First doc. Getting edit organized question.

B

Bababooey

Member
Hi.
I'm getting ready to start editing my first doc.
It will be a short film, 20-30 mins tops.

I have been organizing and logging everything in Prelude CS6.
I now find myself staring at around 50 bins and probably over a thousand
subclips.
I have been very meticulous with my keywords and descriptions so that I can find what I need.

My question is, when faced with this mountain of good usable footage (I only logged what was worth keeping),
is there a rating or ranking system/method that can help me narrow these down?

What have you guys done when dealing with too much?

Thanks.
 
I have had problems with this also. I have edited quit a bit of stuff including 2 low budget features. Those long form projects were shot on tape so my very first task when organizing the footage was to do a detailed log of the footage. I would always log the takes based on their position on each individual tape, sequentially numbered. I would log the starting timecode and ending timecode for the shot, the duration of the shot, a description of the shot, the slate/script identification of the shot (Roll #, scene # and take #) and a first impression of its worth, good, bad or other. When I loaded the footage into my NLE, I broke it out, and set up the bins based on the info from the editing log. So Roll one would be cut out by take in one individual bin. I did not make sub bins until I was setting up the edit and I tied them to the roll and take in the individual roll bins.

I have not had any projects since I have gone to tape less acquisition with as much footage that I had to deal with on those two low budget features. However, I have had to deal with some projects with a significant amount of footage, across several flash cards from the original acquisition. I treat each individual card as I did with an individual tape and numbered them in the order I shot them. I set up each card as a bin with the clips in sequential order. I then make a sequence for each card and load all of the clips in sequential order. I will then take the time to watch all of the footage, from the card sequences, and do an old fashion editing log. When I set up my editing sequence, I can toggle back and forth between the full card sequences and pick and choose the footage at will, referencing my editing log. Having your footage in a sequence timeline allows you to click and go to clip, where you can then trim it and insert it into you editing timeline.
 
Thanks David
I have all my clips key worded with Who,What,Where,When etc.
They are in bins, and when necessary, sub bins.
What I did NOT do, during the logging process, was to rank the clips.

I did, however, only log the "usable" clips.
(In focus, not shaky, good framing, lighting, action, etc)

So, basically what I'm wondering is, what is a good system to rank them?

I was thinking of labeling the clips with * symbols, such as
* = Good
**= Better
*** = Best
This way I can key word search for 3 star shots, among the groups of same type.

The story will be told through the interviews, and a lot of the footage can be used interchangeably.
 
Last edited:
Bump!
I'm almost done arranging my interviews into something cohesive.
Any other tips to narrow down each bin to only the best clips?

Thanks
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top