[Robin, Illboycollective.com]

I would also recommend that you edit your project so that you are happy with it, then export each section out that needs effects work. Keep the sections reasonably small, as it will be easier to work on.
I recently made a music video which had after-effects created sections, and working in this manner made the project a bit easier to manage, and didn’t work the machine as hard!

[Robin, Illboycollective.com]

I would also add that you want to make sure your machine is up to running this kind of footage. HD is BIG…so if you haven’t got a decent machine you are going to need to be exceptionally patient. I did some work on a short film that had a resolution of 1920 x 1440, because prints were made. This made for a nightmarish few weeks of post work, as my (at that time) creaky machine was really struggling, and affected creative decisions because there was so little time.