How are you organizing with your footage?

[pacotacoshell]

(unless it's a useless repeat like in NANA)

That was only one episode that repeated, don't hate
Use a less cool reference, like Haruhi's Endless Eight.

[tuxedomarty]

For most of my videos, I use DVDs unless it's an anime that's rare and out of print in the US or hasn't been released in the US at all. That's where I go to look for the footage elsewhere.

[Taite]

(unless it's a useless repeat like in NANA)

That was only one episode that repeated, don't hate
Use a less cool reference, like Haruhi's Endless Eight.

Whaat, there's like, 3 episodes at least!
And trufax.

Ok so I feel like I am doing this incredibly wrong right now. For me all of my anime are .mkv files (so that I can turn the subs on or off for when I am watching or working on a AMV). However Premier Pro doesn't like it when I try to import an mkv file so I go down and hunt for the clips each time (watching 1 or 2 episodes at a time at 4-8 times speed) . Once I find a clip I record that part into an uncompressed avi and throw that into Premier Pro. The problem I run into is that all my avi clips are massive in size so I can't really keep them. I am positive I am doing this in one of the most inefficient ways possible so people with experience in the video world a better method would be much appreciated.

This comes to mind http://xkcd.com/763/

And mkvs are container files which is why editing programs don't take them (someone correct me if I'm wrong.) But if you're downloading mkv episodes, you're going to end up making an avi out it either way. Probably shouldn't be downloading anime anyhow, but we're all a bit guilty of that Nonetheless, I'll still say it: don't download anime, buy the dvds!

And if it works, then it's not inefficient. I'm sure everyone would think my method of organizing and encoding episodes for editing is inefficient, but it works for me so it doesn't matter. However, if you can't keep your clips, then you can 1) get an external drive, or 2) delete them like you have been. If you want nice quality, then you need to keep exporting uncompressed avis, and that's why the files are big. If they're small, that typically means the quality isn't good. It's just a sacrifice we all have to take.

[Rendakor]

I don't understand why people buy external drives instead of additional internal drives. They're generally cheaper and access data faster, and installing a HD is pretty simple.

[Castor Troy]

I don't understand why people buy external drives instead of additional internal drives. They're generally cheaper and access data faster, and installing a HD is pretty simple.

There are some editors who's probably maxed out all of the available slots in their computers or use laptops.

I have 6TB of space, but I also have 5-6 externals.

[BasharOfTheAges]

I actually have the largest case I could find, 2 free drive bays (close to 8 if i grab solid state drives) but no SATA ports left on my editing system. All 6 on-board ones are filled up, and i'm stuck using a PATA ribbon cable on my DVD drive. I'd add a PCI SATA expansion card on if I could find some decent HUEG cables to route all the way from where that would need to mount to the new drive slots.

[LantisEscudo]

I edit on more than one machine, so externals are very helpful for carrying whole projects from machine to machine. With USB3, the speed hit isn't very bad, and the convenience outweighs the minor performance hit.

As to the original topic, I rip and make lossless files of whole episodes, and I have a text file of timecodes for scenes I may want to use. I bring the whole episode into my NLE and use the text file as a guide for where to find a particular scene I want at a given time.

[siny]

I throw all the episodes in Vegas, turn on the song that I'm editing to on repeat, and then get every possible clip that fits for my story. Then after that, I sift through everything again, looking for the ones that I really like out of the bunch. Then I just start editing. Sometimes if I have over an hour or two worth of clips, then I have to repeat step 3 and sift through them again.

I actually do something similar to this. Like paco I throw all the episodes in Vegas. Then I watch episode by episode and create subclips with the scenes that might fit my song/story/etc. It's a bit like rewatching an entire anime, but since I only work with animes I've seen, I usually know what I'm looking for so I don't even play the episodes, I just zoom in to look at the frames. Of course sometimes, when I have more time, I do end up rewatching some of my favorite episodes lol

I found this very helpful for future videos and MEP parts. If I want to use a particular scene again or that I didn't end up using on that old project. I just have to open it and "Oh there it is! Ok so episode 6 from season 1, got it!". With smaller animes with 13 episodes or something, I usually recycle that same project and just delete everything on my timeline and grab the new song. But my selection of scenes will take less time now that I have most of my favorite scenes picked.

If it's a bigger anime or if I'm doing a mix, I organize my scene selection into folders in Vegas. The easier example would be Watery Symphony of Kai where I have folders (or bins in Vegas) called "winter, spring, autumn, summer". Or for example when I'm working with Code Geass, I also name the folders like "1st season, 2nd season, young lulu, past cc" etc. It's very useful if I end up leaving that project on hold for a few days or weeks, since I have it all organized it will take less time (imo) to refocus on what I need to keep working on it.