Outsourcing Edits

[Clive McLaughlin]

Has anyone used third parties to get edits done? Any recommendations?

My first full time year here and I've given myself a horrendous amount of work to do!

I don't like not having the creative control, but I'm thinking I might look into it for the less creative aspects of my edits like speeches etc...

Would I be better just training somebody up??

[Michael Silverman]

I hired someone locally and it's worked out really well. I got several quotes and his was lowest and he's done a very good job. I pay him a set rate for each video so that I don't go over budget if a video takes longer than average to edit. He will produce a rough cut and then I'll go back and make a few changes, adjust audio, and color grade. Overall it's saved me a ton of time and it's been totally worth it.

[Aindreas Lynch]

I use a company in India at the moment that I ftp all the footage to - takes about 2 days to upload everything so it's reasonably quick. They are very hit and miss to be honest, sometimes the edit is good other times it's very poor with lots of mistakes. I tried training someone local to me but that didn't work out as he just didn't listen and preferred to do his own thing rather than what I wanted.

Its pretty difficult to find someone that will do exactly as you ask but if you can then they are worth their weight in gold!!!

[Aindreas Lynch]

Originally Posted by Michael Silverman

I hired someone locally and it's worked out really well. I got several quotes and his was lowest and he's done a very good job.

How did you find him? I was thinking of approaching local media colleges to see if anyone was interested.

[Clive McLaughlin]

For me, I'd be looking someone to edit my speeches, first dance, and vows, and maybe to top and tail all my clips - that would be handy!

But yea, heres the think - multicam edits are basically just watching and clicking in realtime.

If I had to watch it through for mistakes I may as well have done the edit myself. I want it to be done and trust that its right without watching it entirely.

Not sure I'd have that trust with an Indian company (and plenty have sent me emails!)

That said, to get somebody local I'd need to supply them with the software, and I use Vegas - which isn't compatible with Macs which most young media folks use...

Not sure its worth buying and setting up a workstation for them though...

[Paul Mailath]

if You're going to have someone else do your edits the most important thing you can do is document EXACTLY what you do, what you want and don't want, The more precise you are in documenting your methodology and expectations - the better off you are.

[Nigel Barker]

Originally Posted by Clive McLaughlin

For me, I'd be looking someone to edit my speeches, first dance, and vows, and maybe to top and tail all my clips - that would be handy!

But yea, heres the think - multicam edits are basically just watching and clicking in realtime.

If I had to watch it through for mistakes I may as well have done the edit myself. I want it to be done and trust that its right without watching it entirely..

I had exactly this problem with some edits that I outsourced a few years ago when the backlog was too great. He was a decent enough editor but the quality control wasn't good enough. I had to go through it all over again fixing stuff like where a tripod got accidentally kicked by a guest thus ensuring an irritating jiggle in the sequence when he should have cut to another camera instead of leaving the jiggle in.

[Danny O'Neill]

Start by outsourcing the rough cut bits. For us we carve up the footage and catagorise everything, then putting the edit together is just like a big jigsaw puzzle. Outsource the syncing up of cameras and such so all you have to do is put the edit together.

That will take off a huge part of your workload.