Editing time?

John Foundas

John Foundas

Well-known member
I know this is relative, but how many hours would it take a highly skilled editor to cut a 60 minute documentary? Let's assume basic transitons, no complex layering and minimal grading.
Ballpark?

Thanks :)
 
i do one minute per day.... so subtract highly skilled from that too along with news and current affairs etc etc. Keep in mind highly skilled may also involve being able to calculate what level of quality you need to provide to satisfy your client. I have seen crappy work done fast by "highly skilled" editors for clients who were mostly concerned with getting their package on time and did not really know or care about the quality of what they got for their money. So if you are dealing with an editor who you think may be trying to cheat you by charging for too many hours then don't forget to take into consideration the quality of what she or he delivers as well as how fast it is done, or hire a robot.
 
I edited a 73 minute tour diary/documentary for my band in two days, its not that hard if you know what your going to include.
 
If you go through all the footage and make a very detailed paper edit including music choices and interview soundbites and time code. It could go fairly quickly. But there's always the 'what you think its going to look like compared to what it actually looks like' that is a factor.

Honestly, the answer is, could take a few days, could take months, hard to say.
 
eiker_ir said:
it all depends on how much material there is to edit
Click to expand...

Bingo! The shoot to edit ratio is what matters most. And are we talking JUST editing or do you also have to make motion graphics and other stuff as well? Are you doing audio post?

Dwaltjj has some good advice. Going through the footage and transcribing what was said will save a lot of time if you have a lot of footage to sort through. And taking notes while initially watching stuff also saves a lot of time as well.
 
adamr316 said:
Bingo! The shoot to edit ratio is what matters most.
Click to expand...
... and whether you have a script or not. If you have a good script and the editor just needs to put the footage into the timeline and apply his/her creative mojo, it will be much quicker than having to go through hours & hours hours of footage and think about how to edit it all together.

wakayoda: How did you edit 70+ hours of footage in two days?? Just watching the footage would take 3 days if you don't sleep! ;-) The rough cut of my film (110 hours) took around 4 months to edit (and I had a final script)!
 
73 minutes ;D it was simpy a case of capturing a few key things, aside from that I just gave people cameras and said "if you like it, film it".

That 73 minutes got cut down to about 60 minutes, almost everything that was shot got included in the final cut; with a large amount of editing.
 
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