what is the best way to organize and label clips?

Question

what is the best way to organize and label clips?

I am new to imovie and have figured out how to import my 2 hr video into the project media area and then down into the timeline, and have figured out how to separate clips there. But I need to divide up the longer video into numerous smaller clips that I need to label so I know what they are and then can decide which segments to use. What is the best way to do that?

How do I label a clip?

and then where can I put it to store it safely while I decide which clips work in the edit?

thank you!

Katarina

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 13.1

Posted on Jan 22, 2023 6:19 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Rich839

Level 8

47,322 points

Jan 24, 2023 9:28 AM in response to Katarina Wittich

Can I grab a section on the timeline and copy it and put it in its own event? or is there a better way to do it?

No. You cannot copy a full clip or a segment of a clip from the timeline into an event or into the Project Media browser. You can drag a full, unedited clip, from the Project Media browser view into an Event or into the timeline. You can drag a full, unedited, clip from an Event into the Project Media or into the timeline. Events can only hold unedited clips, not segments or clips with edits, so if you want to save an edited clip or a clip segment from the timeline you need to copy and paste it into a newly created project that will act as a sort of library or archive for unedited clips that you may want to put into it. The edits will carry over.

When you create segments of clips on the timeline each segment, while it displays as a segment, contains the entire clip. So, you can drag out the edges of a segment and restore the entire clip. When you create a segment it does not display as a new clip in the Project Media browser view, because the full clip is already in the browser, and the segment of the clip is only an edited version of the full clip. Edited versions will not be displayed in Events or in the Project Media view.

Fulls clips that are stored in an Event are accessible to all projects and can be dragged into any project.

As for labeling clips in the timeline, that cannot be done other than by overlaying a title onto them.

-- Rich

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Answer 2

Rich839

Level 8

47,322 points

Jan 23, 2023 8:04 AM in response to Katarina Wittich

Hi, Katarina,

iMovie does have some organization features, as described in this help link:

https://help.apple.com/imovie/mac/10.1/#/mov74d7d370c

However, organization is not iMovie's strong suit. There really are no features for labeling clips and storing labeled clips the way you describe.

The Photos app, on the other hand, has numerous organizational features for organizing clips. You can place them in albums, create smart albums, mark them with keywords, create titles, add descriptions in the info box, and edit them with the Preview app and other editing apps. You can consult the Photos app help menu for more info. So, you can create your organizational structure in the Photos app, and then import the clips from there into iMovie as you need them.

You can also use the Finder to create folders and subfolders to organize your media before importing it into iMovie.

-- Rich

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Answer 3

Jan 23, 2023 6:28 PM in response to Rich839

Hey Rich, thank you for that helpful answer. I decided to get final cut pro instead of using imovie because it seemed like it would give me more options and is designed for more complicated editing. But I am having a tough time figuring out how to do what I want to do and maybe you can help?

I learned my editing on a flatbed so long ago that you would literally cut out sections of film and hang them in a bin with a label and then grab them when you needed them. So adapting to video editing takes quite a bit of doing!. I have one two hour video that I need to cut down to two minutes and have to be able to sort out the various sections and decide what will go in and what wont. After I take out all the stuff that isnt useful using the timeline, I would want to pull out sections and label them and store them somewhere so that they are on standby to use later if I decide I need them. Can I grab a section on the timeline and copy it and put it in its own event? or is there a better way to do it? I would like to remove things from the timeline and then be able to find them easily and put them back in when I want to.

I guess I could put them in the b roll but I would rather save that for sections that I am pretty sure I am gonna use , not the standby sections.

Also what is the best way to label sections of footage on your timeline, so that when you move them around you can easily identify what their content is. This is all a zoom interview that is not visually differentiated.

thank you so much for your prompt answer yesterday!

Katarina

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