Preparing Your Indie Film for Edit

Video Transcript

"Okay, you shot all your footage, you think you have everything that you need and now it's time to edit the production, you know, of course you labeled all your tapes and you know where everything is, and then I would suggest going through all the tapes and basically logging them. You don't have to write everything down, what everybody says, but I would just, you know, watch everything, you know, know what scene is on what tape, what tape scene is the good one and usually it will be the last take you do because you know, you did a take, you know, three times and all go hey the third one that got us. You just go to that third scene. So you kind of know where everything is, become familiar with where all the footage is because you don't want to put everything in your, you know, edit system, your computer edit system and, you know, even the bad tapes because why, why even waste your time doing that. So, so log all your tapes. Be prepared before you even start, you know, putting stuff in the machines ahead of time and it will save you a lot of time. For actual editing, I mean there's all different types of systems just, you know, whatever system you use whether it be like, you know, a $60,000.00 Avid or, you know, a couple thousand dollar system you have at home, you've got to maintain that quality, especially if it's a mini-DV. Make sure the quality is maintained. You don't want to like glue it on to like SVHS or Hi-8 or something because it kind of defeats the purpose of shooting it in the higher end, you know, digital format to begin with. So whatever system you use just make sure it's capable of, you know, holding, you know, all that footage, you know, for ninety minutes whatever your end product's going to be, and be able to do all your effects and all your transitions and the sound is good. You want it as perfect as possible. I mean, you know, granted, you know, you're working with limited means, but, you know, for what you're working with, your budget and your equipment and what's available to you, you're doing the best job that you can do with what you have. You know that's why you're not making a Star Wars for a couple thousand dollars. So just do the best that you can and that kind of reflects with the editing as well."