Editing on the fly

I've been funding my dive trips for a few years now by producing promotional videos for boat or resort owners in exchange for a freebie trip. I posted a recent example from Lembeh in this forum last week.

One boat owner, for whom I have done 2 or 3 promotional videos already, has asked me to do some "resident videographer" trips. The deal is, I come along, for free, and in return, I shoot a video of the trip for the passengers. It's an upmarket boat so he wants to throw in lots of frills like this. So, in addition to all the critter and scenery stuff, I need to make sure that I get a few decent clips of each diver to put into the end-of-trip "video dive log". I have done a few of these "dive log" videos in the past so the overall structure is familiar and I have a lot of the pieces (maps, titles, music beds, etc) already.

But the boat owner has asked me if I can also "edit on the fly" and show something in the saloon each evening.

I have never done this before, preferring to get home and carefully work through the editing over a couple of weeks. I always remember the advice of an old photog who told me, "the difference between a good photographer and a bad photographer is that the good photographer never shows his bad photographs to anyone". A quick-and-dirty edit done at the end of a diving day is likely to still have some junk in it - unless I spend hours with my head stuck in FCP.

So, I'm in half a mind to just say, "sorry, that's not how I work". He is a nice guy and might just accept that. Any thoughts on that?

If I do decide that I will try to do what he asked, I do have a MacBook Pro and could export a .mov from FCP into QuickTime then HDMI it to the boat's widescreen TV.

Does anyone have any thoughts about how to do a daily edit effectively? Would I pre-build a dummy FCP sequence, with titles, soundtrack, etc then quickly copy in some of the good footage? As a minimum, what editing needs to be done to show something that's not too embarrassing. Should I just use the guest video footage and leave all the critter and scenery stuff for after the trip?

All tips and tricks gratefully received.

Regards

Peter

Or create a video editing workflow seminar, do it as a group.

Hi Peter,

Editing on the fly so you can shoot and show requires a different shooting style to deliver an interesting video straight from the camera. There will be days when you can do this so you have something to show at the end of the day and there will be days (or different tapes) where you shoot for the promo.

Don't compromise either production by trying to mix the two. If you get something good on the shoot to show, save it for the promo and wow the audience at the end of the day. Don't show them the 10 minutes of a Nudibranch that you are going to work in post.....

Filming for a shoot and show requires a responsive rig where you can be sure that you are in complete control of the camera.

It's no good having an amazing bit of footage if the previous clip has sent people to sleep.....

just my 2 cents worth

Richard

Maybe a quick edit just showing raw trimmed clips. Keep the daily's short so they hunger for more. The end of trip video should be the climax. Keep the best footage for the final video. If you have some kind of unique or interesting effect I would also leave that for the final. Just my humble opinions.

You are right about footage of the divers. People like to see themselves.

Are the customers going to buy or be given copies of the video?

Shoot the dive and people, quick edit between the dives and beam it up each night via HDMI.

Remember you are shooting for the passengers and not you.

Thats what I do but you need a good real time editor and something that does not take for ever to render out file.

I shoot and edit in HDV m2t and render out a HDV m2t file to play on the screen.

15 mins of edited HDV m2t takes about 5-6 minutes to render out a file from the timeline on my little PC laptop.

In my view you need to be paid for this. It's far too much work.

Are the customers going to buy or be given copies of the video?

Given. With the copying costs paid by the boat owner.

Regards

Peter

Just curious: what's the value of the trip?

Shoot the dive and people, quick edit between the dives and beam it up each night via HDMI.

Remember you are shooting for the passengers and not you.

Thats what I do but you need a good real time editor and something that does not take for ever to render out file.

 

I shoot and edit in HDV m2t and render out a HDV m2t file to play on the screen.

15 mins of edited HDV m2t takes about 5-6 minutes to render out a file from the timeline on my little PC laptop.

Well, I'll try. But don't forget that I am stuck within the limitations of the lousy Mac platform...

Regards

Peter

Just curious: what's the value of the trip?

They vary from three to four grand depending on length.

Keep the daily's short so they hunger for more. The end of trip video should be the climax. Keep the best footage for the final video.

Good thinking 99.

I agree with Captain_Caveman. It's far too much work to do in exchange for a free trip. In my opinion the videographer should be making about $100 per copy for a well-produced liveaboard DVD. That's roughly what I always did it for.

When I was selling liveaboard DVDs in Thailand/Myanmar I would make a finished edit of the first day or two and let the guests see it in the middle of the trip for a bit of entertainment and so they could see the quality. Then get my sales on the last day, and then finish off the DVDs at home and deliver the DVDs to their hotels or the dive shop within 24 hours of the trip finishing.

When I was doing it in Fiji/Tonga I had to show a finished production on the last evening and burn DVDs overnight before the guests left the boat and it nearly killed me because of my perfectionist streak and because I was shooting so much footage for stock as well as the trip DVD. It sounds crazy but it was the hardest work I've ever done.

If I'm trying to sell DVDs then I don't like to show unedited stuff too much, but I'll let them look over my shoulder while I'm editing if the situation allows that. If the DVD is a freebie then I couldn't care less what they see as I go along but bear in mind that setting up and showing each evening can be a lot of work, and eats into your editing/archiving time. Plus, I don't know about you but I'm knackered at the end of a liveaboard diving day, so editing etc. is more of an effort than usual.

Also agreed with it being to much work to exchange, depending on the price of the trip I suppose. I for one am DONE with doing this exact thing, videos in exchange for free diving.

A big thing is not over shooting while editing on the fly. Of course you want to have get enough material for the vid but having mountains makes the editing process a real pain and takes forever. You will also have to swallow the pride a bit as it is NOT easy to produce something with the same quality with such a short time to edit.

Depending on the customers most will love and maybe buy a video with some good shots of them, what they saw, some nice music and a decent edit. It does make for a long day to dive-edit-dive-edit...but its not impossible. Like Nick said its not always necessary to show them the entire video but if they do get a sneak peak of the video and quality it will leave them wanting to see more.

Anther thing which is a nice addition to help with sales a CD with the maps (which you already have) and some still pictures. I often do a bunch of still frame exports of the video footage so they can have some pictures of themselves too. Of course the quality is not amazing but its quick, easy to do and always seems to help. Again it always varies of the customers and their video/photo experience.

Good luck and if this is just for free diving remember to ENJOY the diving too!

Cheers,

Kelly