Day One Editing

My project was in full swing. Since I have to juggle a full time job and this lucrative side project, I was using my afternoons to edit my video. What I did do was a little different from what I should have done. I spent a fair amount of time uploading and naming the video footage clips. My self proclamed "ingenius" naming schedule was to name the clips S1T1(description). S for scene and T for take. It didn't matter the order of filming as long as the scenes were listed together, I could only bring on the relevant clips for editing.

With Sony Vegas Studio, I could have created media bins for all my forms of media. This eventually did include; video, images, titles, color, audio, vocals, and music. Each media form would receive an equally ingenius naming schedule. IE: titles were named "Title Intro" for the intro titles and so on. Images called "Image Truck" for a truck image. Simple yet the first word quickly sorts the media when they are in with all other media. It is VERY important to name all media when it arrives to the timeline. Otherwise, the various clips, audio and titles all start to blur and take longer to find in the editor window. Good labeling is worth all the effort and more.

With prior projects only lasting 2 minutes, to shift media around was fairly to do manually. Shifting ten to twenty clips over doesn't take all that much time. It's not efficient, but not a bother either. With a potentially 20 minute video, shifting and overlapping is key to efficiency of time. I managed to discover the "auto-ripple" function. Click the auto-ripple and now when I shift a clip, everything after it moves too. All relations are maintained. Also, I should have set up my timeline ahead of time with, in order, a title track, video track, vocals track, audio track, and music track.

Formatting quickly and correctly the first time would have saved me a great deal of time. It was all a huge learning curve for me. Another project would flow faster for me now. If I can remember my own tricks and style, I could easily shave a few days worth of effort.