average editing time for feature

Steve Laramie

Steve Laramie

Veteran
About how long does it take to edit a 2 hour long feature film (not in your language)? Nothing too fancy. Can someone give me an estimate in hours?
 
my rule of thumb is about 2 mins of finished content per day. so 2, maybe 3 months. that being said, we've probably out about 6 months into cutting my last one spread out over a year and a half.
 
It totally depends on the feature. If it's well shot, well directed spoon-fed takes a two hour feature doesn't have to take longer than a week to post. If trial and error is involved with lots of compositing and creation of content, it can take 4 times that long.
I tend to finish about 10 minutes of content per day on average.
(plus or minus 9 minutes) ;)
 
I have to agree with grinner. If the production is a mess it will take a lot longer. But on average it takes me about a 8 weeks to get an edit that is really close to lock. and I can only sit at my computer for a few hours at a time because of the children. (they have to montiored at ALL times)
 
I think it depends a LOT on what your aiming for and how high you set the bar. A full on audio post takes 10-15 (man)hours per screen minute plus a mix. Micro budget films rarely have that amount of time/budget so it's usually less. Under 5 hours per screen minute generally has a noticeably negative impact. Of course sound probably takes longer in general than picture, since your creating a lot of content, but still I would be surprised if "big" films were much under 5 hours/ min. TV shows and the like are MUCH faster and Doc.s can take years depending on how much footage there is to go through and how well thought out it is.
 
The first feature film I cut took about one month for the rough cut and another month and a half for the final cut.

It would have taken a shorter amount of time to do the final cut if the producers and director didn't want to change a million things.

Plus the previous editor and assistants logged the footage quite terribly so having to search through the footage was a nightmare.
 
lairhair said:
About how long does it take to edit a 2 hour long feature film (not in your language)? Nothing too fancy. Can someone give me an estimate in hours?
Click to expand...


I think everyone has missed a key point to the original question. look again at it.
 
If he meant "not in your language" as in "the movie's in Hindi", for a non Hindi-speaking editor, then I think all bets are off. I really can't imagine how an editor could cut a narrative film when he doesn't understand what's being said.

If he meant "not in your language" like "don't use too much editor jargon" then it's a different answer...
 
Well the movie is in indian....... So im trying to compensate for that. I will also be DPing it so I guess I will remember a good amount of stuff and ill also have the script in front of me.
 
How are you going to edit a feature (period) without understanding what the talent is saying? That is my main question. It sounds as if you are setting yourself up for disaster.
 
i also question the ability one would have to discern the best performance, something that can be very nuanced, without understanding the detail of what's being said. even if someone translates it, there is much in the delivery you can't know. how in the world are you going to pull this off? will you have someone form the prduction in the bay with you?
 
Sounds bad.
You'll be quessing on beats, mood and overall timing as he translates.
It'll be frustrating for both of you, I imagine.
 
lairhair said:
Im gonna give it a shot. I have allot of free time coming up and could use some extra money.
Click to expand...

If you're up for the challenge then by all means go for it. I'd agree with what others said about nuance and timing. Be prepared for a lot of little quibbling adjustments from the director.

I know another editor to often tries to squeeze together material to make what's being said fit into a 30-second spot, and the result is an odd-sounding run-on of phrases. You might unknowingly stumble into similar issues.

But then again, over time you might develop a better understanding and appreciation of the language.

Just make sure the director knows your limitations.

BTW, I spent part of a college semester helping proofread the Bontoc-English dictionary with a linguistics professor. I didn't know the language but my writing skills and what little I learned about linguistics helped him finish the project. The language had only 9,000 known words.
 
I was the Digital Editing consultant on Leon (The Professional) and it was Sylvie's first American film as an editor. Although she had a pretty good command of English from schooling, from time to time I would work with her to give her translations of American slang into French so she could take that into consideration for the edit. It also didn't hurt that she is one hell of a talented editor...

Michael
 
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