Edit time Management at DVinfo.net

Paul Ardesch · October 22nd, 2011, 07:32 PM

i know Im new to this and have so many questions.....

Is there a program that I can use that will track how much time that is spent actually editing? When the mouse is movin and clickin whilst editing? It would be good to track so that we get an idea of how much real time is used to edit. My wife does the editing and it takes her about an 2 hours a minute to edit a wedding, but she looks after two kids at the same time. We are currently booked out for the season almost and have got to the point where we are now telling people 6-12 months for final edit, and would be good to know if we should raise our prices..... supply and demand and all that. Also might pay to do more training or use another program.

Ben Creighton · October 22nd, 2011, 07:46 PM

OfficeTime might do the trick for you, although it's probably more than you need. But it works on Mac or PC, so whatever NLE you're using, it would be compatible with your system.

And, um, IMHO, personally I wouldn't even be thinking about raising my prices (although I don't know what your prices are) if I was quoting 6-12 months for a final edit... (who wants to wait a year for their wedding video?)

Chris Harding · October 23rd, 2011, 02:05 AM

Hi Paul

I think (as already said) you will end up getting a lot of upset brides if they have to wait 12 months for their DVD. The forum I contribute to (weddingwa) has just had a post about very upset brides who had to wait over a year for photos !!!

One of the reasons I have enthusiastic brides is that their wedding DVD set is personally delivered within 7 days of the wedding or when they are back from their honeymoon!

Are you sure your wife takes 2 hours to edit one minute of footage??? So a full long form video that's around 80 minutes would take 160 hours to edit???? Surely that's a miscalculation on your part...you must be charging at least $100 an hour on your costing and assuming a full wedding from prep to reception end you are there for 10 hours plus travel etc etc. If you add 160 hours to that you then should be charging around $16,000 for a wedding I don't think there are too many brides with a budget to cater for that sort of price range.

To be practical in this industry (unless you have super-rich clients) you need to shoot and edit and have
the disks ready for delivery after spending certainly not more than 30 hours tops!!!
My long form edits take me less than two days and that includes cases, burns, artwork and packing them up ready for delivery!! (and I'm doing other stuff in the meantime too!!)

It would be interesting to see how your costing relates to your overall time spent...we all have to realise that we are running a business and time is money so costing accuracy is critical too!!

Chris

Paul Ardesch · October 23rd, 2011, 07:33 AM

When we get a new enquiry we tell them that their edit will take longer because we are heavily booked. Not the ones that we previously booked they still have the shorter lead time. In total we take about 18 hours of footage. It takes alot of time to go through the material. As for costing..... well... er... um my wife loves doing the work and has a great passion for it. We don't do a cost per hour, if she did she would go back to teaching! If you work with a package of 2000 bucks, factor 10+ hours (on a saturday) for two camera persons, then your 30 hours to edit you are looking at 40 bucks an hour which sounds ok, but then there is time in travel, meeting the bride, sorting out the edit style, consumables, equipment, fuel, advertising, web space and the like. I think this is a job of passion (and flexible working hours) and minimal money.
How much per hour is the usual rate?

Chris Harding · October 23rd, 2011, 08:21 AM

Hi Paul

Great I see your point...more passion than money!!!

My absolute bottom line cost is $75 an hour so if you take a $2K package from a business point of view you have 26 hours to complete the job. Just from a time aspect it's an hour to meet the couple, an hour to attend the rehearsal and then probably close to 12 hours on site (not all shooting) but if the wedding is at 3pm you can't arrive at 2:55pm as you need to setup etc etc. That leaves 12 hours to edit, make the disks, package them and deliver/sent them off.

Yeah it's more a labour of love than easy money I must admit.... I truly admire your wife for spending so much time and attending to such detail with your edit...you are one lucky guy!!

Us older guys tend to "shoot for editing" cos we came from the linear editing era where you did tape to tape edits so you were a lot more careful with your shoot and then once into the machine all you needed to do was "top and tail" the wobbly bits!!! I still keep the habit and it makes my edits so much quicker...simply events like the bride congrats outside the Church I can usually just trim the ends and I'm done cos I've shot the sequence with editing in mind!!

Nice to see you are busy too!! My next free weekend sadly is Christmas Eve!!!!

Chris

October 22nd, 2011, 07:32 PM	#1
Paul Ardesch New Boot Join Date: Oct 2011 Location: Hunter Valley Posts: 10	Edit time Management i know Im new to this and have so many questions..... Is there a program that I can use that will track how much time that is spent actually editing? When the mouse is movin and clickin whilst editing? It would be good to track so that we get an idea of how much real time is used to edit. My wife does the editing and it takes her about an 2 hours a minute to edit a wedding, but she looks after two kids at the same time. We are currently booked out for the season almost and have got to the point where we are now telling people 6-12 months for final edit, and would be good to know if we should raise our prices..... supply and demand and all that. Also might pay to do more training or use another program.

October 22nd, 2011, 07:46 PM	#2
Ben Creighton Regular Crew Join Date: Sep 2011 Location: Kingsburg, California Posts: 84	Re: Edit time Management OfficeTime might do the trick for you, although it's probably more than you need. But it works on Mac or PC, so whatever NLE you're using, it would be compatible with your system. And, um, IMHO, personally I wouldn't even be thinking about raising my prices (although I don't know what your prices are) if I was quoting 6-12 months for a final edit... (who wants to wait a year for their wedding video?)

October 23rd, 2011, 02:05 AM	#3
Chris Harding Inner Circle Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Perth, Western Australia Posts: 8,441	Re: Edit time Management Hi Paul I think (as already said) you will end up getting a lot of upset brides if they have to wait 12 months for their DVD. The forum I contribute to (weddingwa) has just had a post about very upset brides who had to wait over a year for photos !!! One of the reasons I have enthusiastic brides is that their wedding DVD set is personally delivered within 7 days of the wedding or when they are back from their honeymoon! Are you sure your wife takes 2 hours to edit one minute of footage??? So a full long form video that's around 80 minutes would take 160 hours to edit???? Surely that's a miscalculation on your part...you must be charging at least $100 an hour on your costing and assuming a full wedding from prep to reception end you are there for 10 hours plus travel etc etc. If you add 160 hours to that you then should be charging around $16,000 for a wedding I don't think there are too many brides with a budget to cater for that sort of price range. To be practical in this industry (unless you have super-rich clients) you need to shoot and edit and have the disks ready for delivery after spending certainly not more than 30 hours tops!!! My long form edits take me less than two days and that includes cases, burns, artwork and packing them up ready for delivery!! (and I'm doing other stuff in the meantime too!!) It would be interesting to see how your costing relates to your overall time spent...we all have to realise that we are running a business and time is money so costing accuracy is critical too!! Chris

October 23rd, 2011, 07:33 AM	#4
Paul Ardesch New Boot Join Date: Oct 2011 Location: Hunter Valley Posts: 10	Re: Edit time Management When we get a new enquiry we tell them that their edit will take longer because we are heavily booked. Not the ones that we previously booked they still have the shorter lead time. In total we take about 18 hours of footage. It takes alot of time to go through the material. As for costing..... well... er... um my wife loves doing the work and has a great passion for it. We don't do a cost per hour, if she did she would go back to teaching! If you work with a package of 2000 bucks, factor 10+ hours (on a saturday) for two camera persons, then your 30 hours to edit you are looking at 40 bucks an hour which sounds ok, but then there is time in travel, meeting the bride, sorting out the edit style, consumables, equipment, fuel, advertising, web space and the like. I think this is a job of passion (and flexible working hours) and minimal money. How much per hour is the usual rate?

October 23rd, 2011, 08:21 AM	#5
Chris Harding Inner Circle Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Perth, Western Australia Posts: 8,441	Re: Edit time Management Hi Paul Great I see your point...more passion than money!!! My absolute bottom line cost is $75 an hour so if you take a $2K package from a business point of view you have 26 hours to complete the job. Just from a time aspect it's an hour to meet the couple, an hour to attend the rehearsal and then probably close to 12 hours on site (not all shooting) but if the wedding is at 3pm you can't arrive at 2:55pm as you need to setup etc etc. That leaves 12 hours to edit, make the disks, package them and deliver/sent them off. Yeah it's more a labour of love than easy money I must admit.... I truly admire your wife for spending so much time and attending to such detail with your edit...you are one lucky guy!! Us older guys tend to "shoot for editing" cos we came from the linear editing era where you did tape to tape edits so you were a lot more careful with your shoot and then once into the machine all you needed to do was "top and tail" the wobbly bits!!! I still keep the habit and it makes my edits so much quicker...simply events like the bride congrats outside the Church I can usually just trim the ends and I'm done cos I've shot the sequence with editing in mind!! Nice to see you are busy too!! My next free weekend sadly is Christmas Eve!!!! Chris