Vegas Pro Project Management Advice

Cliff Etzel wrote on 7/31/2016, 9:09 AM
I'm neck deep in a pretty large project for a local Non-Profit. The client supports adults with developmental disabilities and I'm getting towards the tail end of acquisition of the content I need to start editing.

As most regulars know, I've gone back and forth with trying to use Vegas Pro in its various iterations with little success on the stability front and have resorted to doing my paid work with PPro CS6 but the program is getting a little long in the tooth and given I'm not willing to pony up to Adobe's Ransomware, It's also started giving me problems with randomly corrupting project files and if it weren't for the auto save feature, I'd be in serious trouble due to some of the recent short deadlines I've been facing on some of my projects. But I've stuck with CS6 only because I know it the most. Having said that, the last couple of very small projects I've edited with VP13 v453 have worked well. These projects were mostly audio slideshows and working with the audio was a joy in VP13 compared to Adobe's tools.

Having said that, this current project is pretty large with separate sections for each of the 4 areas the Non-Profit does within their organization. I'm use to working with multiple sequences within PPro and given that Vegas Pro works on a per project basis I'm looking for advice on managing assets, separate timelines or "sequences" and getting the very best I can out of my footage. Material is being acquired via Olympus EM5 MkI Mirrorless cameras (which shoots a fairly compressed AVCHD codec) with dual sync audio recorded to my Tascam DR-05 audio recorder. I'm using PluralEyes 3.5 to sync all interview material first before doing anything else and renaming clips outside of any NLE. I normally do this when I've edited in PPro and it's worked well so far in managing larger type projects.

Now that you know the background - what's the "best" way to manage/organize a project of this scope to edit with Vegas Pro? I dread the idea of using PPro given how much audio is entailed on this project, and given the recent challenges of corrupt project files (in addition to eating up system resources) but I do know how it works pretty well but I'd prefer not using if at all possible.

Maybe I can get it right this time around with Vegas Pro...

TIA,

Cliff

Comments

HyperMedia wrote on 7/31/2016, 10:37 AM
Several questions I have... Is this a feature or series of shows?
BTW, I'm running on iMac for 4 years using BootCamp. I haven't had any problems with Vegas Pro since changing over from HP.
As a matter of fact, we have completed and produced 76 episodes airing on International TV in the last 4 years.( 30minutes)

I still have my HP... but iMac lives up to its representation.
Never go back to a PC system.
videoITguy wrote on 7/31/2016, 1:10 PM
The OP bites on a big topic with multiple issues.
1) In general projects should be broken down in their subject logical order - the most common component of VegasPro for doing this is called nesting accompanied by grouping assets into Windows OS file tree directory structures. Always work from a source drive to a destination drive creating more defined file tree directory tree structures from the raw asset source structures. Use digital intermediates like MagicYUV all the way up to the delivery format.

2) Using a Media Asset Database (as that provided by SCS in the past) is really helpful to complex huge projects...

3) And then there are the topics of endless discussion - like subclips creation - region and marker documentation - list goes on and on.
Cliff Etzel wrote on 7/31/2016, 3:16 PM
This project is to be distributed via the internet only as an advocacy & marketing/promotion medium. The initial scope is to create 4 sections that highlight those 4 components of what the organization does - they call it their "Snap SHot Tour". Then the additional content I've shot will be used as stand alone pieces that goes more in depth for each of those components.

My assets are always organized by category/subject/etc and then broken into A & B cameras, etc. Stills are in their own folder when shot. This is how I organize before I even open the NLE for ingest.

I've read of horror stories for many who have tried to use the Media Asset Database in Vegas Pro. Care to comment?

This project is really important to get done right and although PPro does work, I'd prefer managing all media assets in Vegas compared to using standalone apps for video, audio, etc.

Yes, I still have CUDA based graphics card but I do have sittin gin the closet a Radeon 6970 That isn't supported by PPro CS6 and hence why I've kept the nVidia GTX-660Ti card so far.

Thoughts?
Cliff Etzel wrote on 8/6/2016, 1:35 PM
**Bump