Logging Rushes: Adding Metadata to Your Media

Logging rushes involves adding metadata or written information to your media, making it easier to find during the editing process. Let's start by loading some rushes into the play window. Your rushes, graphics, and other files are located in the file window. If it's not already open, click the "File" button on the left panel to open the top-level file window.

You can either load rushes one at a time or import an entire folder of rushes at once. To do this, select your files or folders, then double-click or drag them into the play window. When loading folders into the play window, you'll be asked to choose how these rushes should be sorted: by date order, alphabetical order, or timecode alignment. Click to make your selection.

When you load your media into the play window, the logging window should appear at the bottom of your interface. If it doesn't come up automatically, right-click on the timeline view button and select the logging option for your play window. You can also drag the window's title bar to move it to a convenient spot and resize the window by dragging the bottom-right corner.

To demonstrate how to set up your logging window, I've loaded a folder that has already been logged. As you can see, in and out time codes, short descriptions, and sync columns are automatically displayed in the logging window. You can add or delete columns from your view by right-clicking on the column header and choosing which column you'd like to display. To select multiple column headers without closing the menu, left-click and choose.

You can customize the order of your columns by dragging and dropping them into your preferred order and adjust column width by dragging the edge of the column title cell. To sort the display of your logs according to the column information, click on the column header to sort in descending or ascending order.

Now, let's explore the information and options presented in the logging window's title bar. The name of the rush or folder loaded into your play window will be reflected here, along with the duration. You can search the clips loaded in the play window's logging entries for keywords using the search tool. The search is incremental and targeted.

If you left-click the options button, you're presented with options. You can choose to show unmatched lines when searching. For instance, if you search for "BMX," matches will be highlighted, but you can still see all your logs. Alternatively, you can choose not to show unmatched lines when searching, which will only display matches and hide logs that don't match.

You can also decide whether or not to show blank lines for unlocked clips, merge duplicated rows when printing your logs, and set where the multicam logging should save to for all cameras. Right-clicking the options button allows you to organize your logging entries according to the metadata in the chosen logging window columns.

Clicking the export button opens an online preview of your log and provides you with the option to print a hard copy. Right-clicking the export button opens a CSV file of your log as a pop-up in your browser, which can be transferred to other systems.

Now, let me introduce you to keyboard expansions, a powerful tool for speeding up your logging process. Keyboard expansions can be found by left-clicking the shortcuts button on the left-hand panel. They are used to program function keys (F1 through F12) to type text and to program abbreviations to automatically expand to words.

If you anticipate typing certain words repeatedly during logging, you can program a function key to automatically type the word or program an abbreviation to expand to the word. This reduces typing and ensures accurate spelling for better search results. Let's try these out: If I click in the "Short" column, play my clip, and hit F1, then type "R," you can see the logging entry reads "BMX and rider." Expansions are triggered by typing a non-alphanumeric character after the abbreviation.

For example, I can type "rifle" without triggering an expansion, but if I type "r" and then spacebar, it expands to "Ryder." To revert to the original abbreviation, simply hit backspace. You can also save different keyboard expansions for use in different projects. At the top of the keyboard expansions window, you'll notice a name. Next to this, there is a menu icon. Click this icon to access other keyboard expansions for your account and choose one for use in your project.