Managing Hundreds of Videos & Clips?

[StofUnited]

Here is a doozy guys:

I am needing to transcode, cut and manage 100s to 1000s of clips for an online sports league I am involved with.

More directly - I need to easily know how to manage all this footage (including specific locations of goals, hits, saves,) from what could turn out to be over 100 games in order to use them in projects in the future.

I am new to developing and managing projects of any kind, especially one this big.

I use iMovie and Final Cut Studio.

Thoughts anyone?

 

[simsaladimbamba]

You could use MPEG Streamclip and its Batch List (CMD+B) to transcode the videos to a proper format (.mov using AIC or ProRes for video and Uncompressed for audio) to use it in Final Cut Pro.
You could then use "bins", lots of them for every game and tag the shots with different colours or even clip names or maybe even make duplicates (does not duplicate the original media) and then sort in bins named "hits", "goals" and so forth.
http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/fcp_7_labels_markers_stone.html

Btw, do you have enough storage capacity, as one hour of DV encoded video (Standard Definition - PAL or NTSC) takes up 12/13 GB, one hour of AIC encoded footage takes from 13 GB (SD) to 49 GB (1080i60), ProRes 422 HQ up to 100 GB per hour. (http://images.apple.com/finalcutstudio/resources/white_papers/L342568A_ProRes_WP.pdf)

 

[StofUnited]

You could use MPEG Streamclip and its Batch List (CMD+B) to transcode the videos to a proper format (.mov using AIC or ProRes for video and Uncompressed for audio) to use it in Final Cut Pro.
You could then use "bins", lots of them for every game and tag the shots with different colours or even clip names or maybe even make duplicates (does not duplicate the original media) and then sort in bins named "hits", "goals" and so forth.
http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/fcp_7_labels_markers_stone.html

Btw, do you have enough storage capacity, as one hour of DV encoded video (Standard Definition - PAL or NTSC) takes up 12/13 GB, one hour of AIC encoded footage takes from 13 GB (SD) to 49 GB (1080i60), ProRes 422 HQ up to 100 GB per hour. (http://images.apple.com/finalcutstudio/resources/white_papers/L342568A_ProRes_WP.pdf)

Yeah lots of storage and archiving is organized elsewhere.

One problem I have is that much of the footage I will receive I will want to throw away. Was thinking of using the iMovie capabilities of deleting an event "except for what is used in a project" function to do that. I can't think of any other way to get rid of what I don't need.

I will use compressor and droplets probably to do the transcoding (and maybe MPEG Strmclp from time to time).

Do you really think that creating an FCP project will work? I am just afraid of FCP getting confused or losing a save, etc. Is that something I need to worry about?

Are there any great video management programs out there or is this just a dream .

 

[Big Shisha]

Not sure if this is of any use, but I have recently started a podcast for my football team and I'm using the tagging/keyword feature, so everytime I import practice footage, I can tag clips with QB/player name/pass whatever.

That way towards the end of the season if I want to put together a player profile video, I can just search by name and go from there.

Hope that helps a bit.

 

[StofUnited]

Btw, do you have enough storage capacity, as one hour of DV encoded video (Standard Definition - PAL or NTSC) takes up 12/13 GB, one hour of AIC encoded footage takes from 13 GB (SD) to 49 GB (1080i60), ProRes 422 HQ up to 100 GB per hour. (http://images.apple.com/finalcutstudio/resources/white_papers/L342568A_ProRes_WP.pdf)

Just browsed this paper on ProRes 422. Sounds pretty awesome really.

I have always used AIC or HDV 720p30. Is ProRes 720p24 just as good? It seems to be about 30 Gigs/HR and has great advantages in working with FCP, etc.

Interesting on the Rendering settings advice in the paper:

"the editor can choose to render effects in HDV and XDCAM HD using ProRes 422. This will result in faster rendering time and a higher-quality 4:2:2 composite."

This is something that i need to figure out how to setup if I choose to go with ProRes on all Video / Motion 4 Graphics, etc.

Thoughts?

 

[StofUnited]

Not sure if this is of any use, but I have recently started a podcast for my football team and I'm using the tagging/keyword feature, so everytime I import practice footage, I can tag clips with QB/player name/pass whatever.

That way towards the end of the season if I want to put together a player profile video, I can just search by name and go from there.

Hope that helps a bit.

Thanks Big' - yeah - I need to learn markers/tagging. The kenstone link above has some great info.

It seems to be the best way; just creating a massive FCP Project and organizing it all there. As long as FCP saved projects aren't known for getting corrupted. That is my fear there.

Also - my desire is to be able to delete footage from within each video as well. That could end up saving me huge amounts of storage space.

 

[mstrze]

FWIW: I have begun archiving all of my MiniDV tapes onto an external using iMovie. I have access to all of the imported video in the clip browser at the bottom and I can label the clips as well (in your situation, to point out a certain goal/event).

Maybe this won't work for the huge volume of your clips, but so far I have loaded 15 tapes, encompassing generally 90 minutes a piece, onto this external using iMovie. Sounds like that might work for you too? Especially if you trash the clips you don't need.

 

[sarge]

Thanks Big' - yeah - I need to learn markers/tagging. The kenstone link above has some great info.

It seems to be the best way; just creating a massive FCP Project and organizing it all there. As long as FCP saved projects aren't known for getting corrupted. That is my fear there.

Also - my desire is to be able to delete footage from within each video as well. That could end up saving me huge amounts of storage space.

FCP has a media managment feature where you can delete all the imported clips that you did not cut into the timeline. In the settings panel you can adjust Final Cut to save handles around this material or just save the edited clip.

As far as making various transcodes for large, ongoing projects I think it's worth it to look at something like Telestream's Episode Engine.

 

[spacepower7]

There is a new app called Usher in the Mac App Store. I don't know how professional it is but it looks interesting and maybe useful for you.

 

[StofUnited]

FCP has a media managment feature where you can delete all the imported clips that you did not cut into the timeline. In the settings panel you can adjust Final Cut to save handles around this material or just save the edited clip.

As far as making various transcodes for large, ongoing projects I think it's worth it to look at something like Telestream's Episode Engine.

now that I did not know - thank you so much, sarge. I will definitely be using ProRes 422 720p24 then (if none of you think that it is a problem at all?), organizing them all in organized FCP Projects and going from there. I just have to learn to do it.

Does FCP have the ability to output any type of document (like a spreadsheet with links to each project) with the listings of what is within each project? Now wouldn't that be cool.

I will look into Telestream', too.

What a great community here - thank you so much everyone.

 

[StofUnited]

There is a new app called Usher in the Mac App Store. I don't know how professional it is but it looks interesting and maybe useful for you.

I took a quick look at 'Usher' and it seemed cool but it doesn't seem to relate to what I am working on.

Thanks space'

 

[sarge]

now that I did not know - thank you so much, sarge. I will definitely be using ProRes 422 720p24 then (if none of you think that it is a problem at all?), organizing them all in organized FCP Projects and going from there. I just have to learn to do it.

Does FCP have the ability to output any type of document (like a spreadsheet with links to each project) with the listings of what is within each project? Now wouldn't that be cool.

I will look into Telestream', too.

What a great community here - thank you so much everyone.

My pleasure.

If your source files move at any point you will have to reconnect all the media. It might be worth it to output a self-contained movie of each project just so you can have a edit master copy on backup.