CompuServe Messages

<<hundreds of clips that depending on our customer will be joined together and output to film.>> Chris, hi. Just some thoughts here. If you can wait for assembly, then a VBasic program that creates a decision list that is fed to an editor driving linear gear would be an economical approach. And if you didn't need very fancy transitions between clips, it would be even more economical. This may involve hacking the file format of the assembly editor, tho. But it's quite conceivable, and the quality could be very, very good depending on the linear equipment used. The downside is that assembly could take some time (depending on clip location, number involved, speed of the rig, etc.). It would be difficult if not impossible to 'preview' the finished product before it is made. And video tape has lifespan and wear factors to consider. I use a program called Premiere. It allows me to import an entire 'folder' (directory) of digitized clips. It arranges clips in alphabetical order, and will place them in that sequence on a single video track by simply dragging the whole folder onto the track. "Bing, bing, bing…", clips are placed one after the other until the folder is exhausted. It would seem that I could digitize my video into miniatures with time code, write software to search an index of these mini-clip files (using keyword descriptions), and based on that search, automatically copy selected ones into a folder renaming them "Clip A", "Clip B", etc in the alpha-order necessary. Premiere could then import the whole folder and by simply dragging it onto the video track; assembly would happen automatically in ascending name sequence. I could then preview the entire random assembly online, as well as make adjustments (titles et.al) before the final product is made (via decision list). Or I could automatically print a 'storyboard' for approval, cust records, or Q&A. If you went whole hog and digitally stored your clips completely to disk, Premiere could composite render and 'Print-to-tape' the finished product immediately from the preview without shuttling any footage. This would be much more expensive than analog alternatives as video tape is still a very cheap storage medium. But it would be fast and direct. And if you needed to create say 20 of these movies a day from a single library, it might well be the only practical way.