Workflow - Discipline

rabsamir wrote on 5/5/2012, 1:34 AM

Hi.
I'm having some problems w my working methods (if you could call them "methods")
I make a family movie out of many scenes from the vacation. I cut, stitch, add some music, some titles, some sounds where the original are too horrible etc etc.
Then I take a look at what I've done. Oh , that scene is really too long, let's cut it. And there are some audio tracks involved. and a title and and and...
Is there somewhere some literature you would recommend where I could make my workflow more efficient and less chaotic? Perhaps at least some general guidelines?
"Do this first, don't do that until..."
Thanks
Jorge

Comments

farss wrote on 5/5/2012, 1:49 AM

"Do this first, don't do that until..."

Get the vision working first, ignore the audio, even turn it off.
Make the images "waltz".

Bob.

paul_w wrote on 5/5/2012, 5:40 AM

Its not really a workflow problem you have, its editing.
Someone cleverer than me once said, if its a home movie then don't edit it at all, just join it together and keep everything. Because its a personal family record, not a film for public viewing.
However, i 'would' personally cut out extensive long shots with no content change.
And try to keep the original audio in too. Maybe with music added and colour correction.

Paul.

ushere wrote on 5/5/2012, 6:37 AM

bob's spot on. ignore audio till you're happy with picture edit. once you feel you've nailed it, THEN, and only then start working on the sound, sync first, narration / vo, then music

paul_w wrote on 5/5/2012, 7:01 AM

I would whole heartidly agree with you guys if this was for public viewing. I am just repeating advice from Larry Jordon on the matter.
http://blog.newsok.com/davemorris/2011/06/26/larry-jordan-ten-tips-for-improving-your-video/

Paul.

[r]Evolution wrote on 5/5/2012, 12:54 PM

My flow is opposite of Visuals 1st.

I tend to think that a solid story (words, script, vo, speech, music, etc) is the basic foundation for video. Without it, you end up with a crappy video w/ lots of transitions and extraneous visuals that pull the viewer out of the story and into the edit.

Once I have my story (words, script, vo, speech, music, etc) down, I then go back and fill it in with matching visuals. I tend to go over it numerous times adding coverage to different parts depending upon my footage or creative juice at the time.

At some point, I look at the edit and call it finished.

-- I've never seen a Book made from a Movie but I have seen many Movies made from Books.

rabsamir wrote on 5/5/2012, 1:51 PM

Thanks Paul.
What I call a "home movie" is not for public viewing but other members of the family and friends may watch it. You know how is it with a slide show, the guests go to sleep or home :-)
It must bore as little as possible :-) I use some canned sounds (wind, leaves rustle etc) instead of original wind on the microphone, that can be very annoying.
But I think this is what you mean

Jorge

rabsamir wrote on 5/5/2012, 1:56 PM

At least it's not doing it my way (everything at the same time, recursively :-)
Have to find out what works for me. I'll give that a try, first no sound at all and then put the original sound back and only then exchange bad sound for better sound or music if it can be done.

Thanks

DataMeister wrote on 5/5/2012, 3:28 PM

Alternatively,

If you are setting your video to a specific song, you need the song in there as you work. Then you can know when to use slow clips where the music slows down and faster cuts when the music supports more action. Or place cuts at specific beats in the music.

The biggest trick to pulling of a good home movie set to music is having enough variety in shots. You have to know ahead of time if you are going for high excitement or slow and sentimental, then your camera shots have to match. You can't really lock down the camera and expect to get anything exciting.

You also can't do much in the way of participation if you are always walking around looking for interesting shots. It's a double edged sword trying to shoot a family gathering.

TheRhino wrote on 5/5/2012, 3:47 PM

For our personal family movies I make three versions at the same time to maximize my workflow...

1) One for our immediate family to watch which cuts-out all of the unecessary background scenery during vacations, etc. but retains all of the video with our family members. For the entire year this can be as long as 10-12 hours of video. I just put the clips on our home media server and the kids & grandparents can watch the ones they want... These have no background music & no color correction.

2) One condensed version for the entire year. This has all of the good stuff & best moments like the kids blowing-out their birthday cake candles, opening Christmas presents, or making a great play in sports. It includes other important family events like a 50th anniversary or wedding - but just enough to show the couple walking down the aisle or cutting the cake, etc. I choose scenes for this one as I make the first set of videos.

3) If I have extra time I make a combined video & photo collage that plays for about 10 minutes. Because the video clips are so short I just use background music vs. trying to edit the sound. I pull these scenes when I am make the two videos above and then I add pictures that my wife has selected trying to keep everything chronologically straight.

Admittingly I worked harder on this when our kids were very little. Back then everyone wanted baby videos and pictures so there was a lot of pressure to turn-out a new video every year. Now that the kids are older I mostly do it for them. They enjoy reliving vacations & favorite sports moments together & it creates a nice evening with the family instead of them playing Wii.... Even if each year is just 10-15 minutes, we can spend a few hours looking back over all of the years....