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Should I capture Everything?

Is it worth capturing all my hours of footage or should I just get the stuff I think I'll use?
Also is it worth logging all my footage?
G
 
'sup, good Reid :cool:

Generally, it's not best to import it all. Mini-DV footage takes up a lot of space on your computer... roughly 13 gigs per hour. If you have a few takes of each scene... well, it can fill up a harddrive pretty fast.

Having said that... I am lazy and import it all. ;)

But then again, I only make short shorts... the 10 minute or less type. The whole shebang is usually 40 to 50 minutes of raw footage. Clearly the people that are doing larger projects need to be more selective with their imports... viewing the footage several times before deciding on the wanted takes, and importing pretty much only what is needed.

_______

Also is it worth logging all my footage?

Do you mean through a Batch Capture?

Yes, that's a good idea.

You can generate and save a small permanent file, that keeps track of what you have imported. Once the project is complete, you can delete the actual video imports and save the remains of your project to a CD/DVD.

If at some later point you decide that you want to edit the thing again (or make a change, or what have you), you can reload the project and restart the Batch Capture. Get a prompt to insert the original tape, insert it, then automagically re-import every piece of footage you used earlier.

Project has been reconstituted. :)

Very handy.
 
It takes a little more time, but I always review and batch capture my footage, only using the takes I need. Then I back up my captures onto dvds as raw avi in case of some kind of data loss. It helps organizationally and, more importantly, perserves that valuable disk drive space. Even 200 gig will fill up faster than you'd think with video.
 
We just finished our rough cut which required pillaging through 40+hrs of footage. There is no way in hell we capture all of that. I usually sift through the footage, making timecode notes on the good takes and just log the ones we need. It can be too easy to log everything, thinking that you will need it.

Our film will be aprox 80mins when it is all said and done, and thus far we have burnt up about 220 gigs of capture footage. We mostly capture to an external, since you can definitley sense your computer lagging when you have that much footage on it's main drive.
 
Yeah I'm a little confused about the logging process. Obviously in the old skol times they did it with paper and pen. I have logged my clips onto the computer with Final cut just the normal. But what about things like shot size and scene and details like that. Is it most often done on paper or after you capture by adding notes to the clip?
I read that there are logging programs that I presume that you type in all the information and it sticks it with the clip??
Also I have read that your names given to your clips should not be longer that 8 characters because other wise the EDL will change it and you won't know what it means. Is this really relevant with FCP and the recapture feature??
Oh and what's the deal with OfflineRT stuff? The only time I've seen offline footage is when I've move or deleted it and it can't find the clip.
Thanks
Geoff
 
What about the fact that your film could have gone on a dog leg that you don't expect and then you would need some of the footage that you didn't capture. Do you just go back and get the footage if you need more? I'm looking at going into a behind the scenes reality show 30 min duration. My thinking is that I'll capture it all cos the thing could go all over the place. I guess if you have a good idea where you are going with your paper edit then you should need to worry about it going places you didn't dream.
Others make the point that hard drives aren't expensive overall and the value of having the footage at your fingertips it worth the time getting the footage even if you just hire a junior to do it?
 
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