Digital Daily - How do I add "Chapter Markers" to a group of clips?

Hey friends,

Forgive me if you have already addressed this one... I looked but could not find it anywhere on the site...

This falls under the "digital daily" scenario...
I have 50 or so clips captured, in a timeline, and I now want to put "Chapter Markers" at the head of each clip in order to output an MPEG 2 stream via compressor for DVD. The goal is to provide my producer with a DVD that can utilize the "track forward" button to skip around to each clip. As you can imagine, doing this manually would take a very long time...

Anyone know of a shortcut or built in feature that will do this quickly?

THANKS!!!

-Joshua


Joshua Martelli
Director of Multimedia
Office (760)721-3600
Cell (619)921-9196

Mad Media Design
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<Comfort the Disturbed, Disturb the Comfortable>

I have asked Apple for this feature but it was not included on latest version (as far as I know). If it makes you feel better I usually have about 75 clips to add chapter markers to. I made up a dummy project with markers already in the timelines, AT THE FRONT. (My sequences usually have about the same amount of markers for each project). I add the clips to the sequences, then, STARTING AT THE END of the sequence, (at the point in the clip that I need a chapter marker) I "Shift tilda" (above the Tab key) to bring the markers to the desired spot. Lots of work beforehand but it is the only way I know of. It seems like a common request in this column so if anyone else has an idea...thanks good luck

sorry about the screaming caps above. This method works because the markers can only be moved forward, not backward. Another request for Apple.

Thanks for the reply guys, and confirmation that this feature is not included yet.

Both ideas are great work arounds. But if you will allow me to vent for a minute...

Imagine you are on-site filming, and lucky enough to be capturing to a Firestore. All your client wants/needs is a basic scratch DVD with chapter points so that they can quickly skip from take to take using the "track forward" button on the DVD. Simple enough right? You could theoretically do this with a laptop armed with an internal burner...

I'm blown away that this has never been addressed... I would think this very fundamental need to create a DVD with chapter points "automatically" would be built into FCP/DVDSP. In fact there should be a script written so that all one has to do is drag a bunch of clips into a timeline in FCP, throw in a blank DVD, hit one button and walk away...

Automating the process of adding chapter points, exporting to MPEG 2 with a preset, importing to DVDSP and burning a simple disc with no menu, should not be that hard... In fact it's kind of silly that FCP can't burn DVD's directly too as this need arises often and usually does not require any menu design.

I know Apple can't include everything in it's new updates, but I sure wish they would focus on practical tools and features instead of mere marketing crap... Adobe is jumping forward by leaps and bounds with the tight integration of AE, PS, and Premiere. Now if only they hadn't nixxed OS X support!!!

Yeah, I'd love to have the ability to copy and paste markers. If they behaved like real objects in the Timeline, it'd be nice to create all the markers, then group-select them and control-click to "add chapter marker" or something. Features wishlist!

I guess for now, we're stuck with m, m, click, return, SHIFT-down arrow.

FCP burning DVDs? I'd be worried about FCP trying to take on too many jobs -- potentially at the expense of the editing features. That's what iDVD (a pox!) is for.

Yep. But I'm not talking about losing any functionality. Instead it would mean adding a feature like "Print to Tape", except instead it would be "Rip to Disc". I don't know about you but my clients aren't asking for "check tapes", (VHS) anymore... They want check DISCS. And they aren't willing to pay me for the hour it takes to output to MPEG 2 and then import/author in DVDSP, and then wait for the discs to burn...

Remember too one of my original thread ideas concerned functionality on location. I have watched big budget stuff with racks of Avids go down in the music video world and even they can't rip a disc of "takes" or "dailies" without leaving the Avid environment and doing a bunch of MPEG 2 conversion/authoring.

I think Adobe gets it. Case in point, CS2 now supports preview to NTSC monitor via Firewire natively, whereas this used to require the Echo Fire plug-in. A lot of the print guys may be reacting the same way you are to the idea of too much integration...but then Adobe doesn't make our computers. Apple needs to get off there asses and step up their game. Create a professional services devision or something and really get their feet wet. But hey I digress...

The point is, as you mention, the solution to my problem is "M M <chapter marker> return, down arrow..." At least for now...

if the slates are all individual files,

would they have chapter markers added automatically in DVDSP?
or iDVD for that matter?
or toast?
i havent gotten deep enough into those apps to know, sorry, and wou;dnt you know it, i cant burn a DVD at the moment due to technical problems :-(

check out Andreas Keils' XML tools.
they might help:
[www.spherico.de]

i;ve been thinking about this for a while, and for me, digital dailies would

have a chapter marker on each slate/take
have the slate/take (clip name) as an optional subtitle on the DVD,
maybe have a very simple menu, created automatically, (or as automatically as possible)

at the moment, making a DVD seems to be the most click-intensive work i've ever done on a computer, both in FCP adding the chapters, and in SP.

nick

Joshua:
"Yep. But I'm not talking about losing any functionality. Instead it would mean adding a feature like "Print to Tape", except instead it would be "Rip to Disc". I don't know about you but my clients aren't asking for "check tapes", (VHS) anymore... They want check DISCS. And they aren't willing to pay me for the hour it takes to output to MPEG 2 and then import/author in DVDSP, and then wait for the discs to burn..."

well VHS tapes have NO navigatioanl aids other than fast forward, and reverse.
if your clients are ok with that, then a simple DVD recorder might be the best way to go.
do they have any way of adding index/chapter points on the fly?

nick

I hear you Nick...

I think adding a chapter marker to the "in" of any new captured clip would be any easy and useful feature. Plus you could use the same language for the clip or reel name, or "comments"...Maybe a check box that says, "Create Chapter Marker On Each In" or something...

Yeah I'll check out Keils XML stuff...thanks for that...

Clients perceive VHS as old, outdated, and many don't even have them at all anymore...DVD-R is a creative idea though and I bet one could be rigged up to read the composite output of the CPU and put index markers where black slugs were left...I'm sure this is how they automatically add index markers when recording live TV shows...etc... NICE ONE!