So, how YOU edit?

A

Aviv

Member
Do you first do a very rough cut of the entire edit, fine tune it and then edit the sound, or like me, rough cut, fine tune, and sound edit one or a small group of clips at a time before slightly tweaking the whole thing once that's done? I usually add effects and whatnot to a clip at the same time I add the clip to the timeline.
 
If im doing a film, i do whats called an assembly first. I go by the script and put the scenes in order. Usually a lot of wide shots etc. Then when the story is there i go back and fine tune and replace scenes with better shots etc.
 
I like to capture the footage, look through it for clips that I think might have some use some where along the line, label those clips, categorize. Pick my favorites from the catagorized clips, throw into timeline. Find b-roll. Trim selected favorites, place b-roll in appropriate places (or in places where the camera work is shoddy.) Do sound mixing , apply transitions, trim again until it "works." Sometimes I breakup everything into "chapters" and work on those depending on the project.

-This is for a documentary-type project.
 
I take my raw tapes and shove them into the DVD drive, until i have enough coverage and then i pour a cup of water onto the keyboard, here is the crucial part, I draw a picture of what I want the DVD to look like, with crayons, on my LCD's and viola!! perfect edits everytime!!
 
I edit each scene as a seperate sequence (on its own timeline), usually in order of whatever I'm looking forward to seeing the most, then make one big timeline to drop them all into. I like to deal with bite size chunks at first so that I can focus on small details before diving into looking at the movie as a whole.

I also do like sink does when I'm feeling REALLY artsy.
 
Our show is somewhat like a reality show in that there's no scripting. Which means a lot of footage and very little structure at the start.

The host reviews some of the material and comes up with a very rough outline.

Then I'll go through the material and get to know the overall contents for a sense of a general storyline.

If it spans more than one segment of our show I'll determine a natural break point.

Eventually I'll end up with a rough cut which I review and edit further. Once it's close to the actual proper timing I'll have the production partners review it. The host can then add further voiceovers if necessary.

Once the cutting is done, the whole program gets the full treatment: color correction and grading; audio EQ and mixdown. If there are any serious problems with the clips I go into After Effects to fix them (lighten shadowy faces, slightly darken a drab overcast sky, etc.)
 
What about tracks? When I edit something without compositing, I usually exclusively use one track, razoring away parts of a clip to fit another...Do you make use of the different tracks? I was looking at another student edit his movie at school, and his timeline was such a mess...Clips everywhere.
 
i have all my tapes transcribed and use that to build a script. i use the script to do a stringout. then i do several passes down the timeline, making it tighter, establishing rhythm. then i work on music or sound design. then i fine tune and tweak.
 
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