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Analog Metadata
… which used to be called “taking notes”.
This thought started with this recent exchange:
https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/335/71154[Craig Alan] “… your example … already comes embedded with metadata … Other important notes are passed in with a notebook. No advantage to have these in the NLE?”
[Herb Sevush] “I do see the advantages of keywording … but I’m not willing to trade customizable screen layouts, much less organizational track layouts to get it. It’s all about priorities.”
Craig and Herb are really talking about priorities of features (favouring some while accepting the lack of others), but they mention written notes as part of the discussion.
I’ve made several attempts at migrating both my notes and my “index cards” from paper into the digital realm. All attempts have been unsuccessful. With regard to notes and logs, I think it’s because there is something about the physicality of writing that acts as an assist to my memory (because I actually don’t use them all that much during editing). With regard to index cards (as structuring tools) I think it’s because they are physical and in the room and easy to refer to and move about without having to turn on a computer – it’s good to have real conversations away from a computer but still have meaningful references of some sort.
As someone who still uses a notebook and index cards, I’m wondering how many still use “analog metadata” and how many have migrated from note taking to data (and what tools you use either in the NLE or otherwise).
Franz.
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21 Replies
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First, at what stage do you create your index cards?
[Franz Bieberkopf] “As someone who still uses a notebook and index cards, I’m wondering how many still use “analog metadata” and how many have migrated from note taking to data (and what tools you use either in the NLE or otherwise).”
If the job allows (which is rarer and rarer these days) I absolutely love doing paper edits on a big bulletin board.
It’s a colossal waste of paper in the long run, but as you say, it’s nice to be able to walk up to a board and physically move the story around, read, and talk about it, as well as make pools of selects.
It’s one of the reasons I like the magnetic timeline and the FCPX browser so much as it comes as close as possible to mirroring that function.
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[Jeremy Garchow] “First, at what stage do you create your index cards?”
Jeremy,
My use of cards shifts from project to project depending on how a director likes to work, but broadly there are two ways I use them.
While screening and logging I use them to identify scenes, sequences, or other structural elements as I go. This first use is purely descriptive and really just another aid for me to get a grasp of the scope of material. I’ve also used printed screen grabs, though as you can imagine this is a much more involved process.
As the edit develops, the cards tend to shift from descriptive to functional – identifying more the way a scene works or its function in the big picture, rather than identifying expository elements.
I don’t go as far as Murch seems to in terms of codes and visual cues:
https://www.chrisportal.com/2011/10/28/walter-murch-at-the-boston-supermeet/#prettyPhoto%5Bslides%5D/6/
… but I do use some colour coding (for example) to make certain structural strategies more apparent.Franz.
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Do you edit mostly narrative pieces?
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[Jeremy Garchow] “If the job allows (which is rarer and rarer these days) I absolutely love doing paper edits on a big bulletin board”
[Jeremy Garchow] “It’s one of the reasons I like the magnetic timeline and the FCPX browser so much as it comes as close as possible to mirroring that function.”
It seems rarely mentioned here but one of the things I used to do in both FCP legacy and Avid was work in icon mode and move the pics around in the bin.
In FCPX the timeline is the digital bulletin board since it’s easy to reorder things. In that sense it makes editing “subtractively” fairly easy when I’m inclined to go that route.
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[Jeremy Garchow] “Do you edit mostly narrative pieces?”
Jeremy,
I like to edit different forms, but most of my work would best be described as long form non-fiction.
There are narrative elements in almost everything I do.
Franz.
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And because you can’t move thumbs around in a bin! 🙂
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[Franz Bieberkopf] “I’m wondering how many still use “analog metadata” “
I use two basic forms of “analog metadata.”
The continuity notes I get at the end of a shoot are an incredible time saver, well worth the cost. I ingest, create multiclips, then go thru my script and assemble, each show having the clip numbers written in against the script. Many people think they can’t afford to have someone do this, but I estimate I save a full day’s work for each episode, 26 days lopped off the post schedule, all for the cost of a continuity person for 13 days.
The second type of “A-M” are the hastily written notes scribbled on the backs of old scripts (no notepads for me) – timecode numbers, bits of dialogue, clip names, anything that comes up. They are randomly scattered all over my desk and searching thru them can be a nightmare but I don’t know how to work without them. The scary moment comes when an episode is finished and I decide to clean up my work space knowing that, dollars to donuts, I’ll be looking thru the trash sometime in the coming weeks searching for that one note I should have kept.
Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
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nothin’ attached to nothin’
“Deciding the spine is the process of editing” F. Bieberkopf -
There is an ergonomic advantage to having notes/data/lists as a reference held apart from the screen your editing on. Or for that matter outside the script you are writing. That said once this data is in a writing app or a spreadsheet app it makes it easy to sort, modify, search. In list view, you could create most of this and see filmstrip and viewer displays as you tag/sort/organize your rough cut.
But I find that editing in the browser negates the most important aspect of editing, the interaction between these clips that only happens on the timeline. So I’m not all in on the metadata approach to editing. Somewhere in-between putting a logical story sequence together using the “best” shots, clips, and sub-clips and discovering beats and moments as the timeline develops is where I’m trying to aim.
I wouldn’t mind a stand that would place an iPad slanted from the keyboard up to the bottom edge of my computer monitor with a button to toggle my keyboard/mouse/pad being used for either the computer or iPad display.
Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV40, Sony Z7U/VX2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; FCP X write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.
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[Craig Alan] “I wouldn’t mind a stand that would place an iPad slanted from the keyboard up to the bottom edge of my computer monitor with a button to toggle my keyboard/mouse/pad being used for either the computer or iPad display.”
I cannot remember the app I used to use, but it is worth googling for “KVM over IP” (keyboard, video, mouse over internet protocol) or other such combinations, and the IP/KVM app I used was between computers in 2006 – 2010, so I’m sure by now someone somewhere has a mac to ipad IP/KVM.
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Who is editing in the browser?
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