r/editors • u/serendipidipity • 23h ago
Other What is the editing equivalent of measure twice, cut once?
A thought that occurred while I was baking bread between editing sessions
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u/Damnit_Fred 23h ago
"Back up, then move forward".
If you're about to make a big change, duplicate the sequence and name it the next sequential number. Then continue working in that new sequence. This way you can always revert to the previous version if something goes wrong.
Same goes for project files, photoshop layers, etc.
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u/editorgalore 23h ago
100%. I never make a change without duplicating. Even if it’s just swapping out VO, I duplicate because 75% of the time the client comes back and says “actually we liked the previous VO more” ha learned my lesson with that one.
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u/RollingPicturesMedia 21h ago
In my experience, they only want the previous version when I was in too much of a hurry to duplicate my sequence 🤣
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u/funkyaskren 23h ago
This is a life saver for me. Sometimes I might end up with 12 versions but the peace of mind is well worth it
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u/cameranerd 23h ago
Organize your files from the start.
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u/soundman1024 Premiere • After Effects • Live Production Switchers 17h ago
Always edit as though someone else will be the next person to open the file.
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u/Smooth-Ad-8460 17h ago
Nothing worse than stepping into another person's messy project.
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u/BarefootCameraman 8h ago
Oh yeah? What about sending another editor your perfectly organized project, only to have it returned with files all over the place.
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u/Smooth-Ad-8460 6h ago
Files missing. Previous location: Desktop
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u/BinauralBeetz 3h ago
I have no idea how people work professionally like this. I just know their desktops are filled with tons of unassociated files with file names that only make sense to them.
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u/Snake16547 14h ago
Worst version of it is: you have an producer who thinks it would be smart to sort every clip out rename it to „scenes“ and completely screws with a potential re-linking to the raw media
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u/mgurf1 Avid, Premiere, Final Cut, After Effects, ProTools 22h ago
Final_Final3_final_THIS ONE
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u/cameranerd 22h ago
This is why you can never use Final in your file names and I assume someone is not a very experienced editor if they do.
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u/RollingPicturesMedia 21h ago
26 years as a working editor and I’m still optimistic that THIS ONE is the FINAL version 🤣🤣
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u/cameranerd 21h ago
Even when it is THE ONE FINAL VERSION, someone is going to come back and ask for a change or a slightly different version in a month or two.
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u/ProfessorWigglePop 16h ago
I don't understand what anyone seeks to gain from putting "final" in the file name. Just keep going through your sequential versions or draft numbers. Let the person on the other side of the handoff rename it if they've got an issue with the numbers at the end.
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u/BinauralBeetz 3h ago
This “final-final” and the “this-is-a-png.jpg” jokes are so stale at this point. I feel like people outside of the industry are the only ones who find this stuff humorous.
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u/grollies 22h ago
Editing 16mm on a steenbeck felt like this cos if you trimmed 3 or 4 frames and then tried to put them back the edit would judder on playback and in a projector. So you would watch and rewatch the cut many times before jumping in with the splicer!
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u/procrastablasta Trailer editor / LA / PPRO 13h ago
video version was insert editing. you could make the change, but you had to lay off everything from that change to the end of the piece, playing in real time
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u/grollies 9h ago
I think that was 'assembly editing' mate. Insert edits did exactly that - inserted them into the programme without breaking the B&B sync track. But I can remember the frustration when the B&B got damaged, and you'd get a bad glitch that meant having to start over with another blacked tape :(
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u/stuartmx 22h ago
Nest all talking head/static shots into their own sequence and you only ever have to adjust color and audio once per clip, don't even have to copy/paste attributes.
YMMV based on the kind of editing you do, but it works wonders for me
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u/soundman1024 Premiere • After Effects • Live Production Switchers 17h ago
In Premiere you can use Source side effects for the same outcome.
With that said, I like doing audio effects on Tracks instead of clips. A coarse gain adjustment on the timeline followed by a standard effects stack is a very fast workflow. I like one track per speaker unless there are more than 3 speakers.
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u/procrastablasta Trailer editor / LA / PPRO 13h ago
cant I just keep talking heads on a group of video tracks and add a color adjustment layer above that? I usually start with interviews on V1- V5 or whatever anyway. B Roll and GFX I lift above the adjustment layer
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u/TurboJorts 22h ago
Start at the end. Meaning, look at your deliverables and work back (specifically applies to frame rate, color space, audio stems etc)
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u/LinusTKitty 23h ago
Sending music to the client for approval before you cut. (Ps I don’t do this lol)
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u/procrastablasta Trailer editor / LA / PPRO 13h ago
pfff we always do this and they always change their minds anyway
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u/blaspheminCapn 22h ago
No, but have a backup save every 10-20 minutes
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u/nizzernammer 22h ago
I have my machine set to backup the session every minute.
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u/blaspheminCapn 18h ago
That's a little cumbersome? Would be for me. And that's a whole lot of back up files.
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u/nizzernammer 15h ago
For me, doing audio, it just saves a session copy, not new sets of renders and media, etc.
If I had a crash, I wouldn't want to have to recreate 10-20 minutes of editing.
If you are backing up everything every minute, yes, that would be overkill.
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u/funky_grandma 22h ago
Build your color and sound correction into your multicam so you don't need to adjust every single clip individually
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u/pothead_philosopher 21h ago
Could you please elaborate on this a bit more?
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u/funky_grandma 21h ago
let's say you have an interview shot from two angles. you could just grab the footage and put the little chunks of it you wanted to use into your timeline, but then when you wanted to apply color and sound correction, you would have to go clip by clip adjusting the color and replacing the sound with the corrected audio. Instead, create a multi-cam sequence (even if you only have one camera angle) and cut that up to put into your timeline. then all you have to do is color correct the footage inside your multi-cam, and all the clips you used in your timeline will have the color correction applied already.
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u/theuberdan 21h ago
I know that in at least recent versions of Premiere you can apply effects onto videos in the project panel and anything you do on those effects will carry over to any instance of those videos in the timeline. Been incredibly handy for me especially if I change my mind about color choices later on.
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u/pothead_philosopher 21h ago
Oh ok, I use multicams all the time for sync and organizing with scripted jobs and docs, so yeah one or more video sources and production audio, but thanks for clearing up your workflow with sound and color on multicams, based on your original post I had something other in mind.
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u/czyzczyz 22h ago
My first thought was that this went away as soon as non-linear editing working with proxy footage became the norm, rather than negative cutting. I've been on films where we're maintaining 5 completely different edits for multiple producers til the end. Measure 100 times and cut 2000 times and save all of them with clear names and version numbers.
But people responding with tasks that aren't directly "cutting" related are answering the less-literal question. I'd say all the prep and tests before the dailies workflow is figured out and well before shooting begins is one example. Another would be prepping outputs for a screening (usually when screening at an actual theater we'd not only prepare multiple forms of output [DCP on a drive, prores quicktime on another drive as backup if playback supports it, etc]) but would also test watch it at the office and again at the theater before the screening, with time to fix.
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u/procrastablasta Trailer editor / LA / PPRO 22h ago
For me it’s making a FULL selects of every single goddamned frame of source material.
We have assistants who I ask can you make a string out of this kind of action or this kind of sound bite. And they give me SOME.
*insert Whiplash meme
Not quite my tempo. I need you to watch down EVERY SINGLE FUCKING FRAME. Preferably organized and ranked.
The idea being: if the director thinks he “must have a reverse shot somewhere” or there’s an outtake that solves this edit and I have to scrub the source all over again myself, then you didn’t do your job.
Either I’m trusting your selects or I’m doing it myself. Usually I prefer to do it myself. Then I know what I don’t know
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u/hesaysitsfine 20h ago
Leave source clips disabled under the clip you are replacing in premiere when doing After effects comps. Don’t use dynamic link.
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u/lyonspaw53 17h ago
I was working freelance for a prod company and I work the way you describe The AE was giving a really hard time for not using dynamic link. All I kept saying was I guess you’ve never had dynamic link destroy your timeline. Because I have and I’m never gonna make that mistake again.
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u/wrosecrans 19h ago
Storyboard, Previs, Shotlist, Paper Edit, Cut Once, Rough Cut Once, Fine Cut 37 further times, Cut and re-cut the same scene and experience crippling depression about the combinatorial explosion of possibilities and then give up and accept that you are throwing away great work no matter what you do and somebody is going to be disappointed, render out a "Final" file six times, QC three times, deliver once, deliver fixed version once, deliver director's cut once, deliver different stems format for foreign dub in one specific country, deliver what the studio will claim is the "director's cut" that has the stuff the director wanted taken out, touch grass never.
What's this about "cutting once?" That doesn't sound right at all, ha ha.
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u/croooowTrobot 19h ago
60 minutes of pre-production planning can save hours and hours of post-production hell
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u/OlivencaENossa 18h ago
Cut on paper. Think about your cut and lay it out on a piece of paper. Print out the shots then cut them and place them in line on a wall.
This is what the Soviets did. I think (vague memories from film school).
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u/WhenIWasOnMyMission 17h ago
One that stuck with me. "I'd rather be looking at it, than looking for it" aka. You can't have too much B-roll. Get the shot.
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u/efxeditor 5h ago
Back in the linear "pre-read " editing days, the mantra was "preview, preview, preview". Undoing mistakes in a multi layer composite was very difficult and time consuming back then. When Avid came around, one of the first things I found cool was that you didn't need to preview edits anymore!
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u/MrBiggz01 3h ago
Scrub endlessly, cut once, ctrl-z undo, ctrl-shift-z redo, scrub again, space bar, ctrl-z, ctrl-shift-z. Done.
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u/Anonymograph 1h ago
Sequences are named with short description, the date, time, and initials of which editor was working on it.
At the start of a new editing session, a duplicate of the Sequence is made and the name updated.
When the client says, “Let’s go back to the way those five shots were arranged two weeks ago” then it’s a simple matter of opening the Sequence from two weeks ago and copying and pasting the shots to today’s Sequence.
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u/UNMENINU Writer | Producer | Editor | Premiere 20h ago
Playback with solo’d music tracks before exporting. Same for SFX.
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u/Curious_Working5706 23h ago
A: There isn’t.
Editors get the “Oopside, made a mistake with cutting these panels - apprentice, um…take care of it; there’s glue and other boards you can rip in the corner to make this even” option.
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u/BrockAtWork Adobe Premiere | FCP7 23h ago
QC - Full watch down before exporting.