How long to edit a movie?
- Thread starter RichW
- Start date
NoahK
Hottie Mod
It depends how long the days are, how much raw footage you have and how linear the material is. Not to mention how experienced the editor is and the power of the system. If it's 12 hour/6 day weeks, a well organized, experienced editor can get a decent rough cut done in 3-4 weeks. I spent about 14 weeks cutting my feature with a couple of breaks in between.
http://www.formosamovie.com/
Noah
http://www.formosamovie.com/
Noah
adkimery
Veteran
Significantly longer than you think it's going to take. 
As Noah mentioned, there are a number of variables. By "editing" do you just mean locking the cut or are you including audio mixing, finishing, and final outputting as well? Are there a lot of VFX shots? How good is the footage (by that I mean how much time is the editor going to have to spend working around short comings from production)? Is there going to be any ADR? Did you steer clear of any possible copyright problems (unlicensed music, images, etc.,)?
-A
As Noah mentioned, there are a number of variables. By "editing" do you just mean locking the cut or are you including audio mixing, finishing, and final outputting as well? Are there a lot of VFX shots? How good is the footage (by that I mean how much time is the editor going to have to spend working around short comings from production)? Is there going to be any ADR? Did you steer clear of any possible copyright problems (unlicensed music, images, etc.,)?
-A
Zak Forsman
Major Contributor
i give my editor a day for every finished minute. so roughly three or four months. if the improv is particularly heavy, could be longer. i know a guy who plans to cut a feature he's also producing in about a week. seems crazy to me.
fevercity
Well-known member
Definitely need more info to begin addressing this one.
Noah's numbers are pretty spot on but I did see another experienced editor recently stretch a 14-week'er into something like 7 months.
How much did you shoot? How much do you tweak? How fast is your guy? How organized was your shoot? What was your shooting ratio? And on and on....
And before you gasp "7 months !?!!?!".... That film was professional, shot on CineAlta's and is winning awards and a distribution deal.
Noah's numbers are pretty spot on but I did see another experienced editor recently stretch a 14-week'er into something like 7 months.
How much did you shoot? How much do you tweak? How fast is your guy? How organized was your shoot? What was your shooting ratio? And on and on....
And before you gasp "7 months !?!!?!".... That film was professional, shot on CineAlta's and is winning awards and a distribution deal.
tylerindo
Active member
anybody have any experience with action sports videos>? eg skate, surfing...
I'm into my 3rd month on a 35 min video, but to be fair i did shoot 90 hours and there is no story when it comes to doing the action segments, which are basically imporvised montajes of surfing.
It's almost comparable to writing in a sense, which requires non-stop creativity since there is no story board to draw from. I also know of editors who can cut these types of vids in 3 weeks, which seems impossible to me right now, mainly due to the amount of stuff to sort through, and the wack system i'm using.
I'm into my 3rd month on a 35 min video, but to be fair i did shoot 90 hours and there is no story when it comes to doing the action segments, which are basically imporvised montajes of surfing.
It's almost comparable to writing in a sense, which requires non-stop creativity since there is no story board to draw from. I also know of editors who can cut these types of vids in 3 weeks, which seems impossible to me right now, mainly due to the amount of stuff to sort through, and the wack system i'm using.
IBEJohnson
Well-known member
milksac said:
Nice! Stealth sarcasm. My kind of humor. You're my new favorite DVXUser (besides me). :beer:
At least a month or two, probably more. I've spent 80+ hours working on a 10 minute movie before, which is probably on the low end of the quality spectrum.
On my current school project our editor thought he could edit our 25 minute movie in 12 hours. The guy was an idiot. He ended up putting together a really crappy rough cut in 12 hours. I think he thought he could plan everything out ahead of time, and just put everything together really quickly. If it had been a real-world project, he would have been fired after about 1 week on the project, even before he started editing. It took him forever to get started, and we are now running out of time. He was also our boom operator, and he couldn't hold the mic still if his life depended on it. We had to tolerate him because it was part of the class.
The director and I have spent more time in the edit suites fixing the project than our editor spent working, and we haven't spent nearly enough time. We just got the editor's cut from him on Saturday, so that we could start mixing the sound. It was a mess and we've spent around 20 hours just salvaging this thing. We still need to fix some more stuff and mix the audio before the screening on Friday, but the edit suites are working on short hours, and we only have another 8 booked for tomorrow.
I am seriously pissed off at this guy. He has absolutely no sense of what a quality project is. Most of his shot selections suck, and it seems as if he only edited for continuity instead of emotional value. I look forward to never working with him again.
I mean we spent a long time preparing and shooting this thing, only to spend less than 50 hours total in post on a 25 minute film, when my previous film was 10 minutes, and I spent nearly 80 hours on it. That's not to say that the 10 minute film is better than this one. The acting quality is many levels inferior to the 25 minute project, but I really don't think it's going to turn out as good as it possibly can be, at least not for our screening.
The director and I are both looking forward to making copies of the original tapes, and starting our own versions from scratch. There are just so many good takes the editor skipped over, and we don't have time to go through them all right now.
On my current school project our editor thought he could edit our 25 minute movie in 12 hours. The guy was an idiot. He ended up putting together a really crappy rough cut in 12 hours. I think he thought he could plan everything out ahead of time, and just put everything together really quickly. If it had been a real-world project, he would have been fired after about 1 week on the project, even before he started editing. It took him forever to get started, and we are now running out of time. He was also our boom operator, and he couldn't hold the mic still if his life depended on it. We had to tolerate him because it was part of the class.
The director and I have spent more time in the edit suites fixing the project than our editor spent working, and we haven't spent nearly enough time. We just got the editor's cut from him on Saturday, so that we could start mixing the sound. It was a mess and we've spent around 20 hours just salvaging this thing. We still need to fix some more stuff and mix the audio before the screening on Friday, but the edit suites are working on short hours, and we only have another 8 booked for tomorrow.
I am seriously pissed off at this guy. He has absolutely no sense of what a quality project is. Most of his shot selections suck, and it seems as if he only edited for continuity instead of emotional value. I look forward to never working with him again.
I mean we spent a long time preparing and shooting this thing, only to spend less than 50 hours total in post on a 25 minute film, when my previous film was 10 minutes, and I spent nearly 80 hours on it. That's not to say that the 10 minute film is better than this one. The acting quality is many levels inferior to the 25 minute project, but I really don't think it's going to turn out as good as it possibly can be, at least not for our screening.
The director and I are both looking forward to making copies of the original tapes, and starting our own versions from scratch. There are just so many good takes the editor skipped over, and we don't have time to go through them all right now.
marlontorres
Well-known member
There is no timeframe in editing a movie. A movie is never finished, it is abandoned.
NoahK
Hottie Mod
I wouldn't be too hard on the editor you didn't click with, agcohn. School is a learning experience where things like money and keeping employed aren't all that important. And in the movie biz people tend to fail upwards.
So you might need him as a contact a few years down the road when he's a bigtime editor with a nice edit suite. Stranger things can and do happen. You can always do the re-edit yourself but consider keeping the bridge unburned. It would cost you nothing but a little humility in exchange for good karma. Everyone is there to learn...
Noah
So you might need him as a contact a few years down the road when he's a bigtime editor with a nice edit suite. Stranger things can and do happen. You can always do the re-edit yourself but consider keeping the bridge unburned. It would cost you nothing but a little humility in exchange for good karma. Everyone is there to learn...
Noah
bruiserbox
Active member
Production wise, I set aside 4 months if you're working side by side with the director. Make sure to plus in 2 month to log footage and do your renders (epk, bonus for dvds, and outputs for review as you go along). So, I'd clock in around 6 months.
filmguy123
Veteran
That's really broad. I've been editing for 7 years, and I'd say for me... 300-600 hours depending on shot complexity, vfx, color correction and many other factors.