ASK & DISCUSS INDEX

11 years, 6 months ago - David Diley

Hi Chris

It's hard to say really, for example, as a Film-Maker who runs a company offering a full service, if I were to quote for the edit, I'd need to have a much better idea of how well set up you are to go into the edit, i.e. have you got full detailed storyboards and well logged daily rushes, in other words, how much work do I need to do to get your footage ready to actually go into an edit with eyes wide open and a clear idea of what you want, also, will I need to transcode, resize or address issues with any footage prior to starting the edit?

In regards to grading, that is something I do a lot and again, it depends, how much will I need to do to match the colours, how well organised is your source footage, what codecs are you giving me and therefore, how much stress can I put on the footage, what kind of grade do you actually want and is your lighting up to speed or will everything need to be properly balanced in post?

To give you an idea, I would charge £325 per day to grade a feature length film and would expect to spend between 2-4 weeks on the job but again, that all depends.

Sorry I can't be anymore specific!

11 years, 6 months ago - Dan Selakovich

I agree with David. For a doc and the information you give, it is nearly impossible to come up with solid figures. For example, is it just talking heads with music? That's easier than say, an Errol Morris doc with lots of layers that are more typical of a narrative film. Is the color grading just a balance between values, or are you trying to do something elaborate? Or is your footage a complete mess? Editing a doc can be simple or vastly complex, and often the original idea changes in the editing stage. It depends on how well planned. Whether you're transcribing all of the footage, then doing a preliminary "edit" on paper, and so on. You also don't mention sound editing. Even if it's a doc, you still have to split off the dialogue tracks, the narration, the music, and any sound efx. If you plan to sell overseas, you'll need an M and E mix as well.

With nothing to go by: Editing is 8 weeks MINIMUM. Budget for more, depending on how you plan to work. 6 months isn't out of the question. The mix: 5 eight hour days. Sound editing: 10 days unless you're doing something more complex than splitting tracks. Color correction if really simple with long takes: 5 eight hour days. But if more complex, I'd budget at least 10 days.

David brings up something really important: how he will get the footage. Always, always, think backwards. Who comes after you? Find out which post houses in NYC do a lot of docs, and go talk to them. Find out the best way too shoot for the colorist. Find out how to go from your sound system to theirs. If you're using Pro Tools, no problem. But if you're editing sound on Sound Track Pro, there might be issues. Don't be afraid to talk to them. They want your business. And don't assume ANYTHING with the people that come after in the production chain. If your sound mixer loves his old nagra, is there anyplace left that can transfer reel to reel 1/4" tape? I doubt it. (That's just an extreme example to emphasize my point).

I work in narrative film, so I'm really just guessing here based on that. You really need to go and talk to some post houses before you can do a proper budget. Ones that have worked on docs before. The more information you can give them, the more accurate they will be.

11 years, 6 months ago - Paddy Robinson-Griffin

I had typed a long post about this, but my phone ate it! Modern day version of 'the dog ate my homework'.

I'm not an editor, but when you think in terms of even logging/ingesting 80h of tapes, that's 2 working weeks alone, and that's before even starting reviewing the ingested content to pull out narrative threads, sorting into bins, etc. And all that's well before you even get into anything particularly creative.

Just wanted to flag that grants are often not high, and having 10++ weeks of edit is $30k+, and that's before you get into any fancy machine costs, storage, deliverables, etc. And certainly before your production costs. If you're looking to funds who will only cough up a certain capped percentage, there's going to still be a hefty amount more to find.

You can help yourself of course by actually not filming everything that moves, logging and transcribing as you go, creating a paper edit etc long before you even talk to your editor. If you can turn up with the 40 out of 80 tapes with anything usable on, and the timecodes for the stuff you think is good for keeping which can be ingested, you may be editing down from 20h of material instead of 80h, the cost difference will be exponentially different.

My 2p, FWIW ;-)