John Cliff
"like a Sony C200" ...Sony C200?
I've done a few long form edits...a couple of 3 hour operas, a big band concert, artist interviews...and have found there are some real advantages to editing in blocks which are usually, for me, on separate timelines or, in the case of the operas, separate projects...at the end of the edit I bring the separate sequences, either nested or grouped into one timeline for exporting.
The advantages in no particular order for me have been:
* working in segments that are on separate sequence timelines allows faster navigation through each timeline...purely because they don't take up as much real estate on the monitor...this can speed your workflow
* if you group or nest each one it speeds up the sequencing on the main timeline - you don't have any missed bits (transitions, added small audio bites, very short clips or stills/graphics) if you move the segments around to get the optimal sequencing
* you can colour grade each segment and ensure all the clips for that segment are matched more easily
* it seems to be more efficient in terms of computer speeds - I'm editing on an old machine...this is why I divided the operas up into acts and had a separate project for each...my computer just couldn't handle 3 hour timelines
hope this helps...I'm sure others will have other workflow comments to make
as others have said....lenses used to give shallow depth of field so either fast lens (f2.8 or under...may need an ND filter if shooting in daylight) OR use a zoom zoomed right out and get close to your subject.
Post processing - if you have Photoshop the now Google owned plug-in Nik Collection has a collection called Analog Efex Pro which has a number of filters that give these looks...the filters are able to be adjusted so you can dial in the look you want and then save it as a preset...best of all it's FREE.
OR in any image editor that allows enough control (GIMP is a good free one) raise the contrast, lower the saturation, lower the highlights and raise the blacks
If you have Adobe Bridge on your system you can add metadata to files as you ingest (or, as in your case, retrospectively) including keywords that then helps search for specific subject matter etc depending on keywords used.
As the above poster has said....there's no software/method out there just yet that can do what you want without there having been some input from you either as ingesting or retrospectively.
Other than that if your media is stored with keyword file names instead of camera generated ones you can do searches via your OS search function.
Bladerunner (directors cut), Apocalypse Now (directors cut), In Bruges, No Country for Old Men, Hateful Eight (or any other Tarantino movie)...this is way too hard....so many good movies, so little time