How do you initially discard unwanted footage from your movies?

i have EXACTLY the same problem. I really wish somebody would answer with simple to understand solution. People should realize that not everybody is PhD in computer science, nor that he/she spent their youth locked up in a dark basemnet behind computer. There must be a way.

I'm going to give this guy my 2 cents if I ever meet him....cause he refers to mux (multiplexing ) as the combining of various stuff into one output (or container)..

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John Johnson, Electronic Engineer / Software Programmer (1992-present)
Updated Feb 9 2018

A muxer is an engine or machine which will combine things such as signals in telecommunications. In media terminology a muxer will combine media assets - subtitles, audio and videos - into a single output resulting in containers such as a mp4, mpg, avi, mkv. Depending on the output you have chosen you may have additional options, such as adding multiple subtitle tracks (to support multiple languages), video tracks (extra footage such as “the making of” footage) or audio tracks (such as an added track for directors commentary).
Demuxing means the opposite: unraveling the assets (or signals in telecom) into raw assets again.
An mkv-muxer for example will combine the assets into *.mkv file. An avi-muxer will combine video and sound into a *.avi file. And so forth.

Thank you Warren. I learned something new

Thanks again for all these interesting posts.  I feel I have been pointed in the right direction and will now enjoy researching  and playing around with the various suggestions.

I would have liked to have marked them all with "Correct answer" but it appears only one "Correct Answer" choice is allowed, 

One final note.....to poster....

You mention a 2 week sailing trip. I know people who shoot pro ( for advertising boat builders and sponsored races, or luxury yachts, etc. ) using both Canon cameras and Drones now.  Let's say it's a regatta around Newport. Or down in the Caribbean, whatever. Even with models on motor yachts there's tons of junk that doesn't get used. For drone footage it's really retarded cause you have to fly from your follow boat ( out of the way of race course and downwind ) to just get to the boat(s) you want to feature, and with decent light ( sometimes with light behind sails so they glow etc. )… and you are rolling the whole time !  And you have to get the stupid drone back in time ( before battery dies ) and land it on your lap in a moving boat !   Yikes !

I personally would do my edit with that stuff, using what is necessary to make it happen ( multiple sequences, timelines, whatever ) even though it's a LOT of byte count ( 7 hours of mp4 must be getting up to around 30 gig ?? ) … and export your final edit.

Then buy a cheap usb 3 memory stick and stuff everything ( including your project files ) into the stick, label it and put it in a draw and just keep all of it.

You never know when ( years from now ) you might need a shot you never used before cause it just didn't work for your current project, and memory sticks are retarded cheap today.

Thank you all for a great response to my question.

The reason I put the original question is because I do not understand the underlying process of making sub-clips and exporting as per Sillybob and Anne Bens’ suggestions. I have stumbled upon a method of rendering and exporting to YouTube which works, by selecting recommended  options/methods which I have gleaned from tutorials, but I do not know to what extent the final outputted .mp4 file is degraded from the original .mp4 (GoPro) or .mov (Nikon camera).   To draw a sort of parallel, when I export from Lightroom in a JPG format  I know that the exported file can differ greatly from the original Raw File but I also know that I can always return to the original RAW file which lightroom leaves intact and so could revert to the original raw file if my skills improved and I wanted to make another export from it 

It would appear that Averdahl’s smart render software recommendation would allow the small selected portion of the original footage to stay intact in its original state with no degradation. I have looked at their site and have asked them if they have any solutions or suggestions for .mov files because they state their software is for MP4 files and  some other format unknown to me. Also the lighting fast speed is attractive .

The other reason I asked the question is because rendering and exporting takes a lot or processing time and I wondered it I was missing something.  Mike Diennik suggests “Consolidate/Transcode to a new location”. I have not tried that.  Does that method preserve the original un-degredated format of the source footage? And is the quicker than exporting sub-clips?

Finally, I got a bit lost with R Neil Haugen’s latest comment. Are you re-enforcing Averdahl’s point about the Smart Render software being the best solution, or are you suggesting another approach from within Premiere Pro?

Put the parts of the clips you want onto a sequence and then use the project manager to Consolidate/Transcode to a new location. Once you're happy with the new files, delete the old ones.

Yet another way is to bring the footage into any app that supports Smart Render and cut away the unwanted footage. A smart render export is lightning fast, many times faster than real time, and no re-compression will take place. I use TMPGEnc MPEG Smart Renderer 5 when i want to get rid of unwanted .mp4 video fast and with no re-compression.

You could keep track of your shoot with a shot list on the day so you know which videos to keep / which section of the video.

To save space;

You could export individually trimmed clips to a "desirable" bin (folder) 25mins and then trash your original videos. Then edit your youtube video with trimmed down "desirables" clips.

You can't trim it before bringing it in to premiere because thats what you're using premiere for in the first place.