Why you will always need an editor in the IPhone era

MartinE wrote on 12/22/2017, 4:12 PM

Sorry for the OT

My grand daughter in the UK was born with a serious heart abnormality and has undergone 3 major heart ops. The children's charity "Starlight" recently paid for the whole family to go Disney Land Florida for a week. Knowing that this was a "once in a lifetime" event my son recorded the holiday on his IPhone. When he got back he realised he had 4.5hrs of video and 1500 stills. 4.5hrs of poorly shot uncut video (to say nothing of the disjointed sound) is tedious and unwatchable. He knew he needed to do something with it. He tried. He is a bright fella but has no skills or experience in editing. After a few attempts and feeling overwhelmed by the task he finally gave up and gave it to dad!

Over a period of many months I have turned it into a (I hope) engaging, fun and watchable 55 minute piece which tells the story he was trying to tell but didn't know how. There are 6 scenes, the usual reality bits, montages etc and about 15 production music tracks.

I only post this as an encouragement to pro and amateur editors alike that what we do, although a great mystery to most people and badly underrated is absolutely essential and in fact the more that mobile devices make shooting quality video easier, the more video will be shot and the more necessary will be the editor to make sense of it all and turn it into something watchable.

Editors will be needed for many years to come. You can't automate story telling and creativity.

Technical details: VP13/453, all footage converted to cineform for editing using Vegasaur, final mp4 render using Handbrake 1080p 59.9fps. VP and cineform worked faultlessly through may hours of editing, I love this software for all it's faults.

I can post a link if anybody is interested.

Comments

EricLNZ wrote on 12/22/2017, 4:44 PM

Yes, please post the link Martin.

MartinE wrote on 12/22/2017, 5:25 PM

Cornico. Sadly I think you may have a point. People do seem to be satisfied with unedited short phone clips and I guess editing is getting devalued as a result.

Here's the link anyway.

set wrote on 12/22/2017, 6:41 PM

Well, in recent days, the video duration is becoming shorter and shorter, and the delivery need to be faster and faster... My friends & communities here tend to watch a 1-minute limited Instagram more rather than the long YouTube...

Former user wrote on 12/22/2017, 10:05 PM

And of course, you don't make any money editing your families videos. 🤑

Former user wrote on 12/22/2017, 10:21 PM

Well, my career was editing so money was a big part of it.

EricLNZ wrote on 12/22/2017, 10:23 PM

And of course, you don't make any money editing your families videos. 🤑

No, but this probably gave Martin more satisfaction. I've only watched parts of the video but it's beautifully done and something the family can treasure.

xberk wrote on 12/23/2017, 3:37 PM

Very nice work indeed Martin. Length would be an issue excepting this is meant for the family. I'm sure if you had to meet a time slot you'd have done that, but you don't for the family. You obviously have experience and a good command of Vegas. Once upon a time (when I was young) I worked in film. Editing home movies was not as necessary in those days as folks shot much less footage. Today, I agree editing or shooting discipline is a must for home video. But you have gone way beyond simply cutting down the viewing time. This was a major effort.

I do a great deal of "trip videos" myself and I particularly like your use of live sound clips and voice over to help tell the story.

Congrats on a very polished super job. No doubt it was an emotional journey and a labor of love too. (BTW, the iPhone footage seems very well shot with decent sound or you did a great job in post to make it so.)

MartinE wrote on 12/23/2017, 4:33 PM

Xberk. Thank you for your encouragement and comments. I confess that some of the sound for the castle show was mixed with a stereo track I found on YouTube. I spent as much time on sound as picture, and I believe it pays off. The emotions/feelings are in the sound and with Vegas I don't need a DAW it's built in. With every project I learn a bunch of stuff and generally get faster at it. On the technical side this forum has taught me almost everything I know, what a resource.

Thanks again for the feedback.