How to Cut, Label, Save sports clips (40Hours, 500GB, 1080p AVCHD Source) for creating season highlight video in Premiere Elements 13?

Question

Thanks in advance for any suggestions you can provide to help me.
I have filmed all of my son's basketball games this season and we are heading into the playoffs soon. I would like to find an efficient way to cut, label, and save video clips to create a highlight movie for the team banquet.
All video is AVCHD and saved on hard drive. A few games were recorded with a Sony camcorder 1920x1980i30(*.mt2s), the rest with my Canon DSLR1920x1080p30(*.mov). I will have about 35 or 40 hours of video by the end of the season. Probably around half a terabyte.
I own licenses to the following video editors.
Sony Vegas Movie Studio HD Platinum 11.
Adobe Premiere Elements 13 that I just purchased bundled with Photoshop Elements 13.
I struggled with burning AVCHD disks with the Sony software, so did the Adobe trial and everything worked great so I bought it.
I went through one game and clipped the highlights, but can't figure out how to label them, or export them as individual highlight files.  I guess I would be OK doing this all in a single project if I knew that it would work, and if I could find a way to label the clips so that I can arrange them without having to preview the clip every time.
I am open to using other tools if they don't cost too much, free would be awesome since I don't do this professionally.
Thanks!

Answer 1

GreatFun,
Yes, while I couldn't spend much time today at work reviewing the link ATR provided, at a high level I like ATR's approach as well, and it definitely is advantageous for that use case and rendering only the final product. My use case is a bit different. My son's high school webcasts each match which I then pull off their Youtube channel (with their permission, of course) and use their camera angles and their play-by-play guys commentary (again, with permission) to augment my video (which are closer to the action and much better quality than theirs, I must say). The kids get a kick out of hearing the play-by-play guy yell their name when the score or make a great play. So that is why I produce my clips separately. To me it is cleaner and I can store them for later use outside PE or any other project.
Anyway, regarding the actual shooting of the video. I've been doing this for awhile and there are two elements that are a must for any soccer shoot: a good solid tripod with fluid panning ability, and height. Getting above the action (like atop bleachers), for the most part, is an advantage most of the time. That is why professional sports are shot from above. While I do like to take a few minutes of every game to get on the sidelines and film at field level (this adds a bit of variety to the finished product, and you can't beat the ambient sounds you get when the players grunt and groan), you just can't capture the flow of the game from that angle.
The purpose of your video will dictate your composition. Are you trying to always focus on one player (one particular forward, back, midfielder or keeper) and get their every move (for the purpose of say, college recruitment purposes), regardless of where the ball or action is? If so, you'll want to stay tight on them, but not too tight - know where the action is and use the rule of thirds here with your subject player always in the left or right most third. Let the action, in this case, the ball, enter from the opposite third your player is in to allow the viewer to see a glimpse of what led up to your subject being engaged with the action. If your subject is a keeper, that is the easiest position to focus on of all. When filming just a keeper, I like to set my tripod up along the touch line about 30 yards from the goal line (again, elevated if possible), compose the shot using thirds again so as to let the viewer see the passing action as the goal is attacked. Its great to get a clip of the keeper making a save, but it can be much more impressive and entertaining to a viewer to see how it all unfolds and the choices the goalie has to make to be in the right position to make the save.
If your intent is to film the action where the ball is, regardless of the player or team that has the ball (like most professional sports coverage), it is much better to cast a wide composition. As you mention, it is difficult to find that sweet spot between being too far out and missing the intimacy, or being too close in and simply giving the viewer a headache as the shots zip around as you try and follow the ball. I've found the sweet spot for me is to shoot always keeping a quarter of the pitch in view. This allows for tight enough composition to keep the viewer engaged with the action, without having to jerk the shot around so much as to make them throw up. Soccer is quite fast paced at the high school level and there is quite a bit of "switching the field", where a wing will lob the ball completely across the width of the field to the opposite wing. If you are in too tight, you'll have to pan very quickly to the receiving side, and if done a lot, will not make for very entertaining viewing. There are other examples of why you shouldn't be too tight, but you get the idea.
I've probably written too long a post as it is for this forum, but I hope I've given you some things to consider on your next shoot.
Good health to you!