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New blog post from Philip Hodgetts. Worth the read.
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Who the hell is telling stories? I suppose some are editing documentaries, or dramas, but for the rest of us it’s probably corporate communication, commercials, event video, etc. and while I think it’s all art, telling stories or storyteller always seemed kinda like a ridiculous term. The director would probably be more of the storyteller in many of the instances that actually qualify anyway.
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[Walter Soyka] “As long as we (as an industry) continue to do our clients the disservice of agreeing to (and meeting, at our own expense) unrealistic budgets or schedules, how will they know that something is wrong,”
In the early 80’s I used to freelance production manage for the film unit at Saturday Nite Live. The film unit was responsible for anything shot ahead of the live show – phony commercials, sketches, whatever. As the title implies everything we did was shot on film (one of the reasons being the NBC union contract that made us use the dregs of their shooters if we shot on tape; if we shot on film we could crew as we liked.)
Around ’83 the head of the unit left and her second in command took over. One of the rules the unit had was that we needed to be handed a script no later than the Monday before a show to get it done, if the writers came up with something after Monday – too bad, won’t happen.
The new head of the unit, who was a great producer in her own rite, wanted to prove herself to the SNL staff and one (sad) nite agreed to deliver on a sketch from a script we got on a Tuesday. We pulled it off and from that time on we almost never got a script before a Tuesday, after a few months they started expecting us to deliver on scripts handed to us on Wednesday. The last call I got for the show was on a Thursday midnite, trying to cast and location scout a sci-fi film to be shot on Friday for airing the following nite.
The moral of that story is that no good deed goes unpunished, and we are often the victims of our own success.
Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
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nothin’ attached to nothin’
“Deciding the spine is the process of editing” F. Bieberkopf -
[Bret Williams] ” for the rest of us it’s probably corporate communication, commercials, event video, etc. and while I think it’s all art, telling stories or storyteller always seemed kinda like a ridiculous term”
Well, when I edit commercials, I am still telling a story. And I still need time to look at the footage and choose the best takes.
But thanks for putting this into perspective. Now I have a clearer picture who Phil Hodgetts is talking about. Corporate communications…event video. That’s who will benefit from the speed of FCX. Commercials? Well, a friend of mine edited a Superbowl commercial, and he had a lot of footage to sort through, and a story to tell. But I can see that for a lot of editing that it might speed things up.
[Bret Williams] “The director would probably be more of the storyteller in many of the instances that actually qualify anyway.”
That shows how little you know about our world. The editor needs to be a skilled storyteller too. It is a collaboration. The director isn’t in the bay just telling us what to do. We edit the footage without them there, and then they come in and give us notes.
Shane
Little Frog Post
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def -
[Aindreas Gallagher] “what. are. we. doing. here?
“Editing, on our end.
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Sorry. Semantics I guess. I don’t see commercials, corporate communication, or sitcoms for that matter as “stories.” That doesn’t mean I don’t think it’s intrinsically artistic at all or that any type of editing is more artistic that the other. Often I feel that the “make something out of nothing” corporate crap is the most challenging. Obviously something well thought out and planned before it ever hits my desk is the easiest and garners the most praise, yet the storytelling essentially writes itself. I guess I see a lot of what I do as an editor as communicating. And the art is in the clear presentation of the message. But hey, if thats a story, so be it. I just think as of late “editing” has been replaced with “storytelling” a bit too often like it’s the catchy new buzzword.
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[Bret Williams] “Sorry. Semantics I guess. I don’t see commercials, corporate communication, or sitcoms for that matter as “stories.””
Where were you in the last six months? When Apple’s new paradigm was introduced, even a cat sleeping on a couch has become a “storyline” and it is considered an “event”. Want to add a dream sequence over it?
That’s on a “secondary storyline”…And so on…Forget any titles though, better add them on youtube. -
How are people measuring their speed increase using X as a pose to 7 (or other NLE’s)? On what kind of projects? Saying X is 2-4 times as fast is nice but some specific examples would be nicer! Not that I’m disputing it necessarily but…
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I was not trying to address the concerns of the editors in the video. If you thought that you completely, absolutely missed the point of what I wrote. Their concerns – the reality of the changed workplace – was a starting off point to project theoretical future scenarios.
Those editors (like Shane) want producers to give them more time, and that would be great. I don’t expect it to ever happen.
Philip Hodgetts
President, Intelligent Assistance
AssistedEditing.com Fast First Cuts, Metadata Worfklows
Big Brains for Rent bigbrainsforrent.com
The New Now – Grow your business – ProAppsTips.com
Personal Blog https://philiphodgetts.com -
Walter, I’ve been writing and presenting on how software will (almost certainly) automatically do some pre-sorting and pre-editing based on metadata. The book should be out late January so you’ll likely have to wait until then, but basically, for the sausage factory shows you’ve all been talking about, the editor won’t see the footage until it’s already at first string out stage. Already happening in reality as you would have seen in the Editor’s Lounge videos.
You laugh now, and I expect that.
Philip Hodgetts
President, Intelligent Assistance
AssistedEditing.com Fast First Cuts, Metadata Worfklows
Big Brains for Rent bigbrainsforrent.com
The New Now – Grow your business – ProAppsTips.com
Personal Blog https://philiphodgetts.com -
Phillip…it would be a lot less confusing if you used examples of people who use FCX. And specifically tell people HOW users of FCX are editing 200-400% faster, instead of just tossing that number out there.
Interview…or get quotes from…people who are using FCX and have them tell you “I am editing things in a day that used to take me two because…” Stuff like that. Use examples of time constraints from people who use FCX…not from people who are in the 2% that don’t use FCX. They have different issues concerning time than the people who really use FCX.
Shane
Little Frog Post
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def
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