Three little things...

I think everybody has pet peeves in their department. Lighting guys don’t like it when unit unplugs something for a food appliance. Sound doesn’t like it when people can’t sit still for 60 seconds during atmos. These are completely understandable frustrations.  So I think it is ok for me to say that I have little pet peeves in post. They’re not things that are necessarily the wrong way to do something; they’re just not as efficient. I’m sure I’m guilty of a million similar things, but these three are ones that I feel pretty strongly about.

1.       Syncing in the timeline- No. Just no. It ties your hands in so many ways, especially if you want to review the entirety of your shot after you’ve shortened it. Doing so requires pulling a ripple edit on both ends of your clip in the timeline, checking things out, and then undoing the damage. If you create merged clips in your bin, you can simply hit the ‘f’ key and it will match frame it in your source monitor, sound and all. Also, I get the distinct feeling that when people sync in the timeline, they only do it for takes they think they’ll use; which means when you’re at the point in the editing stage when you’re really desperate, and searching for a few little frames from a take for a reaction or just some filler, you will have to go through all of your unsunc takes and sync them up on the spot, which is not ideal.

Creating merged subclips is so easy, I’m not exactly sure why most people don’t do it. In the source monitor, find the slate point, and set your in point one frame before that. In the corresponding audio clip, set your in point at the same point you did in the video clip. Then control click (command click for my mac hommies out there) on both the audio and video clips in the bin* to select them both. Right click on one of them, and then select merge clips. You’ll then be prompted with a window- pick your name for the clip, and then just below that, select your merge method- in this case it will be by the in point (obviously when you have a tail slated take you would apply the same method with an out point rather than in).

BAM! You now have a subclip that has both audio and video, in its entirety.

*at the time of writing this, I’m not sure how to merge clips that aren’t in the same bin together, which is a little bit of a pain because it just means that during the merging process you have to shift both audio and video files into the one bin together, then drag them back into their respective bins afterwards. If anyone knows a way around this, please tell me, and you’ll be the recipient of a mighty sincere and enthusiastic high five.

2.       “What computers can I edit on?” I’ve heard this a few times, and I’ve actually been asked it a few times too.

I think the big gap at Swinburne is the divide between cameras and post production facilities. Don’t get me wrong, we have amazing computers, but the fact of the matter is there are very few facilities open to us that can handle the data rates that the RED spits out. And even then, sometimes 2K Alexa and 2 or 3 K 35mm scans struggle with a lot of computers on campus. So, if you’re faced with the question of ‘can this computer handle the data rate’, just remember; cmd + shift + F11 (cntrl + shift F11 for the Windows kids).

Hitting this inside of Premiere will bring up the CUDA/OpenCL/OpenGL (depending on the graphics card) render system data overlay the next time you hit play in either the source or project monitor. It’s a pretty awesome feature- it tells you what your scheduled fps is, what your actual fps is, what size your render previews are, and most importantly, how many frames you’re dropping on playback. I guess it’s all a matter of personal preference, but for me, if it’s more than one frame every five seconds, it’s time to either drop the playback resolution or find a beefier computer.

3.       Markers, or lack thereof. Markers are pretty much an editor’s best friend, especially in the early stages of post.  I’ve always thought of them as like digital Post-its, and that’s pretty much the best way to describe them- you can add a marker at a specific frame by pressing the ‘m’ key in either the source or project window, and add comments.  And to sweeten the deal, if you’re working on a project that has been heavily reliant on markers, you can use the shortcut  shift + m to jump forwards to the next marker , or cntrl + shift+ m to jump back to the previous marker. So when you’re using markers for suggested in and out points of a clip, this becomes very handy.

Having said all this while looking down on the world form my high horse (I’m sorry :/), I’m sure on a daily basis I still make plenty of post production booboos… So in the spirit of fairness (and self improvement), if anyone sees me doing something the wrong way, I welcome the feedback J

Hi there, I'm tired

So... hi there. I know what you’re thinking, I look shorter than I did in my display picture. But I still look ok? Thanks, I just rolled out of bed, but shucks. I'm new to this whole scene, so why don't I tell you a bit about myself- I think I mentioned in my bio that I'm editing 2 films this year- The Great Forest, and Lacrimosa. But I also dabble in a bit of on-set lighting. Usually best boy work, but when I'm feeling wild and naughty (and I’m in the company of a risk-taking DOP), I sometimes throw caution to the wind and jump into the gaffer role. Try to keep your clothes on.

But alas, there is a predicament in my situation- editing a narrative film is a time consuming process. Editing a documentary with an abnormally high shooting ratio is an even more time consuming process. And for some reason I still haven't really grasped, this semester I'm doing both. So the painful process of finding balance (that joyous mythical word) is hard at work. I love being on set- there's something tangible and real about the lighting department- I always think about how a carpenter starts with all of these pieces of wood, and eventually fashions them into a chest of drawers. Likewise, the lighting team throw in a key light- then maybe a background light- or a hair light- or a fill light- or maybe even all of the above- and transform what would have been a bland, dull shot into something cinematic and aesthetically pleasing. The immediacy of the final product is something I can't get in post production, and I think that's why I can not only justify leaving the computer, but why I enjoy it. But again, the balance. So I guess you could say I’ve learned a few things over the past few months that have more than saved my arse, and if I continue down the path of trying to both get on set, and stay behind the computer, I need to remember these little tips.

1.       Regular sleeping patterns are a thing of the past- The saying ‘when it rains, it pours’ (NB- that may be a saying, or it may be ol’ mate Fiddy cent, who knows) seems to ring true. For some reason I feel like I’m on top of my editing duties, until I get on set, and that’s when the universe decides I’ve got to squeeze 3 days’ worth of syncing and sub clipping into one night. While it might not be the healthiest option, I’ve come to learn that powering through and cutting when not on set is the only real way to go. Film shoots last a week on average, and while I hate it at the time, being tired and grumpy for a week is a much better option than screwing over a crew and bailing on something you’ve committed to, or pushing back editing deadlines. A few weeks ago I was working as a best boy on seven consecutive night shoots- wrapping around 5am, I would come home, fire up premiere, cry in the corner for five minutes, then get to work for a few hours. It kind of sucks, but its short lived, and there’s plenty of time for sleep once the film has wrapped.

2.       Watch the coffee- I Found out on set there was a dude who didn’t drink coffee, true story. I can’t for the life of me understand how you could get through film school without it. But one thing about coffee (that I learnt the hard way) is to not just watch the intake, but what time I’m drinking it. This might sound elementary, but the problem with balancing post in the day and shooting at night (or vice versa) is finding out when exactly I should stop pumping caffeine into my body. There have been a few nights where I’ve followed a 14 hour day on set with 5 hours of post-production, and despite the pain under my eyelids, I still couldn’t sleep. The tricky part is it changes based on every scenario- how far into the week you are, whether you’re crewing during the day or at night, what kind of editing work is waiting at home… But a basic rule of thumb has been no more coffee within 3 hours of needing to be asleep. Unless Darcy Conlan is involved, then I just keep drinking.

3.       No booze- This one should be pretty straightforward, but I’m an idiot, and a connoisseur of all beers cheap and shitty; No drinking during production. Okay, maybe a nightcap after a long shoot (I feel being built like a 9 year old boy and working with heavy equipment affords me this exception), but putting away half a dozen drinks when you’ve only allocated 6 hours for sleep is a terrible idea, and despite how well the drinks might go down, you’re just borrowing happiness from the following days shoot, and potentially putting yourself and other crew members at risk by being hungover or exhausted.

4.       Don’t forget to Relax- This is the hard one- when the week is so full on, and you feel like you don’t have enough time to do even the work you HAVE to do, how do you find relaxation time? I found the best way is to learn to multitask- on the 30 minute meal break on set, I’d usually find a quiet, comfy place somewhere, and have my coffee and cigarette while listening to music on my phone. If I’m editing and the task at hand doesn’t require my ears, I’d listen to a podcast or something. And when none of these options was available, when I crawled into bed at the end of the night (or 3pm, or whenever- what is a sleeping pattern anyway?) I’d play some old sitcoms on my laptop- something that I knew like the back of my hand, a kind of digital goodnight story.

5.       Make lists- to do lists, schedules, and all forms of written reminders are definitely a life saver, especially in busy periods. When regular sleeping patterns are interrupted and the effects of a busy shooting period kick in, remembering small uni assignments, uploading rough cuts, and other smaller tasks often get forgotten.

So that’s kind of how I’ve tried to keep it together this semester. For the most part it’s worked, and it usually only fell apart when I stopped following that list of ways to keep on top of things. But then again, what would I know- I’m currently a giant ball of stress with bags under my eyes the size of doughnuts.

Time Consumer

Organisation is important. I’m not sure exactly how many assets are in the project for The Great Forest, but I do know that we’ve easily cleared 2.2 TB in footage alone. And as of this week, every single clip is in its appropriate bin, has markers for suggested in and out points, markers for notes (both from Marli and myself) and brief descriptions attached to each clip. I think the logging and ingesting stage of any project is the most tedious and painful, but it’s a necessary pain. There’s nothing worse than having to sift through mountains of footage to find the right clip, or having to re-link scattered and unorganized media that has somehow gone offline (#themfeels). So that’s what this week has been all about- hanging out with Marli and going through every clip in the project, deciding if we think we will have a use for it, deciding WHERE we may have a use for it, and how it could play along in the story. I’m definitely not a fan of scrapping footage from a project, because I truly believe that so many clips that originally seemed unusable may prove to be usable somewhere down the line-so every clip has to answer the following questions-

·       

           Is it in focus? No? get rid of it

·      

     Are there 4 other takes that are EXACTLY the same? Yes? Pick the best and get rid of the rest

·      

           Is the dolly movement reminiscent of those old school city circle trams? Yes? It’s gone.

     

     While these clips are cleared from the project, they’re not gone forever. They’ve been relocated from the fast RAID drive to the slower HDD, and will probably be revisited from time to time- while it’s highly unlikely, there may just be a use for them somewhere down the line, and I don't want to shoot myself in the foot just yet.

The Back-end of Forever

I’ve got a beer in one hand, a cigarette in the other, and I’m in a state that can only be described as ‘self-pity drunk’- the place where shame and depression culminates in one big 'Fuck you' from life, to me. Cheers mate. It’s 2014, and post production on 16mm isn’t going too well- I’m absolutely convinced that I’ve done such a terrible job cutting Where No Vultures Fly, that I’ll never be asked to edit anything again, so I jump on board immediately when Marli pitches me her 3^rd year idea- a natural history documentary, called The Great Forest.

Jump forward 7 months to December, and Marli has already started shooting her documentary- a film that hasn’t even been pitched or approved, but hey, apparently Marli is an organised kid (who knew?). I pick up the footage and take it home- 330GB of camera test footage, shot on the Red Epic. Transferring the files onto my computer is where everything went south, and I realized that the term ‘post-production’ is quite misleading. It turns out that with an average data rate of 88MB/s (that’s no typo on the capital ‘B’ by the way), I’ve got a choice to make- either succumb to setting up a mattress underneath a desk on campus, or say goodbye to my struggling and archaic computer, and build something new, from the ground up. Allegedly building your own PC is like Lego for adults, and considering that it will also serve as an investment for the future, I make the decision to take the plunge. Amidst my overwhelming excitement of having a workstation that can execute actions even faster than I can think them, A sudden realization smacks me right in the face- my knowledge of computers doesn’t expand far beyond knowing what RAM stands for, and even then, I couldn’t tell you what it actually does. So the next hurdle I reluctantly face is to embrace my inner nerd, and hit Youtube hard.

Weeks later, my data allowance feels like it should be capped out by now, after watching every video I can find relating to RAM, graphics cards, cooling systems, RAID storage, CPU, SSD’s… To be honest I’m not even sure what I learned, all of those videos are just a blur of some guy explaining things with ease, and consequently resulting in myself feeling stupid for not being able to keep up.

Luckily, I’ve got some friends who can help me out in the process (thanks goes here for Sam and Bobby). So I take everything I’ve learned from my research, run it by my mates who are in the know about this sort of thing, and then go get a quote at the computer store. A few tweaks to what I had initially planned, and I walk out of there with a piece of paper that says I should come back with $2000 (excluding the raid storage, extra Ram, and second monitor- that came later).

The result-

Quad core i7 processor- four cores is better than one I guess? In hindsight it would have been wise to fork out an extra couple of hundred on a better processor, but this is by means a wimpy effort.

256GB SSD- For the operating system and all of the editing software- I need something fast, and a HDD just won’t cut it.

6TB HDD- Maybe this was a little overkill- but it does serve as a decently sized internal storage solution- all footage that isn’t currently being used in a project can just live here for a while. Plus it turns out I have a ludicrous amount of raw images that need somewhere to live.

2TB RAID 0 array (added later)- apparently it’s technically not RAID, because neither drive is redundant. But both drives are 7200RPM, working together in unison, like Ben and Jerry. I just have to cross my fingers that these drives don’t meet the untimely fate of the ice-cream moguls.

4GB GPU- at a guess, 50% of the footage from The Great Forest will require some sort of effect- reframing or punching in, stabilization, flipping horizontally, etc. the GPU will take a lot of weight off of the CPU during these actions.

16GB of RAM (an extra 16 was added with the RAID array 2 months later)- because… 32 is better than 16 right?

Second monitor (32 inch)- I swear I'm not overcompensating for something, I just think editing on a single monitor is far to condensed.

It’s now May, and I’m ready to edit. I’m unsure if the whole endeavor could be seen as an indulgence, I guess I could have survived the year editing from uni- but putting aside the whole idea of this being an investment for the future; I can’t possibly fathom spending every night in the late lab, rotting away under florescent lights. And this way, I get to name a PC. Ladies and gents, I’d like you all to meet Latoya.