Question about approaching a many interview project..

Sithxace

Sithxace

Well-known member
I was given a project, from dozens of interviews, I have to make a 3-4 minute promotional video for a organization. My question is, when dealing with such tremendous amount of material, what do you find the easiest and most efficient way of finding useful parts and structuring the video? Its not a huge paying gig but a paying gig nevertheless.

Thanks.
 
First a few questions for you that I think would impact my approach if this were my project:
1. What is "such tremendous amount of material"? Is it 30 minutes? 60 minutes? 12 hours?
2. Do you know what the story is supposed to be or are you expected to "find it" within the footage?
3. Were you given anything other than the raw footage? A story board? A list of questions? A list of interviewees with titles, roles, etc? In other words, do you have anything that will help you organize and prioritize the footage (e.g. 5 minute interview of the CEO is likely to be more important than a 12 minute interview with janitor unless it's about maintaining the building)?
4. Are there any other guidelines from your client that you need to consider? As an example, do you have to use footage from all interviewees?
5. Is it all talking head interview footage or do you have b-roll as well?
6. How much time do you have to complete the project (or how much time did you budget)?
 
BTW, when you say you were given a project, I assume that means you didn't film it and aren't familiar with the footage. That might not be a good assumption.
 
Thanks for the quick response. Yes I was given the footage a a few guidelines.

1. maybe not tremendous compared to documentary but about 2-3 hours of interviews from around 20 students/teachers.
2. They said its for the university website, to inform/inspire.
3. I was given limited amount of broll of the campus plus pictures
4. They asked me to use a few professors in a specific order to start. They paid for a 2-3 minute video with broll overlapping the interviews.
5. Broll also
6. I dont have a tight deadline. No specific date set.

Ive spent about 2 hours so far and i have organized/synced interviews and alreayd began putting the first couple interviews to some inspirational music. I quickly see that the interviews are lengthy answered ones and the 2-3 minute length is quickly obtained. I could easily go over the lnegth but for what they paid which reflects how much I will get paid, I dont see a need to make this too long.
 
Sounds like you're well on your way. You are right. You don't need much footage to fill 3-4 minutes. Here is how I would approach this type of project:
1. View the footage in its entirety. Look for a story. Look for nice visuals. Listen for key lines and sound bytes that could move the story forward. Log it all. At this point, you will still have way more footage than you need but it will be narrowed down significantly.
2. Remind yourself that this will come together. It seems impossible right now but it will come together. Just. Keep. Working.
3. Piece together the story using key lines and sound bytes. Make sure the story holds together nicely, check pacing, etc. Cut, cut, and cut some more.
4. Work the visuals. Begin laying down b-roll to make it visually interesting, cover transitions, etc.
5. Tighten up the whole thing. Cut, cut, cut. Don't worry if it ends up only 2 minutes in length. Make sure it's compelling or people won't even watch that long, especially if it's an explicit promo.
6. Lay down a music track.
7. Tighten it up some more.
8. Correct noise, color, grade, etc.
9. Enjoy the ride! I find this kind of project to be incredibly frustrating and fun. It can be really tough to find a compelling story. But once you do, it's really nice to see it all come together, knowing that you made it happen.
 
Thanks Dave for the advice. Your strategy works for sure, put the rough even if its 6-8 minutes and then just cut it down (cut the meat) more and more and before you know it itll be a 2-3 minute piece. The last question I have for you is, for a project like I described, how many hours do you estimate it would take you to finish from start to finish? As im doing work more on a constant basis, I have begun focusing on aspects of my editing that can speed up my workflow/process. I also began using a timer to log all the time I have spent on projects. I find it very helpful and even motivating.
 
Just to echo some points that Dave said, before you start cutting watch every interview, all the broll and take notes. Look for similar themes everyone talks about and for moments in the interviews that can be used to transition/segue from one topic to the next. The piece will have a much more cohesive feel if you can seamlessly transition from point to point as opposed having just using a broll montage and a music cue to signal a change of topics.

If it was me I would pull selects from all the interviews, drop them in a single timeline and start working on a radio edit (cutting the dialog and not worrying about what it looks like visually). I wouldn't start putting in music or b-roll until I already had a strong idea of what my edit was going to look like. It's like building a house. You lay the foundation and frame the walls before you start hanging drywall and painting.

Looking for Lenny, the doc in my sig, had over 50 interviews and we didn't use any narration. The hardest part was certainly weaving a narrative together out of all those interviews and it required an intimate knowledge of each one because you never knew when an originally cast aside piece of material would later turn into the missing puzzle piece that you desperately needed.
 
Awesome, more great advice. The problem I have with myself I guess is to get my creative juices going, music is needed. If I had music first in creating a highlight video for instance, I am more likely to strike a interesting video as oppose to making it then selecting music. The other issue I know I have is, I think about how much money I will be making from the project. For this project I believe i will be making $100-200 for it. So with that mind frame I find it hard to justify doing all the long steps like watching 3 hours of footage etc. for minimum reward.
 
Sithxace said:
Thanks Dave for the advice. Your strategy works for sure, put the rough even if its 6-8 minutes and then just cut it down (cut the meat) more and more and before you know it itll be a 2-3 minute piece. The last question I have for you is, for a project like I described, how many hours do you estimate it would take you to finish from start to finish? As im doing work more on a constant basis, I have begun focusing on aspects of my editing that can speed up my workflow/process. I also began using a timer to log all the time I have spent on projects. I find it very helpful and even motivating.
Click to expand...

Given your exact situation or one very similar, I would probably budget two person-days for the project (actual effort, not duration). To emphasize adkimery's point, most of the effort for this type of project is actually finding the story and that means scouring the footage.

Keeping track of your time is briliant because every editor works at a different pace. Over time, you'll get a really good sense for how long something will take you before you agree to do it. That, of course, will help you set a more appropriate budget.

adkimery said:
Just to echo some points that Dave said, before you start cutting watch every interview, all the broll and take notes. Look for similar themes everyone talks about and for moments in the interviews that can be used to transition/segue from one topic to the next. The piece will have a much more cohesive feel if you can seamlessly transition from point to point as opposed having just using a broll montage and a music cue to signal a change of topics.

If it was me I would pull selects from all the interviews, drop them in a single timeline and start working on a radio edit (cutting the dialog and not worrying about what it looks like visually). I wouldn't start putting in music or b-roll until I already had a strong idea of what my edit was going to look like. It's like building a house. You lay the foundation and frame the walls before you start hanging drywall and painting.

Looking for Lenny, the doc in my sig, had over 50 interviews and we didn't use any narration. The hardest part was certainly weaving a narrative together out of all those interviews and it required an intimate knowledge of each one because you never knew when an originally cast aside piece of material would later turn into the missing puzzle piece that you desperately needed.
Click to expand...

+1 Especially the point about seamless transitions so it becomes one story told by a few different voices.
 
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