How do you go about selecting your clips?

[irriadin]

Here's how I do it in the most exhaustive and mind-numbing way possible:

* Convert DVD's / Blu-ray's to AVI / Lagarith codec (actually, this is what I should have done with my video, but I ended up using the raw high def stream file from the blu-ray, which basically made Vegas crash constantly and also made the playback stutter during RAM preview. Ugh, lesson learned.)
* Load up every relevant episode, set playback rate to 1.5-2x speed, watch the WHOLE THING, stopping to slice clips out that can work.

[JustaGreekLegend]

Nice topic, always wondered how others select their scenes.

Before I even start editing I usually try to picture the result of my amv, which includes my scene selection. But there are many times where this doesnt work out when I get to certain points within my editing projects, so when I reach these points I usually watch or skim the episodes that I am using for an amv of mine and try to look for which scenes would work best with the song, story, and the editing style I am using for a particular project.

This has almost always been the process that I use for editing.

[Kitsuner]

Similar to other people's methods, I like to encode the entire DVD as a single lossless file. If it's a long term project (meaning I have a 30-70 chance of actually making the video), I plan it out in my head for months (I have some videos entirely planned out that I started five years ago <_<). If I've seen the source before, I generally have an idea which scenes I want where, so after dropping those, the rest of the video becomes a connect-the-dots style of storytelling.

If I haven't seen the source, I might watch it (especially if I want it to relate to the original story in some way) or if I'm short on time, I scrub through the disc in Vegas and pull out scenes that look like they might fit. I'm more likely to edit in normal chronological order if I haven't seen my footage beforehand, because I don't know what scenes to grab until I'm specifically looking for something (though I might mark a clip I find I really want to use).