Just how long do you take ...

Michael Liebergot · March 12th, 2007, 10:31 AM

I work a fulltime job on top of my video, so my turn around is longer, than if I was doing video 5 days a week.

But, I can knock out a long form edit, which is mainly documentary/jounalistic style, in 2-3 weeks. A short form edit, which makes use of music, voiceovers, and creative story telling, will take me 4-6 weeks to knock out.

My long form edit, will be 60-90 minutes in length.

My short form edits will be 30-45 minutes in length (not including highlight video or some additional bonus features, if there are any). Short edits are definitely more work, but, I prefer them, as do my clients. I love being able to take a full (60-90 minute) catholic mass and be able to compress it down to 15-20 minutes.

Steven Davis · March 12th, 2007, 11:14 AM

My goal is always about 10 to 12 weeks depending on how much of a backlog I have.

I will however be lightening my load though, I'm going to send my extra edits to Don. (poking fun Don.)

We don't cookie cut anything either. We do custom graphics, special effects etc. This is what people like about us. I had a special effect that took me several hours to key frame. So it really depends on the wedding.

We could all agree that lighting, chaos, audio anomelies can all make our edit time vary.

Sunny Dhinsey · March 12th, 2007, 12:06 PM

I'm a videographer based in the UK and I cover mainly Indian weddings which are often intesively ceremonial.

On average, a typical wedding spans 2-3 days and usually the eventual film I provide is anything from 4-8 hours long! Usually across 4 DVDs or 2-3 dual-layered DVDs.

I edit it fully with titles, transitions, highlights, motion menus & extras and the actual editing can take between 2-6 weeks, but it can be many months before the project arrives on the editing table, so I usually quote anything from 3-6 months for final delivery.

Paul Nguyen · March 12th, 2007, 04:27 PM

We do a high percentage of multi-cultural & inter-racial weddings which is good because they often have many ceremonial traditions giving us more footage to play with in post than we get from stock Anglo weddings.
We shoot everything with 2 cameras and do no more than 25 weddings a year with some corporate work during the quiet months to keep the bank happy.

Our couples get a fully edited main feature running about 40mins and also a fully edited documentary going for about 1-1.5 hours. Anyhow, just like Sunny Dhinsey all our productions come with titles, transitions, highlights, photo montages, motion menus & extras.

We spend an average of about 40 hours editing each wedding and quote the clients a 3-4 month turnaround from wedding day.

:)

Peter Jefferson · March 12th, 2007, 06:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sunny Dhinsey

I'm a videographer based in the UK and I cover mainly Indian weddings which are often intesively ceremonial.

On average, a typical wedding spans 2-3 days and usually the eventual film I provide is anything from 4-8 hours long! Usually across 4 DVDs or 2-3 dual-layered DVDs.

I edit it fully with titles, transitions, highlights, motion menus & extras and the actual editing can take between 2-6 weeks, but it can be many months before the project arrives on the editing table, so I usually quote anything from 3-6 months for final delivery.

this is why i no longer do Indian weddings at my standard prices...
not to offend, but i have found the clientelle are far more demanding in teh sense that they believe theyre entitled to standard pricing when the wedding itself is far from standard.. i love doing them, adn there are some incredible shots to be had.. and i definelately would NOT use one camera.. considering the length of teh grooms ceremony at least 3 to break the monotony...
and wireless mivces are pretty useless as the battery life wouldnt last as long as the ceremony itself..
I think the last one i did the grooms ceremony went for abotu 4 and half hours, the brides arrival went for another 45minutes, then thre was teh ceremony at teh grooms home which went for 90minutes, then another one before the reception started which went for an hour from memory...

Seth Kanne · March 12th, 2007, 08:27 PM

I say 10 weeks. (usually deliver in 6-8)
40-65 hrs. edit.
10 hrs. author/design/package.

Greg Patch · March 14th, 2007, 02:54 PM

I generally say two to three weeks and that is alot of editing. I too work a full time job and spend about 4 hrs a night on the edit and authoring. I'm cutting on FCP and a G5 Imac..

Michael Y Wong · March 29th, 2007, 12:30 AM

^^ I'm with Greg on this one. It took me a while but I am getting the hang of it.

For 4 hours of footage to go thru, It takes me about a week (25 or so hours) to trim/minor colour correction the footage down to what I consider a concisely edited 2 hour movie, divided to about 14 chapters or so.

From there it may take me 15 hours to have fun cutting and colouring with MB a highlight reel, I'm picky as hell. So about 40 hours total or 2 weeks as I have a full time career.

Jim Fields · March 29th, 2007, 09:59 AM

I get weddings in 2 ways.

1. I shoot the wedding.
2. I get raw DVCAM wedding footage from a client to edit.

When I get the raw DVCAM wedding footage, I pump out about 4 a week on average. (in a 7 day work week)
This includes titles, small 21 picture montage, seperate Ceremony/Reception disc, and includes, ceremony, reception, highlights, interviews, Montage.
My client likes them edited a certain way, so the cookie cutter edits allow me to pump them out real fast. I know how their cameraman works, so it is just easy. I get a nice flat rate for this, and this is my bread and butter.

If I shoot the wedding, about a week per job, as I shoot in HDV and we all know it takes longer to render, and export via Compressor with HDV.

My wife and I work together to make this happen. I dump all footage to the cluster, once done she does a basic layout in FCP with the laptop (usually while in bed) while streming off of our network. I go back, put in transitions, titles (we have 3-4 dozen templates we made for titles ready to use that we have created), a proof, then it goes to DVD. My wife proofs the DVD while I do something else. We split workloads, she scans images sometimes, does work in Motion for titles, or burns copies, etc.

Because we work from home, we work till 3am sometimes, I will import footage and go watch Lost, make dinner, then go back and get to work.

Rinse, repeat.

We have a nice workflow, own 2 cameras, one HDV, one SD, 1 server, 7 TB of storage, a laptop, NTSC monitor, a few Decks, and DVD printer, Lightscribe cluster for multiple etches, and 5.1 on the main editing station to test the 5.1 we mix for the projects.

March 12th, 2007, 10:31 AM	#16
Michael Liebergot Trustee Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Maryland Posts: 1,505	I work a fulltime job on top of my video, so my turn around is longer, than if I was doing video 5 days a week. But, I can knock out a long form edit, which is mainly documentary/jounalistic style, in 2-3 weeks. A short form edit, which makes use of music, voiceovers, and creative story telling, will take me 4-6 weeks to knock out. My long form edit, will be 60-90 minutes in length. My short form edits will be 30-45 minutes in length (not including highlight video or some additional bonus features, if there are any). Short edits are definitely more work, but, I prefer them, as do my clients. I love being able to take a full (60-90 minute) catholic mass and be able to compress it down to 15-20 minutes. __________________ Michael www.lvpvideo.com

March 12th, 2007, 11:14 AM	#17
Steven Davis Inner Circle Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Richmond, VA Posts: 3,065	My goal is always about 10 to 12 weeks depending on how much of a backlog I have. I will however be lightening my load though, I'm going to send my extra edits to Don. (poking fun Don.) We don't cookie cut anything either. We do custom graphics, special effects etc. This is what people like about us. I had a special effect that took me several hours to key frame. So it really depends on the wedding. We could all agree that lighting, chaos, audio anomelies can all make our edit time vary. __________________ What happens if I push the 'Red' button?

March 12th, 2007, 12:06 PM	#18
Sunny Dhinsey Regular Crew Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: London, England Posts: 127	India Weddings I'm a videographer based in the UK and I cover mainly Indian weddings which are often intesively ceremonial. On average, a typical wedding spans 2-3 days and usually the eventual film I provide is anything from 4-8 hours long! Usually across 4 DVDs or 2-3 dual-layered DVDs. I edit it fully with titles, transitions, highlights, motion menus & extras and the actual editing can take between 2-6 weeks, but it can be many months before the project arrives on the editing table, so I usually quote anything from 3-6 months for final delivery. __________________ Sunny Dhinsey Director - www.filmlore.tv

March 29th, 2007, 12:30 AM	#23
Michael Y Wong Major Player Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Toronto Ontario Canada! Posts: 353	^^ I'm with Greg on this one. It took me a while but I am getting the hang of it. For 4 hours of footage to go thru, It takes me about a week (25 or so hours) to trim/minor colour correction the footage down to what I consider a concisely edited 2 hour movie, divided to about 14 chapters or so. From there it may take me 15 hours to have fun cutting and colouring with MB a highlight reel, I'm picky as hell. So about 40 hours total or 2 weeks as I have a full time career. __________________ dreaming hobbyist + storyteller www.michaelywong.com

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March 12th, 2007, 04:27 PM	#19
Paul Nguyen Regular Crew Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Fairfield, NSW Australia Posts: 31	We do a high percentage of multi-cultural & inter-racial weddings which is good because they often have many ceremonial traditions giving us more footage to play with in post than we get from stock Anglo weddings. We shoot everything with 2 cameras and do no more than 25 weddings a year with some corporate work during the quiet months to keep the bank happy. Our couples get a fully edited main feature running about 40mins and also a fully edited documentary going for about 1-1.5 hours. Anyhow, just like Sunny Dhinsey all our productions come with titles, transitions, highlights, photo montages, motion menus & extras. We spend an average of about 40 hours editing each wedding and quote the clients a 3-4 month turnaround from wedding day. :)

March 12th, 2007, 08:27 PM	#21
Seth Kanne New Boot Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Minneapolis Posts: 7	I say 10 weeks. (usually deliver in 6-8) 40-65 hrs. edit. 10 hrs. author/design/package.

March 14th, 2007, 02:54 PM	#22
Greg Patch Regular Crew Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Huntsville, Alabama Posts: 181	I generally say two to three weeks and that is alot of editing. I too work a full time job and spend about 4 hrs a night on the edit and authoring. I'm cutting on FCP and a G5 Imac..

March 29th, 2007, 09:59 AM	#24
Jim Fields Major Player Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Fort Worth Texas Posts: 247	I get weddings in 2 ways. 1. I shoot the wedding. 2. I get raw DVCAM wedding footage from a client to edit. When I get the raw DVCAM wedding footage, I pump out about 4 a week on average. (in a 7 day work week) This includes titles, small 21 picture montage, seperate Ceremony/Reception disc, and includes, ceremony, reception, highlights, interviews, Montage. My client likes them edited a certain way, so the cookie cutter edits allow me to pump them out real fast. I know how their cameraman works, so it is just easy. I get a nice flat rate for this, and this is my bread and butter. If I shoot the wedding, about a week per job, as I shoot in HDV and we all know it takes longer to render, and export via Compressor with HDV. My wife and I work together to make this happen. I dump all footage to the cluster, once done she does a basic layout in FCP with the laptop (usually while in bed) while streming off of our network. I go back, put in transitions, titles (we have 3-4 dozen templates we made for titles ready to use that we have created), a proof, then it goes to DVD. My wife proofs the DVD while I do something else. We split workloads, she scans images sometimes, does work in Motion for titles, or burns copies, etc. Because we work from home, we work till 3am sometimes, I will import footage and go watch Lost, make dinner, then go back and get to work. Rinse, repeat. We have a nice workflow, own 2 cameras, one HDV, one SD, 1 server, 7 TB of storage, a laptop, NTSC monitor, a few Decks, and DVD printer, Lightscribe cluster for multiple etches, and 5.1 on the main editing station to test the 5.1 we mix for the projects.