Edit one video in sections

tjhorton

Newbie Joined: Mar 27, 2018 21:23 Messages: 8 Offline

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May 28, 2018 17:45

What's the best way to work on a video in sections? I can't find any discussion of it.

I'm making a 12 minute video with 80-100 clips, and a separate voiceover track. It's tricky getting the clips to align with the sound, and any small change to the audio track or a single clip screws up the whole alignment quite easily.

Here's what I thought of:
1. Create separate projects for each of half a dozen chapters, then another project to import the produced outputs. I'm not sure I'll retain fildelity of the original clips, and I can't adjust the audio properties together as I edit.
2. Put each ection in a different track, with half a dozen tracks. Unfortunately PowerDirector does not make it easy to use a lot of tracks (using the scrollball over the track list scrolls the timeline instead of the track list), etc.
3.Something I don't know about?? I was hoping PowerDirector would support editing chapters as separate timelines.

I cannot be the first person to have this logistic problem. How is it usually solved? THANKS!

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at May 28. 2018 17:50

JimIowa

Senior Member Location: United States Joined: Mar 03, 2017 21:59 Messages: 161 Offline

May 28, 2018 17:55

There are several approaches.

One approach is group the components in a section (tutorial here) . When you group elements you cannot move or edit any of them individually--only collectively. You have to ungroup them to edit any of the components. Grouping in a sense will lock down elements in your timeline that are stacked vertically. You can also lock individual tracks so that they cannot be modified.

I'm eager to see what other advice you receive.

--Jim

tjhorton

Newbie Joined: Mar 27, 2018 21:23 Messages: 8 Offline

May 28, 2018 18:21

Quote One approach is group the components in a section (tutorial here) . --Jim

Great suggestion. I can lock the 20 clips in a section together on a track. And super thanks for the link to the tutorial!!

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at May 28. 2018 18:22

JimIowa

Senior Member Location: United States Joined: Mar 03, 2017 21:59 Messages: 161 Offline

May 28, 2018 19:13

Glad you found it helpful.

Here is a listing of many more tutorials.

--Jim

vn800rider

Senior Contributor Location: Darwen, UK Joined: May 15, 2008 04:32 Messages: 1949 Offline

May 29, 2018 04:51

Hi,
This post might point in a direction.

https://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/76104.page#311300

The key is to plan and use SVRT properly and then the use of multiple sub-projects doesn't require any re-rendering (other than joining transitions etc) so degredation is not an issue and rendering time is greatly reduced.

It sometimes seems counter-intuitive but, whilst a project is seen as a whole and the produced video has to be seen and experienced as a whole, it doesn't have to be edited like that - one of the beauties of NLE software!

From experience, particularly with SVRT (if you can get it to work well for you) there really is much less need to have long and complex project timelines, with all the logistics of moving around and ensuring late edits don't screw up the timing etc. etc.

It's well worth exploring and perhaps planning your shooting and workflow with that in mind.

Adrian Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated. (see below)
Confucius
AMD Phenom IIX6 1055T, win10, 5 internal drives, 7 usb drives, struggling power supply.

tjhorton

Newbie Joined: Mar 27, 2018 21:23 Messages: 8 Offline

May 29, 2018 14:48

Quote The key is to plan and use SVRT properly and then the use of multiple sub-projects doesn't require any re-rendering (other than joining transitions etc) so degredation is not an issue and rendering time is greatly reduced.

Thanks Adrian, but I'm not concerned about rendering. Most of my 80 clips are static images, so the rendering is not the problem, beacuse it goes extremely fast. What's a problem is that if I move one image, or tweak one audio clip, everything else gets tweaked, and the editing is dangerous and difficult. I'm looking to edit in sections because of the editing logistics, not the rending.

Thanks, and sorry if I missed your point? Cheers

AVPlayVideo

Senior Contributor Location: Home Joined: Apr 06, 2016 19:03 Messages: 703 Offline

May 29, 2018 19:54

Quote What's the best way to work on a video in sections? I can't find any discussion of it.
I'm making a 12 minute video with 80-100 clips, and a separate voiceover track. It's tricky getting the clips to align with the sound, and any small change to the audio track or a single clip screws up the whole alignment quite easil
I cannot be the first person to have this logistic problem. How is it usually solved? THANKS!

In PD you can create and save project in parts. Example: Project 1, 2, 3 ...
Lastly, join them all in 1 complete project.
For this you will use the Insert Project Option ...
Open the last project in the group, then use the Insert Project, for each project in the reverse order, so it will add in the correct order, without having to position the cursor that is already in the zero position by default.
Complete project in timeline, make adjustments if needed and save as complete project.
Follow to Produce the whole video at once. XEON-E5-2680 v4 / Mem. 16GB DDR4
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tjhorton

Newbie Joined: Mar 27, 2018 21:23 Messages: 8 Offline

May 29, 2018 20:38

Quote In PD you can create and save project in parts. Example: Project 1, 2, 3 ...
Lastly, join them all in 1 complete project....Complete project in timeline, make adjustments if needed and save as complete project.
Follow to Produce the whole video at once.

That's great, I might go that way. I see the limitation is that once you see/share the result, you have to go back to the subprojects, and recombine each time you do so? Even so, I can see making it work if it's as easy as you describe. I'm not using many transitions so I won't have to recreate the project transitions each time.