Splitting Video Footage into Scenes

When you've been recording with a DV, Digital8, or other digital camcorder, a new clip will be started from each point where you pressed the Record button. Each time you did this, the camcorder saved some important information relating to the clip, called Metadata, onto the tape on disk. This data includes such information as the date and time the clip was recorded and the time code point on the tape where it's saved. For DVD and tapeless formats, this data includes even more information relevant to the clip. When you record one long piece of cine film or VHS to tape or disk, this information is only created if you start and stop the recording at each new film roll or source tape. You may prefer to split the movie up yourself to make editing easier.

All digital video editing programs make splitting clips very easy, and it's one of the most basic features of any such program. It's often not necessary to place clips down onto the timeline in order to modify the points at which they start and finish, either. Microsoft Windows Movie Maker allows you to move the play head to the selected position where the Split Clip button is clicked. The clip will then be separated into two; this can be undertaken as many times as required.

Apple's iMovie is another program that makes it just as easy. The only difference is the way in which it's done. The whole point of this exercise is to shorten the clips in order to eliminate the excess material that you really don't want your viewers to have to watch. Whether your aim is to cut out the bits that are obviously no good, or to polish your movie work to a point where it has a professional look is really up to you. Whichever approach you follow, the tools exist in almost every program to enable you to achieve excellent results even with those programs that come pre-installed with your computer hardware.

The Crop tool in iMovie is, for instance, a variation of similar tools that can be found in all the main digital video editing tools. By setting the new beginning and end points of a chosen clip, you're making a decision about what you want your viewers to see and what you don't want them to be exposed to. By combining this tool with the added ability to then rearrange the clip sequence, you're already engaged in the process of video editing, pure and simple.

Remember that in digitizing your old films and video recordings, you're likely to have transferred sound as well as moving pictures. The FireWire and USB 2.0 connections encode everything, and as you pull the clips into your project timeline you'll notice that the audio part of the timeline (the audio tracks that run in parallel to the video track containing your video clips] contains squiggly lines that represent the constantly changing sound tracks, known as the Audio Waveform. In the case of cine film, it's highly likely that your footage will be silent, but with copies of old VHS sequences you'll almost certainly be editing sound at the same time as pictures.

Be careful not to edit only the pictures. While trimming a clip at given points might make sense from a visual point of view, it could create confusion if you choose to cut in the middle of somebody speaking. It's important to listen carefully to the accompanying sound in order to determine its relevance to the pictures and it might be indispensable. The waveform helps in this respect, as does Movie Maker's Audio Mixer control, which enables you to balance the camcorder's sound track with any additional music or effects you might choose to add later.