Editing Hour for 15min Wedding Film

[John H. Lee]

Recently I've edited 15min feature film for the wedding and it took me about 36 hours. Here's the breakdown for each process. I'd like to know how you guys are doing for the same length of edit. I appreciate your feedback.

Project Preparation : 0.5
Footage Screening and Loggin : 6
Music Selection and Mark : 2.5
Editing : 15
Multicam Sync and Logging : 2
Color Grading : 8
Audio Sweetening : 2.5

[John Knight]

Seriously? I'm sure it's beautiful but if it takes you 36 hours to edit a 15min wedding film, you need to reconsider your career options.

[Paul R Johnson]

I don't do weddings, but I've just completed a 3 min show reel that has taken that kind of time - if it's complex, then some things take time, a 30 minute project might take only 5 hours? Depends what is in it, how many edits there are and how accurate they need to be. Working with music projects means much more precise edits to link material together, rather than a simple butt joint. That's why editing is always so different.

[Long Truong]

Originally Posted by John Knight

Seriously? I'm sure it's beautiful but if it takes you 36 hours to edit a 15min wedding film, you need to reconsider your career options.

What's your reasoning behind that?

[Stelios Christofides]

The 3-4 minute wedding trailer (out of a total of about 4 hours),takes me about 4 hours to complete.

stelios

[John Knight]

Originally Posted by Long Truong

What's your reasoning behind that?

It's commonly accepted that standard editing time for a complex and fast paced corporate video, complete with vector graphics, titles, overlays, voiceovers etc takes approx 1hr editing per minute of final video.

If you are taking 3hrs to edit 1min of wedding video, you are either (1) grossly ineffiecient (2) grossly pedantic, (3) lying to impress your clients or (4) using Final Cut X

This is not meant as abuse to the OP, I just can't believe the numbers. Do you have family? Girlfriend? Other hobbies? :)

[Jordan Brindle]

Originally Posted by John Knight

It's commonly accepted that standard editing time for a complex and fast paced corporate video, complete with vector graphics, titles, overlays, voiceovers etc takes approx 1hr editing per minute of final video.

If you are taking 3hrs to edit 1min of wedding video, you are either (1) grossly ineffiecient (2) grossly pedantic, (3) lying to impress your clients or (4) using Final Cut X

This is not meant as abuse to the OP, I just can't believe the numbers. Do you have family? Girlfriend? Other hobbies? :)

You cannot compare corporate edits to wedding edits. Corporate edits are clear-cut, straight forward and in my opinion, easier, in comparison to a short-form edit where the narrative/style/pace/music is all in the editors hands.

You also generally have a script/brief and shoot only what you need when it comes to corporate work.

[John Knight]

Can anyone please post a clip which you have spent 3hrs editing each minute. I'm dying to see...

[Long Truong]

John, I'm not sure if the industry standard in your area is different, but from what I gathered, 30-60h seems to be about a decent average.

If you're interested in keeping yourself updated with what's going on around the world, here are some interesting events you might want to consider checking out:

IN[FOCUS] (US)

Masters in Motion (US)

Mayad Academy 2012 | It's more fun in the Philippines! (Philippines)

Exposed | Down Under (Australia)

Society Of Movement (UK)

WPPI 2013 Wedding Photographer Trade Show (US)

WEVA (US)

There could be more but I can't remember all of them. Hope this helps!

[Simon Wood]

Originally Posted by John Knight

Seriously? I'm sure it's beautiful but if it takes you 36 hours to edit a 15min wedding film, you need to reconsider your career options.

I have known editors to obsess over a single cut for hours on end; they would tweak it, use different frames, cut on this frame or cut on that frame, chuck out the second scene and cut on a different scene, lose the original scene and match that to the new one, then chuck them both out and go back to square one. On and on it goes for just one cut.

Now, I used to edit news stories for broadcast TV using Sony PVE tape to tape machines, and we would often crank out 5 minute stories in about 15 minutes.

If you need to be quick; be quick. If not; take all the time in the world, so what?

[Travis Wilber]

Originally Posted by Simon Wood

I have known editors to obsess over a single cut for hours on end; they would tweak it, use different frames, cut on this frame or cut on that frame, chuck out the second scene and cut on a different scene, lose the original scene and match that to the new one, then chuck them both out and go back to square one. On and on it goes for just one cut.

You are correct.

There has been many times where I'm 12 hours into a highlight film, and the next day I watch it and wonder what I was thinking and rip it apart and tell the story differently. I think the more personally invested with the couple the longer it takes too cause you are really try to give them something that fits their vibe and story.

It takes me a good amount of time to edit, but thats just because I'm not all that efficient of an editor.

The color grading seems to be a bit long. With weddings I try to get as much looking good in camera as possible, then just go through and either fix bad shots, or just am tweaking saturation and mix lighting shots.

But I'd say if the final product is good and the couple is thrilled then don't worry about the time. Just make sure you are getting paid for that time cause when you do get into trouble is when you invest more than you can afford and it screws you in the end.

[Kren Barnes]

Originally Posted by John Knight

Can anyone please post a clip which you have spent 3hrs editing each minute. I'm dying to see...

I'll bite ..... it took me about 8 hours to complete this 4 minute highlight so its close enough

John & Pon - The Rest of our Lives on Vimeo

Kren

[Chris Harding]

Hi John

I'm with you on this one. I think the guys are totally missing the point that weddings are a business. It you take 36 hours to edit a 15 min hilight thene unless you are doing it for free and hve nothing else better to do with your time, then I certainly hope that you are charging at least $4500 JUST for the highlight alone..that is based on the fact that that part of the filming/getting there and back/and 36 hours editing.

We have a local videographer that said once he took two days to get a 2 minute sequence done and is often known to take up to 6 months to deliver a wedding DVD to the bride.

Sometimes wedding videographers tend to border close to obsession with absolute prefection without considering the edit from a business costing point of view. It that's what turns some people on then great for them but I like to enjoy life too.

I'm doing a budget wedding edit today ..bridal prep shoot, outdoor ceremony, photoshoot on stedicam and reception up to the end of the first dance ....so about 70 -90 minutes of DVD and edit time is estimated at around 10 hours ... that's what I cost at so that the time I have to edit. Seriously what would one actually be doing on a 15 minute video with the 15 hours of "edit time' ...Do you have maybe 60 hours of footage to go thru???

I really cannot see how people doing these long winded edits and charging standard prices make any money!!

Chris

[John H. Lee]

For this edit, It takes more than it usually take for the package. It was $3500 package with 3-4 min highlight and 13 - 17 min Feature film along with a Documentary Edit which doesn't take too long (generally 2-3 hrs) I usually set aside 45 - 55 hours for the entire edit and authoring (with motion menu and customized package design), and Feature films generally take about 25 -30 hrs. For this wedding , I did make few shooting mistakes that I have to correct in the post. Besides, It was one of the heart-warming wedding that you want to spend little more time to make it right! I had to do many secondary color correction with keyframing the mask, little bit of rotoscoping here and there.. I'm not sure if that is the normal practice in the event film industry, and I appreciate your honest opinion. Business-wise, I can run this practice without damaging the bottom line , although I can do better if I can be more fast, I guess.

[Chris Harding]

I guess that depends on what you feel you are worth... If you take your initial at least 10 hours to actually attend the wedding, going to see the couple, attend the rehearsal and travelling cost and time plus your edit time you are actually coming out with around $50.00 an hour.

That's not really an issue as long as you feel that $50.00 an hour is a reasonable amount to pay yourself and if, of course, you shot the wedding solo. Too many videographers get wrapped up in getting super creative with the editing and end up forgetting that they are running a business and have expenses plus need to make a decent wack of cash to pay the bills too.

Often you have to stop yourself and say "Ok, that's good enough" ...Remember that brides don't have the same technical expertise as you and to them it's just a pretty video with nice music and memories and all your extra hard work isn't even noticed!

Chris