analog trimming?

[andra]

hey guy's how ya doin!?

quick question, have any of you had to edit any analog (hi-8) footage on a prestige?

If so how did you use the trim feature to break down the footage for the timeline?
I tried and screwed the pooch, I did something wrong and turned the footage into a 1 scene bin and had to delete the scene/footage and am know starting over.

I'm going to load the raw footage back up but wont touch the trim feature until I have it figured out.
I'm sure that I got something twisted out of whack in the in/out points or other.

any help/direction/advice will be greatly appreciated.

[jimmeeker]

Hello Andra,

The auto split function works with Digital footage only. If you are feeding in Analog then you do have to manually split and trim it. Because the software recognizes the first frame of a new camera start of the digital signal, it can split it at those points. In analog you don't have that...so it doesn't work.

Yes, you will have just one scene of any analog capture...so the splits and trims are all manually done. So you haven't done anything wrong....you are just used to having digital footage to work with.

Trimming analog footage can only shorten it and leaves you with only one scene in the scene bin....it's just shorter. If you are talking about spliting the footage using analog, you can't use autosplit, you must spit it manualy and click on "USE" to save the first portion you want to split off. Then you move on the the next place you want to split it up and then click "USE" to save that section. If you hit "Drop" that will delete the remaining footage and it's gone and may not be retrieved, without re-capturing.

If on the other hand, if you are actually talking about trimming an "insert" and not auto split, then there is a way mess it up. Look at the in and out points buttons and click on the in button. You will find two further ways of using it. One is "Position" and the second way is "Trim" . Both of these controls a needed and are very important. But the difference between them is vital.

Using "POSITION" moves the entire inserted scene back and forth and allows you to move the scene to an earlier or later position in the storyboard. It's like parking your car on different blocks closer or farther away from your house. The entire inserted scene is moved closer to...or farther away from the beginning of the base scene you are inserting over, but the scene is still the same length.

The "TRIM" button, on the other hand, either shortens or lengthens the inserted scene up. So with "position" the entire scene moves and with trim you are cutting part of the scene off and making it shorter. The same things happen if you use the "END" button, you can move the inserted scene back and forth but it remains the same total length....and with "TRIM" it shortens or lengthens the total length of the scene.

Then on some later operating systems within the insert section, you have a third control there and it is called Trim-E this allows you to see the footage underneath. This lets you see how your trim will fit into the footage that you are working with.

The problem arises when you think you are using Position and are actually triming the length of the scene and shortening it.

[andra]

thanx Jim for the response,
and your right I used the wrong term for what I need to do.

I need to split the analog footage into seperate scenes so I can edit the raw footage into a complete program.
In fact I have 2 seperate 2hour hi-8 tapes like this for 4 total hours of raw footage. (2 different weddings!)

Essentially the 2 parties just wanted an editor for their footage.
I thought it was gonna be in mini dv but turns out it's hi-8, no biggie for the prestige, I just have to split the footage into scenes and edit it.

my prestige is a bare bones basic with the old 4.1d os.

ps: Is there a tutorial on the split/trim/use/position features I can view on you tube or some other place to teach me these functions or maybe some downloadable booklet info?

[Jeanton]

Hi Andrea

You go to split function and there is an index button. The way it works is you hit the play button in the split menu and watch the footage at the same time the footage is played then when you see a cut position you hit the index button (footage keeps playing through). What it does it splits the footage into separate scenes in your storyboard essentially you will always be too late when you hit the auto button but no problem - you fix that up by trimming it later on. This way you don't delete any footage from the previous scene or after - if you do it you can always butt the scene before it against it if you want to use more footage. After using the auto split function you will have a lot of scenes in your scene bin to be trimmed - usually at the end bit ( don't delete any scenes you are not going to use just mark them with a # or something you recognize). After using the DV auto split function this could be a time consuming process depending on the camera men who shot it .

I personally don't edit anyones footage - have had a bad experience with it (it made me sea sick just watching it). I hope they pay you enough because it takes a long time to do it this way.

Good luck.

[jimmeeker]

Andra,

I would recommend that you visit Chet Davis, the former Vice President of MSUS who has started his own company to provide help and training to Cassie Users.

Just go to: http://www.casablancaexpert.com and look at all the various tutorials that he has available both on line and in DVD form so you can play them back as often as you need to master a concept. Chet has two day seminars all around the country that you can sign up for. One of the best teachers to ever stand in a classroom and he knows the Cassie system as well as anybody in the US and better than most.

He had a seminar the two days before my National Convention for Cassie Users called the "March Get Together" in the same building...which worked out extremely well for the students as they were there already for the 4 day Convention.

Chet has written explainations to download and puts on monthly "Webinars" for free and also a set of "Webinars' that deal with the subjects more deeply that you can subscribe to for a modest fee each month. He also offers direct help to each individual by hooking up to your computer online and helping you one on one with you seeing his computer screen on yours. It's like having him right there with you.

You can find out more about the National Convention for Casablanca Users by going here: marchgettogether.com it's held in March each year and it's located right in the center of the country and we really do learn from each other and have a great deal of fun at the same time. Chet will be there and so will the leaders of MSUS and MSGermany as well.