Advice needed: Editing as we are shooting

ReelWorksMedia

ReelWorksMedia

Well-known member
Hey there,

So I have a music video shoot coming up and could use some advice. I got this idea from Chris Probst and his workflow on the Taylor Swift videos. The studio shoot material that we will be shooting will be one piece of the puzzle. We will be overlaying this footage over really great live performance material that we will already have prepared. We will already have sound lock and the live footage in place. The live platform AV will be set in stone.

For the studio shoot, I want to set up a video feed directly from Cam A (most likely with a Teradek to the video village) and capture this content redundantly as it is being shot. I will have a team of producers at the editing table and will be cutting the video together as it is being shot. Later we will go back in and replace the proxy footage with the R3D footage.

My question is....what gear/methods would you suggest to make this the smoothest workflow possible? Primary editing suite is Adobe Premiere. The main cam will be a Scarlet Dragon.

We will have a second computer on site dedicated to backing up media. One computer will be dedicated just to creating a rough cut of the video as we shoot it.

Any advice would be helpful.

Thanks
 
Its not really about redundancy here. We will have dedicated DIT to copy and backup. This is more about producers. The company is lead by a creative team of producers. The director is fantastic...but also just hired for this shoot. We are using his team.

Its beneficial for the producers to see a rough cut of the video as the day progresses so they can have a full understanding of how the music video will play out and if pickup shots are needed. The producers are not DPs. Having a rough cut of the video will help them understand how to communicate the opinions they have on set.

I understand its a bit unusual....but honestly, the idea is very cool. Also, Chris Probst is fantastic at what he does...I am sure there are many benefits to this workflow.

If you have advice or any words of caution, I'd be grateful.

Thanks
 
A) I have no idea.

B) In concept, this isn't all that different to deliveries dailies for producers/studio execs, except here you'll probably be doing it in much shorter and perhaps unassembled clips. My suggestion is to consult any available material and/or folks who do it on a regular basis and to do a few trial runs before you have to face a live fire (as it were).

C) I repeat - I have no idea.
 
Do you have it storyboarded? At least a shot list? I can understand the need to review the footage to ensure there were no problems that would necessitate pickups, but I've never needed the footage edited together to do that.

But that's just me. Maybe others here have a different perspective.
 
I have done this workflow on productions that have either been storyboarded or that are scripted. This is when it works best because the assembly can be done according to storyboards and director selects.

However, this is only as a method of making sure the scene is working and that you have gotten enough to edit a scene that will play the way the director intends. This way you can review the assembly before wrapping a location for an expensive company move.

The way I've done is to either have a Teradek bolt send the signal to an Odyssey 7Q and send timecode to odyssey 7Q so that it is triggered to record by the timecode of the camera. Then a PA or DIT intern can edit straight from the odyssey drives. I know it is not recommended to edit off the odyssey drives, but it is the fastest thing on set and depending on your production, it may make financial sense to do so. Otherwise, if you have time to offload, then do so. However, these would likely not be proxies that you could reconnect to the high-Rez media afterwards, unless your camera is shooting ProRes files and maintain the same file naming structure. But for me, it's not a way to get a head start on edit, it is simply a way to avoid costly pick-up shoots and to make sure performance continuity and such is working.

Another way is that you can have someone with a laptop live capturing the feed from the DIT or client monitor (like logging tape used to require) straight to your NLE during production. Most NLEs still have a logging function. This would actually be the most expedient way since you can start editing right away without needing to wait for a break in production to exchange media cards and such. Bowever, in order to do this, you need somebody logging, and another person doing the assembly edit. This is because you are editing while filming is taking place so it takes two people. But these can be interns or PAs.

MY prefered method for the first method is: camera > AC monitor > Director Monitor (odyssey 7Q is AC monitor and records dailies / on-set assembly files)

The second method is: camera > AC monitor > Director Monitor > laptop capture.

If if you have two receivers, the wireless signal from the camera can go to both the AC monitor and the Director monitor simultaneously. Camera feed should always be wireless and should always go to AC for focus before anything else in that chain.

On another note, some cameras are recording proxies simultNeously to a separate card, which can then be used to do the on-set assembly without tying up the main camera cards.

Ok, best of luck!
 
Thanks Rafael Abreu-Canedo. We do have a solid storyboard. Everything will be planned very well going into it. The production/creative team is really on point in that respect. I'm sure there will be an element of improv....but I expect it to be fairly small. The band even has choreography for 98% of the material.

I like your idea of piping timecode to the 7Q. I think that will be very useful. I've not personally used a Teradek or 7Q though I have used similar technology by other brands. Could you send timecode over the Teradek signal? You can set the 7Q to record by being triggered from the camera's timecode?

Any insight in how you accomplished this? I'd like to use your methodology.

For others reading....Rafael Abreu-Canedo hit the nail on the head. Its an expensive day and this workflow will help the producers and director avoid any pickup shots. It could speed up the workflow of the day and also open the doors to creative shots after we get all the foundational material. Once we have confirmed everything we have plan for is 100% exactly the way we want it...hopefully the rough cut will give us some ideas for a few other golden moments.
 
Teradek has added timecode and metadata functionality to the Bolt, so if you set the odyssey 7q to camera trigger, it will record whenever your operator hits record on the camera. I use the 7q because I already have one, it's great for focusing on a HD or 2k capture environment, and the record/playback functionality is very handy. But there are many ways to record proxies. Teradek makes the Teradek Cube, which records h264 files that can be displayed wirelessly on iPads and such.

So just make sure that if you rent a bolt for transmit purposes, that it has the latest firmware updates.

Ok, have a great shoot! And when/if possible, do keep us posted!
 
abreu-canedo said:
Teradek has added timecode and metadata functionality to the Bolt, so if you set the odyssey 7q to camera trigger, it will record whenever your operator hits record on the camera. I use the 7q because I already have one, it's great for focusing on a HD or 2k capture environment, and the record/playback functionality is very handy. But there are many ways to record proxies. Teradek makes the Teradek Cube, which records h264 files that can be displayed wirelessly on iPads and such.

So just make sure that if you rent a bolt for transmit purposes, that it has the latest firmware updates.

Ok, have a great shoot! And when/if possible, do keep us posted!
Click to expand...

I definitely will. The shoot is in about a month. I'll update then. Thanks so much for the insight.
 
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