Shooting is done! Hurray! Now to start editing, which is one of my favorite parts; I love editing. Picking the best takes, establishing the right rhythm for the story, trying out color schemes...
Wait...I forgot. I can't edit yet. Because I have to prepare my video and audio for editing first. Which, for the record, I don't love, because it's really, really tedious.
I've already taken the first step by labeling all my video files. Thanks to shooting via Flip, each take is already in it's own separate file...so all I had to do is label each file by Scene Code, Daily Take #, Shot Code, Shot Take #, and Auxillary Code. For example, what is W023CLEL003b.MPG?
W = "Lunch With Eloise" (each scene has it's own letter code, from A to SSS)
023 = the 23rd take that day. (for syncing with audio files)
CLEL = Close-up on Eloise (Each camera angle has a two letter code, and so does each character, so I can easily identify the type of shot, and who's in it.)
003 = The third close-up on Eloise take.
b = Filmed with the backup camera. (Most files don't need an auxillary code, but its there so I don't confuse what might be different aspect ratios, etc.)
What looks like gibberish at first becomes easy to read when you know what to look for. I'm not an editor normally, I don't know if other editors use a system like this, but I think it's pretty genius.
But naming each video file turned out to be the easy part, and even though it was tedious, I could listen to Eugene Mirman and Todd Barry while I skimmed the videos on mute to figure out the name.
Not so for the audio files; those need my ear's full attention. During shooting, I didn't use an audio mixes; each actor had a lav mic which went directly to an independent digital recorder. The advantages of this method is it's fast and easy; the downside is, I have to manually sync each actor's audio tracks together for each take. Which takes forever. And the aud files are often hours long, and have to be cut before they can be labeled. And because most scenes have 2 or more actors, there are more than twice as many aud takes to label. (These files are a bit easier to label, it's just scene code, take, and actor, e.g. W023EL. Still takes forever.)
Once I'm done with labeling, I can FINALLY...convert the files from H.264 MPEG to HDV MPG so I can edit it in Final Cut! Which isn't as tedious; I just have to press a button and let my computer run for the better part of a day. At least I can go to a movie or something for this part! Isn't it fun to see how the sausage is made? I promise most of these posts won't be so technical, but you should all know how much ridiculous busywork I have to do before I get to the fun part. I'll be fully organized by the end of February...I hope.
Listening to: "Fairytale of New York", the Pogues. (Works just as well on Valentines Day as Christmas.)
