I know jack sh*t about editing... PLEASE HELP

[markyf]

Just finished shooting my short on my DVX. Now I have about 30 hours of footage, which I've been informed no editor (at least a free one) will touch with a ten foot pole until I wittle it down to something reasonable.

I'm a member of a cooperative here in Toronto that has a Final Cut Pro HD and Avid Express Pro DV suite. At this point, I need to get this footage captured onto a harddrive so I can start a rough assembly. I'm just not sure what platform to use, what codec is the most universal (I don't know which system the editor has since I don't have one yet) and whether marrying picture and sound will be part of the project or the raw file. Also, what type of harddrive will I need and how big?

Lots of questions, I know, but I'd like to get started tomorrow so I'm not doing this till I'm 80.

Cheers,

Mark

 

[FreshStep]

Markyf,

If you dont have a preference yet on which NLE system you want to use then just pick one for capturing. Get a LaCie, at least a 500gb drive. If the editor you do pick edits with the NLE system you didn't captured with, its not a big deal because you can import the raw footage into any NLE system.

 

[smithy]

Well to give you an idea...I shot some HDV footage and it rounds out to be 13gb of storage for 1 hour of HDV compressed video. You can cut out footage by using simple programs like Imovie for mac or anything similar to cut down the footage. You will need to know how long of a movie you are making before hand and get rid of any unnecessary footage along the way. I use during production a script breakdown sheet and take sheet to screen what to keep and what to discard. In addition I always use a clapperboard for all my scenes before shooting so I could easily cut out shots I know won't work. This is where using traditional filmmaking techniques is so useful when shooting video. Especially when you are editing long sequences and also not giving your editor a heart attack when you go to post.