Same-day edit : most effecient workflow

A

andybiz_2005

Well-known member
Hi friends,

I'm a lone wedding videographer who does shooting, editing & rendering plus burning to DVD on my own.

I have had some clients who request that I do a same-day edit for them, which means that they want me to produce a 5-6 min MTV-style highlight of their day ceremony to be shown during the dinner the same day.

Usually their wedding ceremony is from morning to around 1:30pm. The dinner is the same day & starts at around 8:00pm, but I have to be there around 6:30pm.

I have done a couple before, but would be quite reluctant, because of the really tight time pressure, plus I can only afford to do it alone right now.

I have a powerful desktop PC that can render the video to DVD on time, but what takes the most time is uploading the footage from miniDV tape after the morning shoot to my PC, selecting which best shots should be included in the MTV video, the editing, arranging of clips & putting in the final touches like visual transitions & audio transitions, brighting up under exposed footage, etc.

Same-day edits are the trend now & couples want to view their morning videoshoot almost instantly.

For those who have got by successfully doing same-day edits & came out unscathed, please could you share with me your workflow, right from the shooting itself till the rendering of the MTV-style highlights to DVD? Do share with me how you get it out on time, cause I would really very much appreciate your advice & suggestions. Thanks in advance.

Andrew

P.S. - I'm using a DVX100A & Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5 as my NLE.

From what I understand, if I shoot 1hr of raw footage, I have to take 1 hr to upload the entire tape's contents to my desktop. Any way that I can speed up the process of uploading from miniDV to harddisk (more like a fast-forward upload)?
 
no you cant, its real time. I hope the couples pay you well for doing a rush same day edit. Dont get used and think that u'll loose jobs if you dont do a same day edit for them.
 
I think you've sort of answered part of the question for yourself Andy: you're not going to have time to upload all of your footage. What you need to do is go through, and, from memory of shooting it just an hour or so before, decide on the most important parts of the ceremony to capture (maybe 15-20 minutes max) You'll then only have a 3 or 4 to 1 ratio of footage to final cut, and your life will be a lot easier. I'm not sure what NLE you're on, but I'm sure you know how to log and capture different clips off of one tape. All that said, that's a crazy hard job, so I hope your getting mucho $$$ :)
Peace,

-Harry
 
What i've done with this situation is, as your shooting, be thinking ahead to what you want in the final cut and how you want it to feel. Shoot as you would, but when something you like comes along, quickly flash a white card, or your finger, or whatever you want to use in front of the camera. Then, when you log your footage, you can just screen through the footage, looking for those moments. It's helped me.
 
Wow. what kind of weird couples think they can get a wedding video back the next day? Sounds pretty unprofessional to me...

I'm curious, do they expect the same from the photographer?
 
There are a couple of options to consider if you have the resources available. 1 is to have a live mixer with the camera feeds that you can mix the even live from the 2 cameras.

The other option would be to feed the video signal from your DVX directly into a laptop via a firewire cable, then the footage is already loaded and you can scrub it from there.

I've done live events like that (not weddings) with one camera as a master shot and then I can move and zoom in on a subject and switch on the mixer and go back and forth. You keep pretty busy, but is possible and you can output directly to a VCR or DVD recorder.
 
Firestore is your friend.

I've cut broadcast news pieces RIGHT after I've shot them on my powerbook with an AJA IO/LA to a portable BSP deck.

The tape needs to be rush couriered over to a place with a sattelite up link with a 15 minute window.

I can do it, but I also charge a PRETTY PENNY for it.
 
Thanks for your comments. I would like to know how much extra should I charge the wedding couple for the same-day edit? I'm thinking around $300-$500 for a 5-6 minute MTV highlights video. Is this still too cheap, or should I raise the fee? Thanks in advance.

Andrew
 
andybiz_2005 said:
I'm thinking around $300-$500 for a 5-6 minute MTV highlights video. Is this still too cheap, or should I raise the fee? Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
is that for a 5 minute video alone? Or is that 5 minute video part of an entire package?
 
That's a lot of work for not much more than your own personal cost for the day.....I've worked on some same day edits but I wasn't alone.....mostly you need at least one person shooting and the 2nd person editing while the other is shooting. Label all tapes if your going to tape and drop those of with the other person normally editing on a laptop setup.

Trust me, when it down to the wire you WILL have the most uncommon system failures or the one time your DVD burner doesn't burn.....last time alone my DVD burner failed and a storage drive failed eating up a big chunk of my earnings making it mostly a stressful day.

I guess you should charge what you feel is fair and for the level of the product you know you can produce on that timeframe. Most people don't understand the gear, time and experience is needed to actually put together anything worth watching.....I haven't actually done any weddings myself....I've done more the MTV style fast paced sports events and fighting robot competitions.....I was very glad to have the extra help!!

Good luck!
 
Yes, $300-$500 is for the video highlights alone.

kikndrummer. Thanks for your comments. Well, if I use an extra videogrpher to shoot the dinner while I rush the edit, I will have to charge the couple for using an extra cameraman & the pricing will be different. Significantly more expensive. Most couples will ask me why so much more expensive? Then I'll have to explain the reason to them. But still they will be reluctant to agree to a 2nd cameraman. Currently, I'm charging for one cameraman, if I agree to do the same-day edit for them as well.

I think, given the tight time constraints, I still can make it for the dinner & show it during the dinner on time, but it will be a very hectic & rushed job. To me, I think that the higher bracket of $500 will be sufficient. It has to be expensive enough so that couples will really think twice about commissioning me to do a same-day edit for them. But if they ask me to do the same-day edit then that would be extra cash for my pockets.

Thanks again for your views.
 
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