Long recordings are easier to edit when they're broken into manageable pieces. Subclips let you carve a long clip into shorter, named sections without creating any new media, and logging is the habit of naming and tagging that material so it stays findable.
What a subclip is
A subclip is a reference to a section of an existing clip - it has no media of its own. When you play a subclip, it plays the relevant part of the original clip. Because nothing is copied, you can make as many subclips as you like at no cost in disk space, and each can carry its own name and metadata.
Subclips are identified by a coloured flag in the corner of tiles, thumbnails, and viewers.
Creating a subclip
- Load a clip into the source viewer and mark the section you want (see Reviewing source clips).
- Do one of the following:
- Click the Make subclip button on the source viewer.
- Use the Make subclip command
/, which makes a subclip from the marked region.
The new subclip appears in the Content Manager, ready to use. It also appears in the Associates tab of the Info panel.
Note: Subclips can't be made from still images.
Naming and organising subclips
Give subclips clear names as you create them - Scene 4 - wide, Interview - best answer - and tag or colour them so selects are easy to gather later. Dropping subclips into a Selects bin, or tagging them, turns a pile of rushes into an organised set you can cut from quickly. See Bins, collections, tags, and searching.
Making several subclips from one clip
When a long clip has many usable sections, drop cue markers on the moments that matter as you review. Then work through the clip a second time much faster: jump straight between cues with the Go to next / previous cue marker commands, mark each section, and make its subclip - no re-watching required.
Tip: Review once with cue markers on the moments that matter, then convert those moments into subclips in a quick second pass. You get a logged, broken-down clip without watching anything twice.
Making subclips from the markers in one go
With no in/out marks set, Make subclip works from the clip's markers instead of the marked region, and makes a subclip for each one. Only the stretches a marker actually names become subclips:
- A ranged marker gives its own range, named after the marker.
- A cue marker gives the stretch from itself to the next marker - or, if it is the last marker, to the end of the clip - again named after the marker.
- The stretches where there are no marker names are left alone: the run from the start of the clip to the first marker, and any stretch after a ranged marker's out point. So you get the pieces you logged, with no anonymous fragments to tidy up.
Running it again adds only what is new - any range that already has a subclip is skipped, so you cannot end up with duplicates by marking up a clip in two passes.
Tip: This is the fast way to break a long interview or a rushes reel into selects. Name your markers as you drop them and the subclips arrive already named.
Sync clips
A sync clip is a special kind of subclip that links video and audio (or several angles) together so they play in sync. It behaves like any other clip in the Content Manager but plays its synchronised sources together. Creating and using sync clips is covered in Syncing video and audio and, for multiple angles, Multicam editing.
Current clips at the playhead
When you're in a sequence, Current Clips gathers every clip at the playhead position into the Current collection, so you can see exactly what is contributing to the frame you're parked on - useful on busy, multi-layered timelines. Related to this, Match frame loads the source of the clip under the playhead (see Reviewing source clips).
Building bins from the clips you have used
Lightworks can collect source clips into a bin based on how they relate to a sequence:
- Bin of sources used - a tidy list of exactly what made the cut.
- Bin of sources not used - everything that didn't, useful for finding overlooked material.
This is handy for conform, for gathering media to hand on, or for building a selects bin from a rough assembly. Combined with searches and collections, it keeps the relationship between your rushes and your edit clear.