FCP documentary edit

JimSlaton

JimSlaton

Member
I have used FCP many times and have all the latest versions of the software but I am looking to edit a documentary. We shot the footage of a parachute expedition to Europe's highest mountain several years back for a DVD but it was not shot for a documentary. I have seen all the footage and it seems we have enough interview and B roll stuff to make one. I want to edit a documentary with interview from the pilots with narration. What is the best way to edit this type of documentary with FCP?

The first and only step I have made so far is logging everything in great detail and putting each part of the film in its own folder. What's the next step and the best work flow for this? Thanks in advance!
 
What will make your life easier for this kind of project is to make transcripts of all your interviews. Then use that to make a paper edit of them. Feel free to go out of order; underline a sentence or paragraph or just a word, and reorder them on another piece of paper. You'll find similar themes in what your interview subjects talk about and then you arrange them so they support each other, etc. Then edit just the interviews, and add b-roll to support what they're talking about (and to mask edits when you need to). At least, that's how I learned to do it and it works pretty well.
 
I appreciate your feedback on this. What is the best way to transcribe the interview other than writing everything down as you watch it?
 
I send material to be transcribed all the time and what I get back is text of everything that was spoken with timecode markers every minute or so. they typically charge $100/ per hour of content if you are considering hiring someone to do it.
 
What is the best way to use the transcribed interviews from the video? I know this sounds basic but do I tell the story by rearranging words and sentences? Should I edit all the interviews first or keep them until certain times in the documentary? Sorry, first stab at a documentary...
 
JimSlaton said:
What is the best way to use the transcribed interviews from the video? I know this sounds basic but do I tell the story by rearranging words and sentences? Should I edit all the interviews first or keep them until certain times in the documentary? Sorry, first stab at a documentary...
Click to expand...
Unfortunately the answer to that is, "Well, it depends". How do *you* want to structure your documentary? What is the story *you* want to tell? "Super-size Me" is different from "Paradise Lost" which is different from "The Corporation" which is different from "Dog town and Z-boys".

There's no set pattern or guide to go by. I don't know anything about your raw footage, but I'd probably start by reading through all the transcripts and marking good looking sound bites. Then I'd read thru them again and make notes pertaining to common themes/subjects and start coming up w/rough plot and structure ideas based on the footage you have.

-A
 
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