth the Baker: Nothing more."

Keep Smiling

[F***@adobeforums.com]

Cheers lads. :) Much apprec.