MANAGING
EASY-CUT PROJECTS

 


The Easy-Cut Menu and Toolbar shown below, contain functions and tasks for working with Easy-Cut projects.  Menu Options and Toolbar Icons change in appearance according to whether a task can be performed at a given time. For example, on Easy-Cut's opening screen (first image below), the File, Clips and Help menus, and the Open and Add Clip functions are available. 

To begin working with Easy-Cut, the Add Clip or Open Project icons (or their comparable menu options are used as explained and illustrated below).

CLIPS

In Easy-Cut, "Clip" can refer to part of a video file, or an entire video file.  The Easy-Cut Project Grid appears any time a clip is added to a new Easy-Cut project or an existing Easy-Cut project is opened. Easy-Cut projects consist of one or more video "clips".  A project may contain plays from the same game as shown above, plays from different games or other types of video, such as segments of clinic presentations, drills, "scenes", and just about any type of video imaginable.

ROWS

Information about each individual "clip" (play, scene, etc) in a project is recorded in a single "row" in Easy-Cut's "spreadsheet-like" Project Grid.  Each "row" contains the name of a video file, a Clip ID, the Start and End of the clip or scene, and columns that contain descriptive information (data) about that clip, play or scene as necessary.  

COLUMNS

Information in each row is organized into columns and some of the columns must have valid information in them or that row and the video clip, play or scene it "points to" will not function properly.  When a clip is colored Red, it is an indication that something is wrong.

Easy-Cut contains a number of columns that are "built-in", meaning they are present in all projects, whether they used or unused.  All column data can be changed, with most columns being of the "free form", "click-to-type" variety.  Only the Clip ID and Video File columns require the use of a specific Easy-Cut procedure in order to modify them.

It is usually best to organize each column to hold a single attribute, or piece of information about the clip.

BUILT IN (CATEGORY) COLUMNS AND CUSTOM COLUMNS

Easy-Cut contains a number of built-in "columns" that can be used to describe and categorize each video clip.  Built-in columns appear in the project grid, on the video editor screen and on the project preview screen.  Unless changed, the built in columns are labeled Description, and Category 1 through Category 6.  If necessary, additional (custom) columns can be created, however these user-defined columns appear only on the project grid. Easy-Cut automatically displays a scroll bar when one or more custom columns have been 

 

The four required attributes for a valid Easy-Cut Project record, play or Clip are:

  1. The clip number (sequence in the Easy-Cut project)

  2. The video file that contains the video clip

  3. The Start "marker" - which indicates the point in time at which video playback begins

  4. The End "marker" - which indicates the point at which video playback ends

    * Items 4 and 5 are often called timing marks

The File Menu contains New, Open, Append, Save, Save As and Close (Project) options.  These common tasks are grouped together, and along with the Exit menu option, will be utilized by most Easy-Cut users.

Also included on the file menu are special functions that are specific to football coaches that use an Easy-Scout product, and an Options menu that can be used to customize Easy-Cut for various purposes.  The Options menu is discussed later.

 

The functions work as follows:

NEW Project - creates a new Easy-Cut project.  Easy-Cut can have multiple projects in its grid at the same time through the use of a "tabbed" project grid.

OPEN Project - opens an existing Easy-Cut project that is saved on the computer. Easy-Cut projects have an extension of .cut.

APPEND Project - makes it possible to combine projects that were created individually.  By selecting APPEND project with a project selected and open in the Project Grid, all clips from the project that is APPENDED will be added to the active project. All of the columns that are common to both projects will be added in addition to the video clip information.

SAVE - saves a previously saved project with the same name as long as changes have been made to the project since the last save. For new, "Untitled" projects, the Save opens a dialog box and requests a name and location for the project.  Projects are saved in Easy-Cut format.

SAVE AS - makes it possible to save a project with a different name than that which was loaded. This is handy for using a master project to build a series of smaller projects, such as "cutups", individual clips, or highlight "movies".  Larger projects can be "reduced" in size by opening a project, removing one or more clips and then using Save As to assign a new name to the smaller project.

IMPORT FROM EASY-SCOUT - will read a Movie Project file created by Easy-Scout Professional into Easy-Cut with all "pointers" and data attributes intact.  

The Clips Menu and toolbar icons are used for adding and working with Clips in the project.

In addition a Preview Clip function makes it possible to select a clip from the Project grid and play it in a special Preview Window that can be "toggled" to and from full screen mode. This is especially useful when used in conjunction with Screen Projection devices.



In Version 5, the video controls are identical to those on the Video Editor.

When Previewing a single clip, the buttons work as follows (left to right):

  • Go to Start (of the active clip)
  • Rewind - Move Back 1 Frame
  • Play/Pause - Start and Stop Playback
  • Move Forward 1 Frame
  • Go to End (of the active clip)
  • Full Screen (Space bar) - toggles current video clip from displaying in the Preview window to displaying full screen.
  • Close - Closes the Preview Window

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