Do you view all the raw footage before started your edits?

[Arif Syed]

Like do you sit back and just watch everything you shot and maybe take notes? I often just jump into the edit and view as I go and I am thinking this is really hurting me because I may have a much better shot because of my impatience.

What is your pre-edit routine?

[Edward Troxel]

I typically rewind the tape in fast forward mode letting me get a quick preview of the footage and find my batch capture points. You're watching it "backwards" but it has worked well for me.

[Matt Bishop]

I personally have a schedule of working on weddings that allows me to keep on each one right after the wedding. As long as I keep up on that decent schedule, I always know what I've shot and can remember almost everything. There will be those tapes that my second shooter got so I'll skim through those quickly and see what I have to work with. I'm usually already editing in my head as I'm shooting so this helps to have mental notes on what i've done. Sometimes if I'm working while capturing, I'll keep an eye on the tape so I can preview it then. I then go through and basically cut out the junk which leaves me with my workable clips and then I've essentially previewed everything again by doing so. It's worked out pretty well for me to this point and I don't miss much.

Now many people don't get to the footage right away and aren't editing something until a few weeks later and in that case, you would probably benefit from going back and briefly running through the footage to refresh your mind.

Matt

[Tim Harjo]

I skim through some of it. I once had this thought in my head to watch all of it. So while I was capturing it, I watched it. I made it through about 3 hours and had enough. Why watch real time when u can scrub! Also, my routine is to do the 'documentary' sections first. And then go back and scrub through all the footage and look for items I call 'Elements' which is just my name for creative shots that have nothing to do with the documentary... like close ups of the flowers, candles, posed shots.. I find all of those and throw them into a separate time line. Then I use parts of the documentary and select 'elements' shots to put together my pieces that will have music behind them.. ie, the highlights.

EDIT: oh yeah.. of course I can miss stuff by jumping in right to the editing. But it's always minor stuff.. like look, grampa has cake on his chin. There's always the 'if I could have gone back and edited over, I would have done this instead' and that will drive u crazy. My system of editing works for me and the more I edit, the less I miss.

[Ryan DesRoches]

I shoot about 5 tapes a wedding per camera. I used to watch (and log) all of the footage before I started digitizing. Then I woke up and figured out that I was just wasting a ton of time.

I now just start editing. I have enough experience now to know what I'm looking for, and the days footage is usually still fresh in my mind when I start cutting.

Ryan

[Mark Stavar]

For me it depends on the nature of the edit.

If I am cutting a multicam shoot of, say, a dance item, it is really just a matter of selecting the camera angle, since any given shot can only go in place.

If I cutting together something like a montage or a music clip, then it is a matter of find the shots that fit in with the feel and flow of what I am trying to do. In those situations I will watch and log the available footage, and use some sort of a loose star rating. Then, as I am cutting, I can be guided by the ratings as a starting point. This is particularly useful if, like me, you err on the side of shooting too much rather than too little footage.

One tip about logging -- start logging as soon as the tapes start coming in. Sitting down to start logging 8 hours of footage can be an arduous task.

marks