How to add notes/tags to specific times while watching a video?

Question

I have a large archive of video that I want to catalog, so that I can go back and find clips about certain topics. So far, I've done a couple videos by playing them 1.5x and writing the time code and making a note about the topic... on paper. Then, I transfer everything into a spreadsheet. It's certainly effective, but relatively inefficient.

Ideally, I'd like to be able to create a list of tags that I can choose as I'm watching the video. Alternately, the ability to type a quick note that's tied to a particular time signature would also be good. If I have to pause the video to do it, that's a no-go. I'm thinking of something a lot like SoundCloud's feature where you can make a comment while you're listening to something.

Is there any way to do something like this in Adobe Premier, AfterEffects, or some other tool?

Answer 1

This seems possible in Adobe Premiere Pro (CS6 at least). From your question I understand you want to do three things, I will treat every one of them separately. The steps can be used to achieve your goal.

First, open a new project in Premiere Pro (PP) and import the media you want to add comments to. Additionally, I found the Metalogging window lay-out convenient for this task (Windows -> Workspace -> Metalogging or Alt+Shift+6), but you might find another lay-out fit your needs better.

1. Play video at 1.5x speed

Double click the video you want to play, it will open in the Source panel. Press Spacebar to play the video and use the L key to increase the playback rate and the J decreases it (credits to this answer).

2. Create a list of tags during playback

While the video plays hit the M key to create a Marker at the timecode currently shown in the Source panel (markers pointed out):

Make sure the Source panel is in focus (i.e. has a yellow line around the panel):

3. Add comments to the tags without pausing the video

Make sure the Markers panel (Window -> Markers) and the Source panel is visible (Window -> Source).
When you add markers during playback, these will show up in this panel with a comment field:

While the video plays, you can add markers in the Source panel and then add comments to these markers in the Markers panel. The video is not paused.

In your comment you mention you would like to export the markers to a file. Unfortunately I did not find a straightforward way to do this in CS6, however, PP Creative Cloud does have this option according to this tutorial. The option can be found in File -> Export -> Markers and allows you to export an HTML file of your timestamped markers, including comments and a screenshot of the video at that time.