Organize

Organize your video memories into easily identifiable video files that help you understand what, when, and where each memory is from.

Open

Open your captured file in a video editor project timeline

Edit

Cut your clips into logical scenes and events

Export

Render and save the video file to a folder on your computer

Label

Use our naming framework to recognize the video at a glance

Make finding memories easy and intuitive

It’s now time to take our large recordings from the previous steps and edit them into smaller clips so we can easily share with others.

Follow the video and steps below to learn how to cut your tapes into logical clips, and then label them using a professional file naming system.

What you'll need

In this step we won’t need much equipment, just a computer, a free video editor, and patience.

Computer

Continue using the computer you used in the Capture section. We’ll show you how to complete this step on both a Mac and PC (Windows).

QuickTime (Mac)

QuickTime is a free media player that also has simple video editing capabilities and is included on your Mac desktop or laptop by default.

Clipchamp (PC)

Clipchamp is also a simple and free video editor that is included on Windows 11 computers by default, but can also be downloaded from the Microsoft App Store.

Create clips folder

Now it’s time to start cutting the single clips into multiple clips. A captured VHS tape may contain segments from different dates or times (for example, a piano recital, then Christmas, then News Years Eve, etc.). We want to trim our current large clip into these smaller clips so we can share them later easily.

STEP 1: Briefly scan through the video

Before we begin editing the video, it’s best to do a brief scan of the video to understand where our ideal breakpoints will be.
Look for changes in days or events. If it jumps from Christmas Eve to Christmas Day, consider breaking those apart. If it goes from playing tennis to suddenly being at home watching TV, consider breaking there.
Clips should aim to be between 5-15 minutes long.

STEP 2: Create a new folder

Find the Processed Tapes folder we created in Step 9 in the Capture phase and create a new folder inside it and name it the label of tape we we will be editing followed by “- Clips” (for example “Christmas 1995 – Clips”).

STEP 1-2 OUTCOMES

Edit on a Mac pt.1

The following two sections provide instructions on how to edit a clip in QuickTime if you are using a Mac.

(Mac) STEP 3: Open your video in QuickTime

Open your video file in QuickTime by double clicking it or right-clicking the video file and selecting Open With > QuickTime Player.

(Mac) STEP 4: Enter split mode

Click and drag the playhead (vertical line at the beginning of the timeline) until you find the end of the first clip you would like to edit. When you get close, you can release your mouse click and use the left and right arrow keys on your keyboard to get precisely to the last frame.
Once you find the spot you would like to split, press the CMD+Y keys. You will now see you first clip separated from the others.

(Mac) STEP 5: Split the rest of the clips

Now hover your mouse over the red line until the cursor changes to a two arrows and line in the middle.
Click and hold the red line and mouse forward until you find the end of the next clip you would like to split and then press CMD+Y.
Repeat for the rest of the clips you would like to split.
If you make a mistake, you can press the CMD+Z key to undo.

STEPS 3-5 OUTCOMES

Edit on a Mac pt.2

(Mac) STEP 6: Save your first clip

Now select all the clips AFTER the first clip by clicking the second clip so it is highlighted in yellow and then press and hold the CMD key and click each clip after until all the clips except the one you want to save first is highlighted.
Press the DELETE key and then CMD+S.
In the save window that appears, name this file a simple description of what it is for now (Christmas Eve, etc.) and then navigate to the CLIPS folder we created earlier and click the Save button.

(Mac) STEP 7: Bring back the clips

Now press CMD+Z to bring back the clips you temporarily deleted.
Hold the CMD key again and this time unselect the second clip by clicking it, and then click the first clip so it is selected. Press the DELETE KEY.
Press CMD+S to save this clip, labeling as necessary.
Repeat for the rest of the clips.
When you are done you can click the red X button in the top left corner of the player window. In the window that pops up saying “Do you want to keep this new document”, click the DELETE button.
Your MASTER clip will be untouched and you will now see all your new clips in the CLIPS folder

STEPS 6-7 OUTCOMES

Edit on a PC pt.1

The following two sections provide instructions on how to edit a clip in Clipchamp if you are using a PC. Our example and screenshots will use the web version, but the steps will be almost identical on the desktop version.

(PC) STEP 3: Create a new video editor project

Open Clipchamp and click the Create New Video button.
Click the “Untitled video” box in the top left corner of the editor and rename to something simple such as “Name of Tape – PROJECT” (for example, Pinewood Derby – PROJECT).
In your new project, click the Import Media button and navigate to the Processed Tapes folder and find the clip with “MASTER” in the title that you would like to edit and click “Open”. Drag the clip from the Media panel to the beginning of the timeline to place it.

(PC) STEP 4: Change aspect ratio to 4:3

Click anywhere off of the timeline and then above the clip preview box in the middle of screen, click the Size button and then select Classic 4:3. This will allow us to preserve the original frame and crop of the clip as it was recorded.

(PC) STEP 5: Find the logical end point of the first clip

We now need to find the point we would like to end the first clip.
In the timeline, scan through the clip by mousing over it until we find the spot we want to end it.
Use the S key on your keyboard to split the clip at this point.
Congratulations we now have our first edited clip!

STEPS 3-5 OUTCOMES

Edit on a PC pt.2

(PC) STEP 6: Split additional clips

Repeat splitting for the rest of the video.
In general strive for segment lengths between 5-15 mins. If unsure how to trim, think about how you might name this clip to easily find later. This will help you focus in on one theme.

(PC) STEP 7: Isolate clip to export on timeline

To export a clip we will need to isolate it by temporarily deleting the rest of the clips on the timeline (we will bring these back later).
Select all the clips after the first clip on your timeline and hit the Backspace key on your keyboard.

(PC) STEP 8: Export clip

Click the Export button in the top right corner, and select the 480p option.
Name the clip a simple description of what it contains for now.
Once the video is finished exporting, click the Save to your computer button that appears. In the file explorer window, select the clips folder we created in the previous section and click Save.

(PC) STEP 9: Bring clips back

After your clip has been saved, hit Control+Z. This will bring all the clips you deleted back.
Now repeat by deleting the first clip on the timeline (that you just exported), and then when the next clip moves to the beginning, highlight and delete all the clips after it and repeat saving.
Repeat for the rest of the clips in your timeline.

STEPS 6-9 OUTCOMES

Label the files

Now it’s time to label our clips using a professional naming system so we (or anyone) can easily identify them. We’re going to use the following template for naming files:

YEAR – LOCATION – SHORT DESCRIPTION

Before we break this down step by step, there are a few notes to note about this structure:

We will use underscores ” – ” to separate YEAR, LOCATION, and SHORT DESCRIPTION.
We will capitalize all words in the title.

Great! Now let’s now break this down step by step.

STEP 10: Start with the year the video takes place

If the year is labeled on the VHS tape or cover, then you are in luck! Write this is in full YYYY format (e.g. 1990)
If you do not know for certain, give your best guess, and if you still have no idea, you can denote the decade with an lowercase “s” (e.g. 1990s)
After you have added the year or decade, add a space hyphen space ” – “.

STEP 11: Add the location the video takes place

If the video takes place at your childhood home, you can use Street Name House (for example EDGEWOOD HOUSE) to denote which house it was.
If the video takes place outside of a home, you can use the name of the place. (for example DISNEYLAND)
If you do not know the location, you can use “UNKNOWN”

Label the files Pt2

STEP 12: Add a short description of the video

Watch or briefly scan the video to understand the contents of the video.
Add this ideally in 5 words or less, separating each word by a single space
For example if the video is of you and your siblings opening presents on Christmas Eve, you might use something like: 1995 – EDGEWOOD HOUSE – OPENING PRESENTS ON CHRISTMAS EVE

STEP 13: Now’s put it all together (with examples)

Now let’s put our YEAR – LOCATION – SHORT DESCRIPTION format all together. The following are some examples of how your file filename might look:
1995 – MAPLE ST HOUSE – OPENING PRESENTS ON CHRISTMAS EVE
1987 – DISNEYLAND – MEETING-MICKEY
1996 – UNKNOWN – PHILIP GYMNASTICS COMPETITION
1990s – GRANDMAS SMITH HOUSE – EASTER BRUNCH

STEPS 10-13 OUTCOMES

Congratulations! You now have your first professionally titled file name.

Once you have a dozen or so clips organized you can sort your clip file names by ascending order (oldest year to most recent) or by descending (most recent year to oldest) to easily find clips. The LOCATION keyword will help us group similar locations together, and the underscores and hyphens will help us keep concise file names.

Once you have done this for a tape, you can move onto the Share stage.