Editing without a computer - need ideas.
 

Hi all,

I want to edit a short documentary I am planning on filming soon, but I have one problem - I don't have a computer to edit on right now. I am planning on getting a whole new editing system next fall for a different film I will be shooting over the summer, but basically I can't get it any earlier because of budget issues. Does anyone have any ideas on how to solve my editing problem? I already tried going back to my old college which had some editing suites, but I will not be able to use them as an alumni. I assume local production/post production places would rent out editing suites, but I imagine that would be quite costly. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Buy 2 used Beta SP decks and go old school baby.
enjoy those straight cuts. It'll teach ya to shoot sequences quick.

I'm not really being flip to your situation, just showing my age.
But the advice is for real.
Decks can be had for cheap.

I guess I am showing my age as well, but what you say is Greek to me. What would the editing process be with Beta SP decks?

If you're on a really limited budget then the options are going to be pretty limited, but I can think of a few cheap ways to do rudimentary editing. You could buy a DVD recorder with firewire input - they are getting pretty inexpensive these days. My 4 year old Sony recorder has a bunch of features for assembling DV edits (you designate where you want the cuts and the recorder then controls the camera). I have never looked closely at these functions because they are somewhat complicated and awkward using the remote control, but I think it might do what you want if a DVD is acceptable as the final product.

Another option would be getting a cheap DV camera and connecting it to your other camera. Now I'm assuming that you at least own one camera here....

tape to tape, one monitor

however, upon a little research, they are a lot more than I though.
My old station was junking theirs, so I figured they were cheap.

My next idea is to sneak back to school at night with a current student.
bring beer!

Do you have any friends with computers?


-A

Does Wahington DC have a community access television channel? They usually have editing suites for free after you undergo a little training.

Could you just borrow one off a mate?

Way back in 2000, I bought a myself iMacDV 400mhz G3 computer with 128 megs of RAM, a 10 gig HD [built in firewire ports] and was able to smoothly edit DV with the included iMovie2 application.

You could go to a garage sale/Craigslist today and pick up that same iMac for probably less than a hundred bucks and edit your documentary with it.

Of course, t's best to get a G4 processor Mac, but the point is, you don't always have to get the latest and greatest...especially if budget is a factor.

You can then print it back to tape...and then reimport it later back to whatever NLE to finish up.

That's a great point John. I gave my daughter a computer just like that when she was in college, along with a cheap Sharp DV camera. She and her friends filled up the hard drive very quickly with movies they made just for fun. Some of them were really very good too. I was really amazed by what they did with that setup - it was well worth the cost! Today you could probably find one of those things for nothing. We've thrown several away at work after trying in vain to give them away....

You did not say how you were capturing, short "filming soon"

If so a razor and tape is all you need(old school)

Ben, since you're posting here, you DO have access to a computer... why not use it for editing as well? Windows Movie Maker comes standard on all PCs...

I would love to use my own computer and moviemaker, but my computer is a pretty old laptop - circa 2002, so it just can't handle editing. I've tried to do it before a couple years ago, and it was just brutaly slow, and usually froze the computer. I was always just able to use the nice editing suites at my college, but now that I have graduated, I can't anymore. I am thinking of asking one of my friends to use his new macbook. I will also look around DC for the community access TV station, and see what they have to offer. I won't be able to buy anything unfortunately, because all of my current budget was just spent on my new Canon XH A1. If I really can't find a solution, I will just have to wait until the fall to do it, which is not really that bad, I just know I will have an itchy editing finger!

Hah! I found a solution I think. The DC public access TV rents out editing suites for $15/2 hours. I think that is quite reasonable, because I don't think I would use it for much more than a day. Maybe they will have full day discount rates. Thanks alot William for that suggestion!

Go buy a cheap used PC. My old Duron 1gig used to edit DV like a champ. Use Windows movie maker or Virtual Dub for no cost software. You can get a decent used PC for $100. Get one with at least a 20Gb hard drive and 256Mb RAM minimum. Buy a used Firewire card if it doesn't come with one ($20).
**Didn't notice you would be using HDV, so you would need a decent modern PC**