Hi,

No need to export the edited clips. Add a new movie (a new tab and timeline) and copy/paste your edits to that, until you’re ready to use them in your main movie,

Hi

To add to Terry's comment:-

MEP is a non destructive editing program, ie it does not change the source video, images and audio objects (files) used in the projects.

What you see on the timeline are references to the original objects and video proxy files if these are being created. Similarly the project file itself is a 'text' file that contains the information about which files are present on the timeline, which sections of the objects are to be used, what effects etc are applied to those objects and any other editing decisions you have made.

Very rarely do I pre-prepare any video or images used in the project before hand, occasionally I will use Terry's method of using additional timeline(s) for moving a complex edit from one section of the project to another - trying to move 10 to 30 or more objects in a complex collage for example, from one position in the timeline to another, can be tricky - grouping them does help - though I prefer the added security of Terry's method which provides a backup copy if I mess up the moved parts later on.

An efficient and useful method, for adding sections of longer video clips to the timeline, is to preview these in the Preview Monitor and set IN and OUT points for the section required then add this to the timeline (see In and Out points in the manual) , repeating this where there are more sections of the long video required.

I regularly save the project, renaming to give a sequence which, if one goes bad I can revert to an earlier.

HTH

John EB

As an alternative to the previous very sensible suggestions, I have had longer term projects where I have needed to edit clips and store them for later use. To do this, I have brought them individually into the time line, and rendered them back out to the same format and bitrate that they were recorded at under a new filename for later use. Alternatively, the originals could also be imported into the timeline as a number of consecutive clips and then worked on individually. Each clip can then be 'Exported to Range Only', by dragging the blue range line to the start and end of each clip that you want to export.

I have frequently worked that way exporting to mp4 at a higher bitrate than needed for the final project, to maintain quality for the final edit when it will be re-encoded.

Roger

@RogerGunkel@RogerGunkel

Hi Roger, JayGee716

Roger - to expand your method you can use Takes (.tk2) for the individual edited clips?

This saves you a considerable amount of disk space, eg for a short 18.8 MB video clip the Take is about 120 kB in size, retains all the editing, which also has the advantage the effects can be undone when using a Take, and can be done without the need for exporting ranges by adding all the videos to the timeline in one go.

Edit the clip(s) as required apply any effects etc, then right click and select Save objects as takes - the only downside is that the original video must be still available, preferably in the same location as when you created the take, when you want to re-use it.

JayGee716

As you can see you are spoilt for choice on how to proceed with your requirements - each has advantages and disadvantages.

HTH

John EB