Adding files and AI clips

Add video files

Footage from a real camera, or from a phone outside Video Village, comes in as a file.

1. Pick or drop the files

   Click Upload at the top of the tab and pick one or more files. Or drag them from your desktop and drop them anywhere on the page while Takes is open.

2. Wait for them to go up

   Each file gets a row with a progress bar. They go up one at a time, so the rest say Waiting… until it’s their turn. Keep the page open until they finish.

3. Find the new takes

   Each finished file becomes a take named after the file, marked Cloud. It has no shot or take number yet.

Files can be MP4, MOV or WebM, up to 5 GB each. Upload only shows if your access lets you edit editorial work.

If a file stops partway, its row says Upload Failed and why. Retry sends the same file again. Dismiss drops it and removes the take it started.

A file you add goes straight to the cloud, so it never shows Local. Its frame rate, timecode and picture size are read before it goes up, the same way a recorded take’s are.

Files that need converting

Some footage doesn’t play in every browser: iPhone HEVC, ProRes, DNxHR and 10-bit files. A take like that shows Converting while a copy that plays everywhere is made. The copy has every frame of your file and its timecode, and your file is kept as the original.

If a file can’t be converted, the take shows Can’t Cut with the reason under it. Export it from your camera app or editor as an MP4 and add it again.

AI clips from the Timeline

1. Make the clip

   Open Timeline in the panel at the bottom of the project and click a shot. In the clip editor, make at least the first frame with Generate Frame, then click Generate Video.

2. Upload it

   A new clip is marked Local, which means only your browser has it. Click Upload under the video. A clip made from more than two frames comes out in parts, and Upload joins them into one file first.

3. Find it in Takes

   Once it’s up, the clip is a take of its shot, marked Generated, with the shot’s next take number. Each version you make and upload is another take.

A generated take works like any other: circle it, write a note, and cut with it in Editing and CinemaCutter.