Managing Scenes

[JCH]

I have recently had several dozen rolls of 8mm film converted to MiniDV and I have uploaded to my pc. The scenes are not in the proper order either by date or subject. I want to be able to splice and later reconnect in the proper order. What is the best way to do this? There is over 4 hours of MiniDV now on my pc.

[ATR]

When you converted the VHS analog to digital, what did you use as a digital converter: analog digital converter with firewire capture into Premiere Elements or a miniDV camcorder's passthrough feature firewire into Premiere Elements, so that you got DV AVI files saved?

If any of the above applies, did you capture the whole video or did you use the scene detect by content of Premiere Elements' capture?

You may want to check out the DV Date Utility.
http://paul.glagla.free.fr/dvdate_en.htm#what

Let us start here.

ATR

[ATR]

JCH

Thanks for reposting your thread in the Premiere Elements Forum. It is best to post Premiere Elements questions in the Premiere Elements Forum so that these questions do not get lost or mixed with the Photoshop Elements ones. It happens often, and we will find you wherever you post, but... Now that you are in this forum, you might want to take a look around to see what we have been doing here.

I ask a lot of questions because I do not want to take anything for granted. So, please excuse me if I mention somethings that you may already know. All that being said, I did see your original posting in the other forum here. From what you wrote there, I am not quite sure of the route that you used to get where you are and what you have...I want to make sure of your interpretation of scenes vs clips vs split clips vs whole video with many scenes that went through the analog digital conversion without being split into scenes.

Based on your answers, I am trying to figure out the best way to extract the date time information from what your have. If it is more convenient for you, please explain in your own words what you did and have.

Besides the DV Date software, I would like to explore the possibility of you making a copy of your miniDV tape content, putting the copy tape back into the miniDV camcorder, and then attaching the camcorder to the TV via AV cables, followed you reading the date time information from the TV screen.

A lot of thoughts and details we need to put together together.

Thanks.

ATR

[JCH]

I used miniDV camcorder's passthrough feature firewire into Premiere Elements, so that I got DV AVI files saved. I used scene detect but I don't seem to have anything but one long scene. There are no dates as the 8mm film did not have dates. So I need to split the one long scene into the shorter scenes that are anywhere from 30 seconds to 4 minutes in length and then rearrange them so that they are in right time order. So far what I have done is to split one long scene into several short scenes and have saved each short scene as a separate project but I have not rendered them. If I render each its going to take a lot of time and I'm trying to find a way to save each scene so that I can reconnect them in a better order later on. I don't need the date/time info as I have a good idea of when each occurred.

[ATR]

JCH

Thanks for the additional information.

Two suggestions for you to review and give me feedback comments:

1. When you capture into Premiere Elements with the camcorder's passthrough with firewire, you have your media in a project in Premiere Elements as well as saved to a save location on the hard drive location of your computer.

So, you can work within that project opened at capture or after capture open a new project and work with the video that was saved to the hard drive in the capture process.

Whichever the source, with your media on the Premiere Elements Timeline, you can trim the video in the in the Preview Window and:

a. save the trims (as DV AVI, File Menu/Export/Movie) to a folder on the hard drive where these DV AVIs can be accessed into a new project when you are ready

b. also, when you are in the Preview Window trimming the video, you can also save the trim as a subclip which becomes part of your Media and will remain in the Premiere Elements Organizer.

Do any of those thoughts interest you? If so and you need more details, please let me know and I will supply them.

Please refresh my memory as to what version of Premiere Elements that you are using.

To be continued....

ATR

[ATR]

JCH

Just an add on note....

Please excuse the mental gap of writing one thing and thinking another...
that proved to be the case regarding your source media, date time stamp mention, and non distinction between 8 mm film, 8 mm tape, and miniDV.

I hope that I am back on track with the suggestions for what you have and getting your video managed to your satisfaction.

To be continued,

ATR

[JCH]

With regard to: "save the trims (as DV AVI, File Menu/Export/Movie) to a folder on the hard drive where these DV AVIs can be accessed into a new project when you are ready."

I think this is the heart of my problem. I don't know how to save them without rendering.

Also, "when you are in the Preview Window trimming the video, you can also save the trim as a subclip which becomes part of your Media and will remain in the Premiere Elements Organizer."

How do I save subclips and can I save multiple subclips? Can I put each subclip in a separate folder such as one for my daughter and one for my son?

I'm using Premier Elements 7. Thanks for all your help.

[ATR]

Here is one scenario for you to check out re: utilization of subclips +
Using the Timeline View Workspace


1. In the Organizer Interface/Get Media, Files & Folders, import your video into Premiere Elements 7
2. Next, click on the Edit Orange Table to go from the Organizer to Edit interface. Click on the Project Tab. You should see a copy of your video in the Project Media View
3. Double click the video in this Project Media View. A Preview Window will open in which you will use Set In and Set Out to trim (split) your video.
4. In the Preview Window, you will see your video in its Monitor, a vertical purple bar with the upper gray tab that we will move from left to right to set the locations for our Set In and Set Out points which will be set by clicking on the Set In and Set Out icons below the purple bar.
5. Let us start…move the upper gray tab along the purple bar (left to right) until you see where you want this split out clip to start. After you do that, click on Set In. Then move the upper gray tab to where you want the split clip out to end. After you do that, click on Set Out.
6. At this point, you can do either of two things or both:
a. click and drag the image in the Preview Window into a blank area in the Preview Media View. The Make Subclip dialog will appear. Give the subclip a name and click OK. That subclip will now be part of the Media. In the Preview Media View, you could create folders, each to hold split clips with a common theme.
and/or
b. click and drag the image in the Preview Window down to the Timeline. From there you could save the split clip as DV AVI by going to the File Menu/Export/Movie and saving that as a DV AVI to the folder (s) set up on the hard drive for it. The render time for this route is extremely quick and there should be no visible degradation in the process since you started with DV AVI and are exporting as DV AVI. Now, if you have two clips on the Timeline and decided to use File Menu/Export/Movie route, you would end up with the two clips as a single DV AVI. To avoid that and just export the clip that you want from the Timeline, you do the following:

Above the Timeline is a vertical gray bar (Work Area Bar) which has a tiny gray tab at its beginning and at its end (spans the length of your video on the Timeline). With your mouse cursor, move those tiny gray tabs so that they span just the length of the clip that you want exported as DV AVI. Next, go to the File Menu/Export/Movie, Settings and change the Range from Entire Timeline to Work Area Bar. Then the process will export just the one clip that is spanned by those tiny gray tabs in the Work Area Bar of the Timeline.

Please review the above and let me know if it helps or if you need for me to clarify any of the details.

ATR

[JCH]

Thanks, I'll give it a try this afternoon and let you know. Many thanks again.

[ATR]

Looking forward to your results.

Just an edit

Also, "when you are in the Preview Window trimming the video, you can also save the trim as a subclip which becomes part of your Media and will remain in the Premiere Elements Organizer."

In that quote from one of my earlier responses, please edit out the ...and will remain in the Premiere Elements Organizer." Be sure to save the project (.prel) file that you are doing all this work in. I will explain later, including possible use of the Project Archiver feature and its Archiver and Copy options.

ATR

[JCH]

I'm sorry to be such a dummy but I've searched the help file and clicked on everything I can think of but I can't find the Preview Media View. Can you tell this dummy how to get there. The help file is no help. I would like to follow your suggestion 6 a. Thanks again.

[ATR]

Click on the Edit Tab (Orange) at the top.
Then look directly below that level. You should see a Black Tab that says Project. Click on that. The area there will house the media files and is where you will create your folders with the folders icon at the bottom of the media lineup. It is the video file there that you double click to get the Preview Window to appear.

Please let me know if you are OK with those details. If not, let me know where you are running into problems and I will reword the details accordingly. You are OK, it is just there are so many details to work through the first time around. You can do it.

I will be watching for your progress.

ATR

[JCH]

I see the project tab, I see the folders. What I don't see is how I put the clip in one of the folders. I've tried dragging and dropping but I get an "X" - can't do. I don't see any tab that says subclip, etc. That's where I'm hung up. Thanks.

[ATR]

Forget about the folders for now. Let us concentrate on creating the subclip.

You have the Preview Window open.
You have set your Set In and Set Out points, so that you have isolated your cutout section of the video that you double clicked on to get there.
Take the mouse curser and click drag (do not release the mouse) the image to a blank area when the media is listed. Release the mouse. The Make Subclip dialog should appear for clip naming and OK.
Then you should have the subclip in the Media listed along with the original video listing there.

Does that all happen? If not, I will try another way to describe this. Please keep giving me the details of where the hung up occurs. Do not worry, we will work through this.

After we get the subclips in the Project View Media, then it is an easy job to create the folders and drag the video clips to the appropriate folder.

ATR

[JCH]

Please see attached file. Nothing happens when I drag from the preview window to the media listing either in Organizer or in Edit. I must be doing something wrong but I can't figure it out.

[JCH]

See the attached also.

[ATR]

JCH

I think that I got it....

You have the Preview Window Open, but you are showing the Organizer interface behind it. Click on the Edit Tab (Orange), followed by the Project Tab (Black), and then give it another try.

You need to click and drag from the image in the Preview Window into the blank area in the Project Media, not the Organizer Media.

See how that goes.

ATR

[JCH]

See attached. Still a no-go.

[JCH]

See attached - although I can rename the clips created y smart tagging they are all the same length so not really subclips.

[Chuck Engels]

Maybe taking a look at this will help
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/PremiereElements/7.0/WSB25DF517-43BA-42cb-84F8-ECD8D0B4C784.html

[ATR]

JCN

We need to back up since I am not sure how smart tagging got involved here at this time.

What was being described were some basics for taking a whole piece of video and trimming it (splitting it) in smaller sections (clips) that could be edited and arranged.

1. We bring the video into Premiere Elements 7. Assuming that the video was saved to the computer hard drive, we use Premiere Elements 7, Get Media/File & Folders to do that.
2. When you do that, you will find your whole video in the Organizer (that is the way it is). Making subclips does not work in the Organizer, just the Project Media View.
3. So, we need to get to the Project Media View to get to the Preview Window for trimming the video with the SetIn and SetOut points as well as making subclips of the trims for the Project Media area.
4. So, to get out the Organizer Mode, we click on Edit (the Orange Tab) and then click on the Project (the Black Tab).
5. When all that is done, we can see our video file in the Media Listing.
6. That is when you double click the video file there to bring up the Preview Window.
7. In the Preview Window, you use the SetIn and SetOut points to split out the desired section of your video. As mentioned previously, you can do either or both:
a. click and drag Preview Window image to Project Media blank area
b. click and drag Preview Window image to the Timeline.

So I am asking
1. How did Smart Tagging factor into all this now?
2. Where did all those files come from that are in the Project Media area?
3. Did you ever see the Make Subclip dialog box in anything that you have been doing so far?

Please fill in the gaps and we will work this out together.

ATR

[JCH]

I found the answer to my problem in an earlier posting by ATR -

g. So, with that cut out segment highlighted (Title Bar of Timeline content should have a purple color), go File Menu/Export/Movie. In the dialog that appears, click on Settings and head for General/Range. There change Range from “Entire Timeline” to “Work Area Bar”. When the save process is complete, you will find a DV AVI version of this segment in the Media of the opened Premiere Elements project as well as a copy in the folder that you created for it on the hard drive.

[ATR]

JCH

That was good news.

Please do not hesitate to ask any questions. We can always work out the details together.

Please update us on your progress.

ATR

[JCH]

I have never see a "subclip" popup, menu item, or anything else. I would certainly prefer to do as a subclip so I don't have to waste time rendering each subclip as they will be rendered again when I recombine them in the proper order.

The items you see in the media area were created when I ran smart tagging against the 20 minute clip. It sensed each the start of each individual subclip but always saved them as the full 20 minute clip.

Do you have anymore suggestions regarding subclips. That's the way I would prefer to do things. I've been away for several hours myself and just getting back to this problem.

[Chuck Engels]

JCH, did you look at the Adobe Premiere Elements Help link? It explains exactly how to create sub clips.

[JCH]

Yes, I've looked at the help file and saw this:
"Once you have set the in and out points simply "left click and hold" on the video in the preview monitor and then drag to the project media bin."
but it doesn't work. Or I'm doing something very wrong. See attached file.

[JCH]

Problem solved. What I was doing was taking a clip that was in the Timeline and double clicking it to put in the preview window and then trimming it. Next I tried to drag and drop in the media bin. That doesn't work. I needed to take the clip from the media bin, open in the preview window, trim it and then drag to the media bin. Doing this then gives me the opportunity to save as a subclip and give the subclip a unique name, which I can then put in a folder of my choice.

[JCH]

My deepest thanks to ATR and Chuck for their help. Reading and rereading what they wrote finally woke me up to what I was doing wrong. Thanks again

[ATR]

JCH

I am so glad that you are moving forward with your project.

Please do not hesitate to post with any additional questions.

Please update us on your progress when you get the time.

ATR

[ATR]

JCH, did you look at the Adobe Premiere Elements Help link? It explains exactly how to create sub clips.

The above was a quote from CE's post #25 of this thread.

The Premiere Elements PDF Help is a far too often overlooked asset. And, I post that link often in troubleshooting exchanges and encourage users to use it.

But for anyone referring to this thread in the future, I need to point out that, in post #8 of this thread, I posted step by step instructions exactly how to create sub clips. You may want to check it out also.

ATR