Editing Time per 1min finished product

[Jason Robinson]

Here is a simple question with many not so simple answers (as usual). I would like to know about how much time it takes ya'll to edit (on average) a simple (not too many fancy masks, color effects, etc) wedding video. Currently I spend between .5hr and 1hr for each finished minute of video. I have a feeling that I am too picky about my editing, trying to make up for less than perfect footage (post can only do so much). This is for a fairly simple video scheme with some stills cut in and rotated, cropped, paned, etc. I don't usually include fancy effects (lots of B&W or color saturation, etc).

Thanks for the input.

jason

[Brandon Wood]

I don't think you can be too picky IF you've got the time! The editing process for me (only been doing this about a year now), speeds up the longer I do it, with better results each time.

Of course this should be true if you practice piano, play golf, or paint murals as long as you do it consistently.

When I first started doing this, a big job would take weeks of staying up late nights. I realized that while I was making myself proud editing, I wasn't doing a lot of shooting for practice. Then after I'd exhausted myself from the editing, I might shoot for a few days for practice. Bottom line - by the time the next job rolled around it was like I started all over again in kindergarten because I wan't consistent.

Every time I'd look at the footage I shot, I thought, "I promised myself I would never let that happen again!"

Anyway, didn't mean to write a self help novel here, but I'd just say do everything on very consistent basis if possible - even if your practicing focus or pans in your back yard and then editing it a new way. Your shooting will then get better, your editing will be faster and tighter because you won't be fixing as many boo boos, and you'll have more time to hopefully enjoy your craft and....make more money!

P.S. You may want to invest in some training dvd's to help you learn your editing system better. Search this site and you'll find some good resources. If you use Vegas, I'd highly recommend purchasing some training tools off the VASST site.

[Peter Jefferson]

for me, i give my clients a general outline of "brackets" of time as opposed to actual.

For weddings, i tell my clients that for each wedding i shoot, i end up with anything between 5 to 8 hours worth of tape. That includes multicamming etc etc

from here, i tell them that each tape taks up to a total of 10hours per tape to
Capture, trim, edit, CC. CGrade, transition (if any), remaster the audio track, then to process thr video back out to DV AVI, then to Process THAT DV AVI to MPG for DVD Delivery.. THEN theres teh Dolby Digital process which basically means a complete rehaul of the audio mix in a 5.1 surround environment, then render that out to AC3

Now on a normal day , i may not go as far as 10hours per 1 hour.. usualy i dont.. most of that time is for rendering and capturing anyway.
But i have had instances of creative block where ive sat on a photoshoot edit for abotu 2 days for 3.5minutes worth of material.. i usually get like ths when i have TOO much footage...

On average a 2 man 2cam wedding which gives me 12 to 15hrs would take about 3 weeks. Longform edit, then shortform edit, then 5 min highlights.
I try to create a system, but i tel all my clients NOW, since october last year, that it will take aythign between 4 to 8 months to deliver the finished product

[Kevin Shaw]

I figure I spend at least 30-40 hours producing a typical wedding video which is roughly 90 minutes in length, so that's almost 1/2 hour per minute of finished video. (Dang, sounds like a lot when you put it that way!) It does help to get good video and audio in the first place, so keep that in mind while shooting.

[Steve House]

Originally Posted by Kevin Shaw

I figure I spend at least 30-40 hours producing a typical wedding video which is roughly 90 minutes in length, so that's almost 1/2 hour per minute of finished video. (Dang, sounds like a lot when you put it that way!) It does help to get good video and audio in the first place, so keep that in mind while shooting.

That's actually not bad. One rule of thumb for estimating is 1 hour of editing for every minute on-screen and I've seen some estimates run as high as 3 hours per minute.

[Patrick Moreau]

We include documentary style portion of the video for the ceremony, and speeches. That footage is cut between 3-5 cameras, color correction, trimming out slow parts, and levels. We then lay in audio from 4-5 different sources. I would say that the average for this style is about 4-8 minutes per minute of finished footage for the ceremony and closer to 3 minutes for the speeches.

For the preps, first dance, other reception footage, and highlights we do something much more artistic with a lot more time spent in correcting and altering footage. It is likely around 1-1.5 hours per minute for this.

Before using multicam in FCP with soundtrack and other associated programs, my times were way higher, but I have found that using a Quad G5 and getting a familiar process going gets the ceremony and speech dones very fast and at a very good quality, in my opinion of course.

[Jason Robinson]

Originally Posted by Patrick Moreau

I would say that the average for this style is about 4-8 minutes per minute of finished footage for the ceremony and closer to 3 minutes for the speeches.

For the preps, first dance, other reception footage, and highlights we do something much more artistic with a lot more time spent in correcting and altering footage. It is likely around 1-1.5 hours per minute for this.

Looks like I need to streamline my ceremony editing time. I had a fair amount of color correction to do for my last wedding (pictures taken while standing on snow.... blue everywhere!) so I need to speed up that process as well.

I should also get one of the script packages so my multi-cam shots do not need to be assembled manually. Thanks everyone for your comments.

jason