Tony West
Forum Replies Created
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[greg janza] “Tony, transcripts are an absolutely essential bedrock element for all video production from non-fiction broadcast tv to corporate promo and anything in between.”
That may well be Greg, but I didn’t use transcripts when it came to source material and it didn’t stop me from getting my film done and it playing in 20 cities so far.
I had a creative consultant on my film and as I wrote the narration I would show it to him and to my narrator who read it.
they gave their input on it which was great. I had a member of the scientific community to check my science but he didn’t have input into the story accept to say he approved of how I handle the science.Producing a documentary is all about doing the research. Sometimes years of research. You are burying yourself in the topic and most times there are few people who can apply that kind of time and commitment to the research. Therefore they are not as knowledgeable on the topic. It is what it is.
[greg janza] “I often work on projects where I do all of the story selection culling through the transcripts.”
I’m sure you do, but you wouldn’t be doing any of that for me.
Take a look at this quote from Ken Burns…………….
“It’s difficult deciding on what’s essential to the story and what isn’t. I think that’s what I do for a living,” says Burns. “I’m credited with being a director, a producer, cinematographer, and co-writer, but I think the thing that I do is try to figure out what’s in and what’s out. There’s a moment in the Milos Forman film Amadeus where the Emperor critiques Mozart by saying, “there’s too many notes.” As you write whatever you’re writing, you struggle with more raw material than you have space or time, or more importantly an audience has interest in. And so you will then do what I do every day of my life which is edit and cut and figure out how to have that complexity survive in the service of very challenging narratives, but not have too many notes.
See how he says “What I do everyday” HE makes those decisions. He didn’t say I let my editor make them for me.
In my case I’m the editor also but even if I wasn’t, I would be counting the notes.
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[greg janza] “I don’t know many producer/directors who log any of their footage themselves. If you do, hats off to you but you are not the norm.”
That’s the whole point many of us are making. X makes this process so simple. You watch your footage, you hit “I” and “O” and then “F” type in notes if you like. Then go to the editor ready.
[greg janza] “that’s what transcripts are for. In transcript form, it’s possible to go through interviews very efficiently and much faster than real time.”
1. I don’t see how that’s faster 2. You can’t tell by reading if the audio is good or bad on the take. 3. I wouldn’t pay for transcripts on a small doc (because X makes it so easy and fast) 4. I wouldn’t pay you to sit there and read them.
I’m speaking here this weekend https://www.stlwritersguild.org/gatewaycon.html
It will give me a chance to speak with up and coming filmmakers and I will ask for a show of hands on different topics. I will report back.
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[Oliver Peters] “However, most don’t know the footage nearly as well as they think without going through it again themselves.”
That’s why they should be making their favorites before it even gets to you.
[Oliver Peters] “Director/DPs who edit their own projects often lack the objectivity a editor brings. “
Yeah, sometimes that’s true.
[Oliver Peters] “So it’s unproductive to also have the producer/director review and log their own content. “
Wow, it’s unproductive to review the content of a film you are directing. It sounds like I need to come to that area and teach a seminar on how to produce a film and save time and money with X and prep.
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[Oliver Peters] “I guess I don’t see the difference whether it is single camera or multicam.”
The difference is a multi-cam interview would have to be cut in a timeline and a single cam doesn’t. More efficient to use your browser.
[Oliver Peters] “I would still put this into a timeline first and cut it down for the 8 minutes I want. This would become an interim sequence to be used as a source for the (potentially) final sequence.”
and I wouldn’t. That’s the debate.
Each one of these people made the cut of my film. There are a few more that I couldn’t fit on screen and this is only half of the folks that were interviewed but you get the idea. You can’t name one of those people. You don’t know who any of them are or what they are talking about, their work history or ANYTHING about them. The only way you would know, is if you sat there “on the clock” and watched all of their interviews. I would never pay you to sit there and watch 45 hours of interviews. I wouldn’t pay you to watch b-roll footage that I shot myself. How would you possibly know more about footage that I shot myself. You would be told what’s going to be used, simple as that. The funny thing is, most editors complain about stuff not being logged because they don’t want to sit there and watch it all. I just don’t believe you are working with that many producer/directors who are that lazy or willing to waste that kind of money to have you log all of their footage for their films. So that’s why I’m giving you the side-eye.
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[Andrew Kimery] “So yes, it is your call.”
That’s mainly my experience as well. I take on a producing/writing role as the editor and the director and/or producer expect me to know the footage better than anyone. They’ll of course have their ideas and input, but usually it’s more of a skeleton. “
I thought about this later. I wrote, directed, shot and edited my film. I knew exactly what I was doing, but yeah you might be working with some clueless people that need you to help them tell their own story.
I would make your job easy because I would actually be……………directing.
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[Brett Sherman] “But, you essentially have to make decisions twice about whether a clip belongs in the edit. In my editing process I work with what I think belongs in there. Cut what’s not working. When I don’t quite have what I need, I go back to the browser. I just find it faster that way.”
Yes
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[Oliver Peters] “There are about 12 interviews (multicam, double-system sound)”
That’s not the same thing. A multi-cam interview is of course going to be cut in the timeline. I think just about everybody does that.
I’m talking about a single cam interview that is 2 hours long that you only need 8 minutes out of.
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[Walter Soyka] “There’s a lot of emotion here”
I will try to tone it down Walter. Sorry for the miscommunication.
[Walter Soyka] ” I’m eager to hear more about how other people work so I can learn.”
That’s actually why I’m on here also Walter. That’s why I was asking people about their experience using this method on a
doc as a producer, and why I was getting a little frustrated. I’m not here for performance art.It seemed like people were speaking in theory instead of actual practice and I prefer to learn from the work.
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[Oliver Peters] “no “previously used but removed” indicators.”
Robin already beat me to it so I will just say, anybody that has ever cut a doc as a producer or director knows that out of a 2 hour interview you are going to end up using maybe 10 minutes if that. You are looking for very specific sound bites on the topic being covered. Once they say that, THAT’S what’s going in the film. Most times you hear it when they say it during the interview. It was never a question in my mind which bites were going in.
If you are not the director it’s not going to be your call anyway, of what goes in my story. Back in the day they walked in and said go to this tc and go to that tc. They already had that info to cut down on the time they have to pay you. If they didn’t do that, then they don’t have a clue.
The concept of dumping hours and hours of footage into the timeline that you know very little of is going to stay, is not an efficient way of going about your work, and as somebody that has experience producing a doc I know would never pay anybody to sit there and do that.
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[Oliver Peters] “Simply go back to the earlier version of the duped sequence/snapshot and look. Same as you would do in X, once you delete a clip from a project (sequence) in X.”
Doesn’t sound more efficient than favorites.
