The Producer Report: On Set Edit
File-based editing on location
Compiling a rough cut of the day’s rushes on location is a relatively uncommon procedure but new file-based cameras and powerful laptop editing packages are putting the option in the hands of more directors, as Adrian Pennington reports
director and DoP that they’ve captured what they thought they had. Tape playback permits more immediate review, yet is cumbersome and time- consuming if you want to do anything more, let alone contemplate even a rudimentary location edit. The advance of data-based recording not only
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provides instant reassurance and review but can also be used to save cost in post by having the ability to try out editorial ideas while still on the shoot. “It’s not applicable for every job but those who
can afford it find it of great value,” says John Golley, executive producer, Spank Films. “An editor’s eyes are a critical counterpoint to the director’s and that can pay dividends if you involve them at the point of acquisition.”
A LUXURY OR A SAVING?
On the face of it, paying to have an editor on location with all the additional hotel bills, transport and food costs can seem a luxury. Not so, says Golley: “You always end up saving money. Editing
30 theproducer Spring 2010
ailies, which are in effect ‘yesterdailies’ once the negative has been printed in a lab overnight, were intended to validate to the
on location is an insurance policy against oversights which reshoots or post production can be costly to rectify. Having an editor begin to assemble a project during the shoot will save a week of post work when you get home.” Editor Leo King, who works for Cut + Run,
agrees the procedure is not routine: “It may happen on four or five jobs a year. It’s always a nice surprise to be asked to go on location and invigorating to work alongside a director to help achieve their vision. Once a director has experienced what can happen they tend to rebook again and again.” Golley and King partnered on a major
recruitment campaign, Start Thinking Soldier, for the British Army via COI/Publicis UK. It involved four straightforward TV commercials shot on two cameras, including an EX3, and a series of online first person games which mixed computer graphics with live action video. Both sets were shot in rural Kenya by Spank
Films, where the landscape doubled as Iraq and Afghanistan. The first person game sequences required director Michael Geoghegan to shoot with a 360-degree field of vision. He wore a
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