How fast is your editing? at DVinfo.net

Simon Wyndham · October 4th, 2009, 11:19 AM

Okay, here's on given the silly expectations of some clients.

What is the fastest time that you have edited an hour long (or thereabouts) video?

Vito DeFilippo · October 4th, 2009, 12:16 PM

Uhhmmmm....I guess it would take me about ten seconds if I had a long enough clip with no cuts needed.

Jokes aside, this is an impossible question. Any titling, graphics work needed? How many sources, camera angles? Colour correction or grading? Effects, yes or no? Animation? Etc, etc...

It completely depends on so many factors.

Simon Wyndham · October 4th, 2009, 12:29 PM

Vito, I realise it depends on many factors. But it's just a question to humour me. Tell me what the fastest time you have edited such a long programme in, and let us all know what else (titles graphics etc) you had to deal with.

For example, have you ever been given a long running time spec and been asked to do it double quick time? How long did it take you to get it done compared to other similar specced projects in the past?

I'm just interested, not asking about any specific project spec.

Vito DeFilippo · October 4th, 2009, 12:33 PM

Well, I do a fair number of weddings, and the fastest I can do one is about 20 hours for a 90 minute video. This is with full colour correction, sound mix, some basic titling and effects.

Corporate videos take longer for me, because the material is not shot chronologically, and I'm much more nit picky.

Grinner Hester · October 4th, 2009, 12:50 PM

I usually get 5 days to cut a one hour show.
It, of course, depends on the show and the elements involved.

Graeme Coutts · October 4th, 2009, 01:09 PM

I am very glad that I stumbled across this topic as I have always felt my editing is sloth-like.

OK, granted, I am very much a hobbyist but I would like to think that I could speed things up in order to reach some sort of standard throughput level.

Grinner, am I correct in assuming that you are talking about 5 X standard 8(ish) hour days?

Shaun Roemich · October 4th, 2009, 01:27 PM

For my AVERAGE 30 or 60 minute program, I EXPECT to take 5-ish hours per finished minute BUT that oftimes includes 30-40 hours of tape that needs to be screened by me (assuming the producer hasn't done a paper edit OR that I'm producing) and includes client revisions.

Some programs are faster, some are MUCH more time consuming. I work mostly with documentary stuff so our shoot-to-keep ratio is quite high, often as high as 50 or 60:1.

On the off chance that I shot to a script (and edited to the SAME script), those numbers drop significantly.

Grinner Hester · October 4th, 2009, 02:09 PM

[QUOTE=Grinner, am I correct in assuming that you are talking about 5 X standard 8(ish) hour days?[/QUOTE]

Sometimes. Of course there is no such thing as a standard day in this industry. Sometimes it's 8 hours, sometimes it's 18.
A typical one hour show should take less than 40 hours though.
...again, depending on elements. I do outdoor shows, CMT Showcase, ESPN Classics... all of these documentary type of shows can be done well under 40 hours of editing. Sometimes it depends on the producer. Having a producer in the room will always slow you down... never speed things up. It's much quicker to just make a show than to discuss every edit. My original programs take me a fraction of the time to edit than a show with a producer over my shoulder or an unsupervised session. I don't do paper cuts or offlines for my shows. I capture every bit of the footage I shot, lay the good stuff on a timeline, look how long at is, go through it subractively to get it to time, then go from the top with music, then go from the top with b-roll, then go from the top with layers of love... that process revolves around budget and how much time is left. Color correction, custom transitions, effects, ect. If I had to meet a deadline before that, I could.

Battle Vaughan · October 4th, 2009, 03:35 PM

FWIW, the consensus in another forum dedicated to newspaper web video sites recently was that editing and output (not counting actual shooting time) averages an hour per minute of finished video. These are typically about 3 minute news pieces with 20-30 minutes of tape, with generally no fancy effects, but in practice I found that was pretty much on target for that particular type of work.... I assume a hour-long piece would have many times more footage to assimilate than the average 10:1 ratio we found, plus more-extensive color tweaking than an under-the-daily-deadline news piece, of course.../ Battle Vaughan

Dean Sensui · October 7th, 2009, 02:25 AM

For what I do, generally three to four hours per finished minute. That's from raw camera footage all the way to delivery.

I did a rotoscope job for a commercial that took five hours to finish three to four seconds.

Bill Ward · October 9th, 2009, 10:07 AM

For programming, the shows I've cut for usually budget five or six 8+ hour days of offline editing for a 30-minute show. (which is usually about 23 minutes of actual video) This includes revisions after the network sees the rough cut, with another day to conform in HD and add all the full rez graphics. We're generally dealing with 20-30 field tapes at a minimum per show.

This does NOT include the time for media-logging, transcription and digitizing. That adds several more days into the mix.

That being said, I've DP'd on a PBS show where most of the material was SOT tabletop 2-camera demonstrations, with one or two takes for the entire segment, and very little cutting to audio track. With a good script and timecodes, I could probably rough cut that half hour program together in a day fairly easily.

So, your mileage may vary, wildly, depending on the project.

October 4th, 2009, 11:19 AM	#1
Simon Wyndham Trustee Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Malvern UK Posts: 1,931	How fast is your editing? Okay, here's on given the silly expectations of some clients. What is the fastest time that you have edited an hour long (or thereabouts) video?

October 4th, 2009, 12:16 PM	#2
Vito DeFilippo Trustee Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Montreal, Quebec Posts: 1,585	Uhhmmmm....I guess it would take me about ten seconds if I had a long enough clip with no cuts needed. Jokes aside, this is an impossible question. Any titling, graphics work needed? How many sources, camera angles? Colour correction or grading? Effects, yes or no? Animation? Etc, etc... It completely depends on so many factors. __________________ . http://www.nosmallroles.com

October 4th, 2009, 12:33 PM	#4
Vito DeFilippo Trustee Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Montreal, Quebec Posts: 1,585	Well, I do a fair number of weddings, and the fastest I can do one is about 20 hours for a 90 minute video. This is with full colour correction, sound mix, some basic titling and effects. Corporate videos take longer for me, because the material is not shot chronologically, and I'm much more nit picky. __________________ . http://www.nosmallroles.com

October 4th, 2009, 01:27 PM	#7
Shaun Roemich Inner Circle Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Vancouver, British Columbia (formerly Winnipeg, Manitoba) Canada Posts: 4,088	For my AVERAGE 30 or 60 minute program, I EXPECT to take 5-ish hours per finished minute BUT that oftimes includes 30-40 hours of tape that needs to be screened by me (assuming the producer hasn't done a paper edit OR that I'm producing) and includes client revisions. Some programs are faster, some are MUCH more time consuming. I work mostly with documentary stuff so our shoot-to-keep ratio is quite high, often as high as 50 or 60:1. On the off chance that I shot to a script (and edited to the SAME script), those numbers drop significantly. __________________ Shaun C. Roemich Road Dog Media - Vancouver, BC - Videographer - Webcaster www.roaddogmedia.ca Blog: http://roaddogmedia.wordpress.com/

October 7th, 2009, 02:25 AM	#10
Dean Sensui Inner Circle Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Honolulu, HI Posts: 2,054	For what I do, generally three to four hours per finished minute. That's from raw camera footage all the way to delivery. I did a rotoscope job for a commercial that took five hours to finish three to four seconds. __________________ Dean Sensui Exec Producer, Hawaii Goes Fishing

October 4th, 2009, 12:29 PM	#3
Simon Wyndham Trustee Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Malvern UK Posts: 1,931	Vito, I realise it depends on many factors. But it's just a question to humour me. Tell me what the fastest time you have edited such a long programme in, and let us all know what else (titles graphics etc) you had to deal with. For example, have you ever been given a long running time spec and been asked to do it double quick time? How long did it take you to get it done compared to other similar specced projects in the past? I'm just interested, not asking about any specific project spec.

October 4th, 2009, 12:50 PM	#5
Grinner Hester Regular Crew Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: services world-wide Posts: 118	I usually get 5 days to cut a one hour show. It, of course, depends on the show and the elements involved.

October 4th, 2009, 01:09 PM	#6
Graeme Coutts New Boot Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: East London, South Africa Posts: 8	I am very glad that I stumbled across this topic as I have always felt my editing is sloth-like. OK, granted, I am very much a hobbyist but I would like to think that I could speed things up in order to reach some sort of standard throughput level. Grinner, am I correct in assuming that you are talking about 5 X standard 8(ish) hour days?

October 4th, 2009, 02:09 PM	#8
Grinner Hester Regular Crew Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: services world-wide Posts: 118	[QUOTE=Grinner, am I correct in assuming that you are talking about 5 X standard 8(ish) hour days?[/QUOTE] Sometimes. Of course there is no such thing as a standard day in this industry. Sometimes it's 8 hours, sometimes it's 18. A typical one hour show should take less than 40 hours though. ...again, depending on elements. I do outdoor shows, CMT Showcase, ESPN Classics... all of these documentary type of shows can be done well under 40 hours of editing. Sometimes it depends on the producer. Having a producer in the room will always slow you down... never speed things up. It's much quicker to just make a show than to discuss every edit. My original programs take me a fraction of the time to edit than a show with a producer over my shoulder or an unsupervised session. I don't do paper cuts or offlines for my shows. I capture every bit of the footage I shot, lay the good stuff on a timeline, look how long at is, go through it subractively to get it to time, then go from the top with music, then go from the top with b-roll, then go from the top with layers of love... that process revolves around budget and how much time is left. Color correction, custom transitions, effects, ect. If I had to meet a deadline before that, I could.

October 4th, 2009, 03:35 PM	#9
Battle Vaughan Trustee Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Miami, FL USA Posts: 1,505	FWIW, the consensus in another forum dedicated to newspaper web video sites recently was that editing and output (not counting actual shooting time) averages an hour per minute of finished video. These are typically about 3 minute news pieces with 20-30 minutes of tape, with generally no fancy effects, but in practice I found that was pretty much on target for that particular type of work.... I assume a hour-long piece would have many times more footage to assimilate than the average 10:1 ratio we found, plus more-extensive color tweaking than an under-the-daily-deadline news piece, of course.../ Battle Vaughan

October 9th, 2009, 10:07 AM	#11
Bill Ward Major Player Join Date: Jul 2005 Posts: 580	For programming, the shows I've cut for usually budget five or six 8+ hour days of offline editing for a 30-minute show. (which is usually about 23 minutes of actual video) This includes revisions after the network sees the rough cut, with another day to conform in HD and add all the full rez graphics. We're generally dealing with 20-30 field tapes at a minimum per show. This does NOT include the time for media-logging, transcription and digitizing. That adds several more days into the mix. That being said, I've DP'd on a PBS show where most of the material was SOT tabletop 2-camera demonstrations, with one or two takes for the entire segment, and very little cutting to audio track. With a good script and timecodes, I could probably rough cut that half hour program together in a day fairly easily. So, your mileage may vary, wildly, depending on the project.