So after you shoot an event, what is your specific workflow like? Im trying to see what sort of best practices people use, so I can develop a good workflow for myself. Things like dumping the files, logging, picking music, editing, color correcting, grading, etc.

So after you shoot an event, what is your specific workflow like? Im trying to see what sort of best practices people use, so I can develop a good workflow for myself. Things like dumping the files, logging, picking music, editing, color correcting, grading, etc.

My typical workflow is like this ... once the event's complete I back up to two hard drives straight away as soon as I get back on the PC.

My SSD and my Mechanical Drive.

I then burn all the raw files to Bluray (not straight away ... although I should, but after a day or two).

When I start work, I start with the trailer/highlights first.

Find a suitable song ... and just go from there. Every scene is always sharpened, colour corrected and colour graded.

Regardless of whether I'm shooting a wedding or a seminar or stand up interviews EVERYTHING goes to 2 separate HDDs. I go to an internal and backup on an external.
For wedding I start with the ceremony since that's generally a 3 camera shoot, get it rough cut then finish cut, then color and exposure (as and if needed), audio is last.
Then I move on to the other parts as I feel like I want to. Sometimes I change the order I edit them just to keep my mind in the game but I ALWAYS start with the ceremony.
Other types of work are mostly cut in lineal order like seminars. Of course it depends on the client and what they want and need. they may only need 10 minutes of a seminar for their website but I'll shoot the whole thing of course since I don't know what 10 minutes they might want. CC, audio sweetening all the post production enhancements come last in the edit process.

Once all the cards are on the computer, the files are copied to external hard drive. Once I KNOW I have two (or more) copies of the files, I am willing to delete cards, but usually wait until after at least some editing is done.

I pull all the files into Vegas chronologically first, and start watching, deleting from the time line anything not worth while. This leads to a rough long edit as my first project. I don't start the high lights until I've at least done that, since the high lights will start the same way: deleting from the time line anything not worth it.

Our ceremonies are 3 camera, too, and once Plural Eyes has it synced, I'll figure out which camera angle is most worth while, though they all stay in the time line.

Color grading is often done on the time line. By that I mean, I keep all footage from the ceremony from camera #1 on the line #1, camera #2 on line #2, etc, so I can grade it all at once, and adjust individual clips as needed.

All memory cards are labeled differently. So when I load all cards onto my desktop, I rename the root folder with the name on the card. Once all cards have been loaded, I immediately copy it to another drive (seems to be the norm for everyone else) Then I make smaller folders with names to make things easier to find. (Ceremony, toasts, first dance etc.) And in these folders, there's more folders for which camera being used (ex. Ceremony-camera 1) Oddly the first thing I edit is the audio. I take the clips from all audio sources, trim them down, and then sweeten them with Audition and export them out with new names (ex. Groom Audio Sweetened) that way if I change my mind, i can go back to the original file and fix it. Then I make seperate timelines in PPCS6 for every important event. I NEVER put everything on the same timeline. Then I'll sync using PluralEYes3 and use the multicam feature. Makes cutting between 4 cameras quick and easy. Then color grading is the last thing I do.

1. transfer files to HD, rename files to what camera
2. Place footage of each event on different timelines
3. plural eyes to sync events up.
4. edit ceremony/toasts in full.
5. pick music
6. edit film (rough draft)
7. audio clean
8. clean up film, edits
9. color correction
10. watch on dvd and make any final adjusts.

1.) Copy all cards to labeled folders (card1, card 2, etc) on hard drive
2.) Make copy to external hard drive
3.) Cards and ext hard drive into fireproof safe
4.) Set up chapter folders (bride prep, ceremony, photoshoot, etc) and move all clips into appropriate folders
5.) Create separate projects (in Sony Vegas) for each chapter and load clips onto timeline. At the same time I look for good footage for the trailer. I drag these clips to a separate track
6.) After all chapter projects are set up, I pull the marked good clips in a new project for the Trailer
7.) Find music, create trailer and post to blog
8.) Complete each chapter project, color correct, clean up all unused clips and save as Final chapter file
9.) Create master project file in Vegas and import nested project files from each chapter
10.) Render Blu-Ray file as well as an mp4 file ( I provide source media files on a flash drive as part of my package)
11.) Edit Highlight file ( I do this last as by this time I have a good idea of what I want to use) and post to blog
12.) Create DVD (Sony DVD Architect) and burn copies
13.) Print labels onto DVD, package, ship

Really like your workflow summary Art

I'll be doing a few steps that you've mentioned from now on as I can see how it will benefit me.

Transfer to computer using Content Browser, (prior to the event on the PMW 200 i use Title prefix and number to match the event, so it's easy to identify later) for other cams i rename the clips using a program called 'better file rename' I give them names that are easy to identify later on,
I then create folders that correspond to the different parts of the day, Prep, Arrivals, Ceremony etc.
Everything is backed up to external drive and cards put away til after the project is finished.
Also incremental backups each day to a 4 Tb drive.
Create Project and place all folders, clips and resources etc.
I usually will sort the clips chronologically in the folders and make sequences which are placed on the timelines.
I'll then make a rough cut of each sequence, i usually colour correct/match (which im not too good at) prior to multicam editing
I'll often jump between sequences while editing, for variety if nothing else!
Run through the resulting rough cut and produce a fine cut, do whatever i need for audio then
create highlights edit
rerun to see if theres any problems.
Export sequences
I get my partner to view these for checking purposes.
then send them to menuing software etc.

It's always good to be organised so when you come back to your project it's easy to pick up where you left off. I have a master folder using the couples surname so it's unique and easy to find but if you live in Wales you might need to find a different naming method as I'm sure you will do more than one "Jones" over the years?
I make subfolders called Cam1, Cam2, Cam3, DVD1, DVD2 and Stills. Card contents are then copied direct to the specific folders. Unlike Rob I only use my Sony content management software if a file has been long enough to split when it goes over 2GB, So that's usually only the ceremony unless the speeches have a long one!

I do all this BEFORE I go to bed so cards, copies are all safely on drives regardless of what time it is.

The edit process is fairly simple for me as I shoot for editing (a habit from the old days of working with linear tape) However I usually do stuff in the order it happened but with the ceremony I do tend to correct audio first then CC and add the other two cameras.

I guess everyone works differently?

Chris

Most of my process has been listed by others, but I do one thing slightly different. My cards are uploaded to my backup external hard drive first. Then I copy the raw files from the backup drive to my working drive where they are organized in folders by predicted DVD/Blu-Ray chapter and then in sub folders by camera. I do it this way so I know I have a good backup. Since all of my working raw files were copied from the backup, I know the backup is good...or one day (hopefully not) I will find out quick that my backup is not. I completely agree with Chris about making copies that night. I am tired and it is late, but paranoia and curiosity win, so I stay up and copy files. I always watch clips that I am either excited about (or nervous) while I wait.