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Old September 3rd, 2006, 06:44 PM   #1
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Editing time estimate question.

I had been shooting run and gun , interviews, small concerts,etc., and recently got involved in weddings and Bar Mitzvahs. After 5 weddings, I have a good idea abouut the editing time it takes us to do a one hour finished dvd.My girlfriend/partner edits, and though not blazing fast, does a good ,creative job. Including capturing , editing, epxporting audio to Nuendo for post,re importing, and finally authoring the dvd, a two camera wedding with 4 hours of tape runs around 35 hours.
I need to quote a slightly different type of editing job, and hope that someone can give me some feedback based on the time I described for our regular wedding edits.
Here are the specifics of the job:
It's a scripted piece to be shown during the dinner at a Bar Mitzvah put on by well to do people.
I'll be shooting a number of scenes for a day or two, and probably end up with 1.5-2 hours of footage (several takes of the scripted scenes).
I'll be ripping some footage from several dvd's they already have, and including several 20 second segments in the final product.
There will be music provided. I'll take all of the audio into Nuendo for tweaking and mastering.
Approx. 250 pictures.They'll probably give me the pics scanned, but if not, I know what to charge for scanning , resizing and correcting.
Create the mpeg and author the dvd.
The final dvd will be 15-20 minutes.
My question-Any ideas what a realistic estimate of hours would be(not counting the pic scanning)?

Thanks for any help
Bruce S. Yarock
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Old September 4th, 2006, 05:05 AM   #2
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Nobody have any feedback?
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Old September 4th, 2006, 07:23 AM   #3
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There's a thought but not stated in full authority that 1 minute of video usually takes 1 hour to edit. This is correct in some cases and incorrect in others. For you I would say it'll take 150-200 hrs. :( We'll be realistic here. It depends on you the editor. Plan atleast 9hrs of editing and as high as 40hrs (even 60hrs) it'll depend on how good and story scipted heavy you make this video. Remember people will watch it at the dinner so you want to play something you will be very proud of, and it'll help generate business cause your work is being exposed to many people. Good Luck

Monday
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Old September 4th, 2006, 07:35 AM   #4
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Thanks, Monday. Were you joking with the 150-200 hour estimate?
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Old September 4th, 2006, 08:34 AM   #5
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Joking?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Bruce S. Yarock
Thanks, Monday. Were you joking with the 150-200 hour estimate?
Bruce S. Yarock
www.yarock.com
Bruce,
I don't think it's a joke. My personal experience began editing in the days when I only had access to VHS, long before I acquired an NLE. With footage for a 1-camera shoot, I found that editing required about 2 hours' time for each minute in the completed video. I eventually got it down from 120 to about 100-110 minutes-per-minute, but never lower).

Now, with today's NLEs, the least I've done it in is about 20 mins of editing per minute of completed video, and THAT's with LOTS and LOTS of prep and planning, (or "resigning" myself to using only WYSIWYG footage and sound). The most worthwhile lessons I've learned are: 1) you can never do too much preparation, and 2) better preparation (usually) results in less time editing. (Common sense, I know, but IMO there's wisdom in the advice). And now that I recently got a new NLE, my time ratio has jumped back upward while I'm learning how to do things faster.

Maybe it would help to log/track your editing time to help set rates for such jobs in the future.

Good luck.
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Old September 4th, 2006, 08:44 AM   #6
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It really depends on too many factors to just give a simple Hour/Dollar quote. Yes, it can take an hour per minute, but that is usually if you need heavy color correcting, heavy effects, custom transitions, audio tweaking, etc. A simple edit can be done much quicker. So, you need to take all this into consideration when looking at the raw footage, and only then can you give a reasonable estimate.

In your case, it will be scanning the pics, adjusting them, then placing them in the timeline that will eat up the most time. Figure close to 5 to 10 minutes per pic.
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Old September 4th, 2006, 08:56 AM   #7
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Daniel,
Thanks. we log exact time on every job, just for that reason. It's just that I ahven't done this specific type of job, so I wasn't sure of what kind of time it will entail.

Keith,
I'll be shooting the video, so hopefully we won't have to do much correcting in post. We told the producer to push her towards Kinkos if she doesn't want to pay us for all tha mind-numbing scanning. The audio tweaking is my background, so I have a good handle on the time involved there.There won't be a lot of fancy graphics , etc. unless they want to pay extra.
I'm figuring 40 hours min. without the scanning.(Shhoting is seperate).
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Old September 4th, 2006, 10:48 AM   #8
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Hey Bruce,
I was kind of joking with the 150 to 200 hrs estimate. Since you've said there won't be alot of post production (CC, effects) on most of the clip then the time your looking at is decreased drastically. I do fast highlights for clients in my area that enjoy them and those are usually 3 minutes long. But it takes me 7-13 hrs to do usually. A 3 sec clip can take me a hour to edit as I have to edit by frame to achieve a effect on the moving video. If your not doing things like these then your fine in the end. 40hrs as you stated seems a good estimate. Take Care

Monday
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Old September 4th, 2006, 11:40 AM   #9
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Thanks, Monday.
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