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Young editor needs advice from seasoned proffesionals
Hey, I’ve been using fcp for a couple years now and everything I’ve worked on until now has been less then 10 mins. Recently I secured an editing job for a movie that will probably end up being close to 30 mins long. I was wondering what is a good editing workflow in fcp for long term projects? I’m only 21 years old and haven’t had a lot of time to figure that kind of stuff out yet. Would I be better off using 1 sequence and putting everything on there, or should I create a new sequence for every scene and then a master sequence? Any advice?
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14 Replies
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Hi Jacob-
Its all going to come down to your particular style of editing and what makes you comfortable. Also would depend on your client and how the structure of the movie will be.
Either way you have suggested should work equally as well.For a 30 minute movie, I personally, would keep everything in one timeline.
So if the client wanted to “see how the opening scene came out”, then the next day asked “how was the gunfight scene”, I would export the requested portion out and ftp it to them.
Another strategy would be to create different sequences to keep them separate, and at the end copy/paste everything into a master sequence.
***One caveat with that is that if you have 2 copies of everything (as just described) any revisions, changes or additions would have to be done in 2 places.Good luck
Todd Reid
Senior Editor
Digitized Media, Inc. -
I just recently cut a lo-budget feature that was 98 minutes. We broke that up into 9 sequences, with the longest being 13 minutes.
That worked pretty well for me. I didn’t use a master sequence, we stuck to each sequence being a major chapter in the film. I would avoid nesting your sequences into a master. Nesting looks good on paper, but on longer projects it was unreliable.
Once your project is finalized you can combine (without nesting) your sequences into one long one.
I’m sure others will chime in with some workflows that have worked well for them.
Good luck on your project. -
Thanks for the Advice, I’m gonna spread it across a couple sequences to start out with so I can have more elbow room when I’m trying to cut the scenes. Eventually I’ll end up merging them all into the same timeline. Something weird happened when I was editing today. Normally when I’m going through my timeline frame by frame I can also hear the audio playing frame by frame and watch the levels change. I’ve found this very helpful for finding the write frame to place an edit but it randomly stopped working. I can’t hear any audio when I’m keying through the timeline and the levels stay frozen. It only registers when I press play. Does anyone know how to fix that?
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Make sure that Audio Scrubbing is turned on – this can be found in the menu under View or you can toggle it on and off by hitting Shift+S.
As far as breaking the 30 minute episode up into multiple sequences, I agree with Todd; it really depends on your style of editing. I duplicate and number my sequences throughout the day as I work so I’m comfortable putting everything on one timeline because I know I can’t screw thing up to where it’s not salvageable.
I don’t see any problem spitting scenes up into their own timelines but I would suggest that, before you start, you should develop a workflow for keeping things organized. The longer the project, the more opportunity there is for things to get convoluted and confusing.
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Mac Pro | Leopard 10.5.5
2.66GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon | 4GB Ram
Final Cut Pro Studio 2 | Avid Media Composer -
Jacob,
Have you checked out Shane Ross’s “Getting Organized in Final Cut Pro?” DVD? it’s worth the $$ now and down the road for you.
I edit a lot of “longer form” shows and find putting each act or act(s) into a sequence helps with keeping things organized and following some of Shane’s suggestions in his DVD.PHIL
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Thanks for the advice,
I’ll have to check out that DVD. I spend a lot of time organizing my Data before I edit, it’s a form of procrastination. I have everything labled by scene and shot type and sorted all my data into bins according to the scene. I also have all the good takes checked off and extra audio in each folder. This was the first project I’ve worked on where all the audio was sent to a field recorder and I had to sync it up in post. I ended up merging all the clips together and getting them organized, now it’s time to start editing. I’ll probably be posting on here more often because this project is a learning experience for me. I’ve done a lot of editing for my jobs and film school too so I’ve got experience. This is one of the first fiction projects that I’ve really taken seriously soo it’s pretty exciting. Most of the time I end up doing government work or marketing stuff, this is gonna be a welcome change.
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Hey everyone,
Recently I’ve run into a new problem… The director. He’s very pushy and inexperienced, he show’s very little respect for me even though I’ve agreed to edit his movie for free. I really want to edit the movie, not because it’s really good or anything but I’ve already invested a lot of time into the project. I was on set every day managing data and I also spent a huge chunk of time syncing audio and video. And when it comes down to it, I really need completed projects under my belt. I’ve cut a couple scenes but he thinks this movie should be finished within the next week. He’s been breathing down my neck and I really don’t appreciate it. He thinks a reasonable deadline for a 30 minute movie is 1 month from the day they started to shoot. He says I should have a rough cut by then and I tried to tell him that no one can make a rough cut that fast. Especially when I’m workin on spare parts and spare time. I’ve also got a job, school and other projects I have to tend too. He called me the other day and I got him to move the deadline back 4 weeks. It’s now a reasonable deadline for a ROUGH cut but I still don’t feel right about it. At first he wanted to come over, take the footage and edit it himself. I had to practically beg him not too because I didn’t feel like starting a fight. He doesn’t know how to edit, and this is only his first movie. He’s being a really big deuschbag and I don’t know how to handle the situation because I’m only 21 and he’s in his late 30’s. It’s really hard to tell him anything I’ve talked to the Assistant director and other people on set and we all came to the same conclusion that he has no idea what he’s doing. His screenplay was descent, but if it wasn’t for the DP and Audio guy his footage would have been totally screwed over. He has this illusion of how editing should be done but no real experience to back it up. He keeps trying to tell me he know’s how to edit but he also told me he has Sony Vegas, he asked me how to flip a shot in post and he couldn’t figure out how to play footage from the XD Cam and thought something was wrong with it. I really don’t appreciate his intimidation tactics and lack of respect, and I’m about ready to hand it over and save my dignity. I really need finished projects though. Anybody have some good advice on handling this situation tactfully? He told me that he wants me to be open and honest with him so I think I should send him an email and work a couple of these things out.
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I capture everything I can for longforms. All of it, if I have the space. I find often I use a shot that wasn’t a shot at all to stitch the story together.
I ignore my projected running time for the first pass and throw everything usable on a timeline. I then look at that time and guage how much will end up on the cutting room floor. I go from the top subtractively and this is when the story unfolds. I try to cut it to time witht his pass or the next. I then go from the top again with b-roll, music and notes for effects and transitions. I then go from the top again with those layers of love. This method keps me from spending time tweeking a shot that may not even make the cut. Should I have to spit a show out at the end of the day, I could. Meanwhile, I have alicated time to make it perfect tomorrow.
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Jacob-
This interpersonal business kind of stuff is more appropriate to the Business & Marketing COW, but I’ll take a shot at it since the thread is already underway here.
Hmmm, tight deadlines, no pay and a jerk of a director to boot. Yes, you’d like to have this as a completed project for your resume, but at what cost?
Sounds like you’ve got the deadline thing at least partially under control, but the truth of the matter is editors get faster with experience and you’re going to have to cram and jam and push yourself to make this all come together.
No pay? Well, that’s your choice and probably not much of an option if you’re just starting out. HOWEVER, there may come a walk-away point for you. Recognize that this is a possibility and determine where your threshold for pain is.
As to dealing with a jerk, especially one who doesn’t know what he doesn’t know, you’re best option is not to be intimidated and especially not to respond in kind. If he’s a hothead, you need to stay cool. If he screams, you need to talk. ALWAYS be helpful and offer to show him options and alternatives as well as techniques. Just make sure that you’re professional and keeping calm.
One thing that’s worked for me in the past with let clients, producers, etc. who act like know-it-alls, is to let them fail. Give them the chair or give them the raw footage disks. Just do it in a friendly and supportive way: “Gee, Bob, I’d really like to see your ideas on this.” Then, once confronted with realizing that they really have no idea how to do it themselves, they’re left to come back to you to save their bacon. And THAT’s why you have to stay friendly and professional. If you are adversarial they will think their only alternative is to find another editor.
Of course for that demonstration to work, try to provide only the raw footage if possible. I especially wouldn’t give away any sequences on which you’d spent a lot of time getting into synch.
Best of luck. Sometimes we ALL need it.
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Jacob,
Re-read Mr. Griffin’s post and follow his advice, this is some of the best advice I’ve read in a long time not only for professional relationships but also for personal.
Also, hop into the business and marketing forum on the cow and read some of the posts in there from folks that have had the same problem you are withe the director. This will give you some more ideas on how to handle him (and unfortunately others like this that you will encounter) and it will show you that you are not alone with this problem.Good luck.
PHIL
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