Any way to name (or even colour) individual segments/trimmed clips?

LouieGribble

Newbie Joined: Nov 09, 2020 17:26 Messages: 11 Offline

Solved by

May 16, 2021 01:59

Hi boffins!
I regularly edit a lot of interviews from a rather boring static camera pointed at a seated person and I turn the hour long original recording into about 20 mins by editing on the timeline out the unwanted or irrelevant stuff.
Each one covers answers to various questions.
Once I have the original video in the timeline and have trimmed it into multiple various segments (or objects), is there a way to simply name each segment on the timeline so I can see what each segment refers to without haveing to actually listen/watch the segment?
This would allow me to easily jump to a required segment or quickly re-arrange segments in any order.
I know I could apply and name markers but they are static on the timeline and not what I'm looking for.
The names that appears on each segment in timeline are all exactly the same as they all came from one master clip - this is ideally where I'd like to see my custom name.
Even being able to colour a segment to mark it would be useful.
As you can imagine, the thumbnail frames are also of no use as a visual reference as they all look the same.
Any help or suggestions welcome.
Thanks!

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at May 16. 2021 04:02

Warry

Senior Contributor Location: The Netherlands Joined: Oct 13, 2014 11:42 Messages: 853 Offline

May 16, 2021 06:02

There are several ways to get individual clips identified in your timeline. It depends a bit on the approach you want to take to get to your production.
One obvious candidate is to use precut. That allows you to select clips from your overall video and identify them separately before you add them to the timeline. You can rename the pre-cut clips by changing the alias of the clip (right mouse click and select from the menu). Then drag the segments to their places in the timeline. In the before mentioned menu there is the option to find the clip back in the timeline, should you have many. This approach will also allow you to use the clips identifiers/aliases in other projects.
The other way is to edit / change the alias of a clip in the timeline by right mouse click and select edit alias in the menu. There is a short cut / hot-key for that: Alt-n.
As said, it depends on the workflow you use which method works best for you. Either way you see the alias in the clip in the timeline.
There is a third option, which is less elegant because the “alias” does not show in the clip in the timeline, that is using clip markers. You can set markers at multiple places in the same clip and give them a name/alias. (like: clip is called Waving, and two markers in the clip called: start wave and end wave). Hovering over the clip marker reveals the name set. Make sure that you have set the clip marker track to show.
Hope that this helps.

LouieGribble

Newbie Joined: Nov 09, 2020 17:26 Messages: 11 Offline

May 16, 2021 10:52

Quote There are several ways to get individual clips identified in your timeline. It depends a bit on the approach you want to take to get to your production.
One obvious candidate is to use precut. That allows you to select clips from your overall video and identify them separately before you add them to the timeline. You can rename the pre-cut clips by changing the alias of the clip (right mouse click and select from the menu). Then drag the segments to their places in the timeline. In the before mentioned menu there is the option to find the clip back in the timeline, should you have many. This approach will also allow you to use the clips identifiers/aliases in other projects.
The other way is to edit / change the alias of a clip in the timeline by right mouse click and select edit alias in the menu. There is a short cut / hot-key for that: Alt-n.
As said, it depends on the workflow you use which method works best for you. Either way you see the alias in the clip in the timeline.
There is a third option, which is less elegant because the “alias” does not show in the clip in the timeline, that is using clip markers. You can set markers at multiple places in the same clip and give them a name/alias. (like: clip is called Waving, and two markers in the clip called: start wave and end wave). Hovering over the clip marker reveals the name set. Make sure that you have set the clip marker track to show.
Hope that this helps.

Thank you so much Warry and especially for the descriptive answer.
This has entirely answered my question.
I can edit happy!