So you've shot the masterpiece, scribbled some words and made a few graphics. Got the software working and it's time to grab a cup of tea (or stronger) and sit down for some serious production time. So where do you start? If you want to avoid alcoholism and the related effects of computer rage then it's a good idea to get organised. Here's how I minimise the urge to slam my head into the desk...

Shooting is just a matter of good housekeeping. Record 20-30 secs of colour bars on each tape. Then if you want to digitise the whole tape you know you can put 20sec in as the start time without even looking. Mark an out time and let the PC do the rest. Labelling your tapes beforehand is a good idea or if you haven't then take a few minutes to label in the field. I have actually got home only to have panic attacks as I look for the camera tapes! (that was a long time ago).

Fellow scribe and doco maker David Smith says "I label tapes carefully and even colour code the labels so we can grab the next tape easily. This extra preparation time pays off hugely when editing because the tapes are all in order and instantly recognisable as camera 1 (orange), 2 (green) etc."

Setting up...

Whether working on internal or external drives I create the job's folder then inside that I have separate folders for Video, Audio, Graphics and DVD. This simply minimises clutter on the drive and makes it easy to find files when needed. Docco maker, and consumer of the finest whisky, John Westwood says, "Generally I have a "project" folder with any number of sub-folders dependent on the size and scope of the project. This folder is on my video Raid and enables me to move the whole project in one go if necessary (laptop to desktop) or my place to your place. At the end of the project I can and do transfer the whole lot to an external independent hard drive which I give to my client. This makes for really easy re-edits 6 or 12 months down the track."

Digitising...

The world has changed in the digitising department. The arrival of timecode made batch capturing a reality and the best way to do tape is by logging and then capturing your tapes. This is much better than just loading and recording the tapes into the computer. You can separate the tapes into relevant sections and have a permanent record of what vision came from which tape. In the event of a major loss the video can be accurately recaptured from the batch capture files.

More from John - "Being a long form editor (docos) I batch capture and pre-edit the clips before starting any edit. For instance I may have 70 hours of footage for a 1 hour show. This is not manageable in an edit or on the hard drive so I study the footage meticulously and delete any useless clips (i.e. repeat takes or technically flawred shots, even make creative decisions based on colour grading consideration). Often this will narrow down the captures footage to 9 or 10 hours. I capture either by firewire or HDMI directly from an external deck and Edius converts on the fly to an intermediate format, Canopus HQ (1440 x 1080). I don't shoot or edit in DV anymore."

David works via the Cineform intermediate codec and either converts ingoing or after the ingest is done and says, "If I'm going to be doing a lot of compositing I routinely either capture my tapes via the NEO HDV capture utility, which converts to Cineform Intermediates in real time, or else I render my .m2t files to Cineform after capture. In all other cases I simply capture .m2t and edit with those."

Editing...

Having had a drive die and lost days of work I'm now very backup conscious. It's a good idea to have each job duplicated on multiple drives - especially as the job nears completion. Drives are so cheap I buy one for each job and that becomes its long term home. As a rule I now use one drive to edit from and create a copy of that drive for safety. This is usually an external drive and is kept away from the master. So if the drive fails, or your PC is stolen, then there is a safety net. After each session I copy the edit file to that drive and add any extra files that have been digitised since the last session. Then I'll run the edit from that drive to make sure it's up to date.

Premiere Pro likes to know where the edit is stored. If the drive letter changes then it will ask for the files locations. This is a pain. It's easier to make sure your edit drives letter is the same whether using the external or internal drive. So when I edit I change the drive to be the "E" drive. CS4 is supposed to be OK with this but I'd play safe anyway.

The tapeless world changed things again and here it gets interesting. With HDD or card cameras the video is broken into "scenes" when you start and stop the camera. This leaves you with dozens of small files that will get difficult to manage in the edit. Here the trick is to group them in useful folders inside the Video main folder and then once inside Premiere you can make each group a virtual file and edit as if it was one continuous stream.

Here there's a divergence of ideas on how to edit. My old school approach is to treat the source monitor like a virtual videotape machine and be able to "spool" up and down the clip marking in and out where I like.

The other way is to leave the clips as they came off the camera - as a bunch of very small clips. Then you drag them to the timeline and trim them as you need. This is very time consuming but reflects the very old school film approach where lengths of film were lifted and cut and spliced into the master reel. 

John W edits this way and says the "Individual clips (from batch capture) are trimmed in the source monitor and dragged to the timeline. I manage the timeline to reflect certain types of clips, talking heads, general footage, titles, and particularly the audio tracks to make producing M&E tracks for broadcast less complicated."

I manage interviews by having a dedicated timeline for each. Then I break the interview into bite sized, relevant, grabs and either copy or drag them to the master timeline where needed. I find this useful as I then don't need to transcribe the interviews. I just watch them back and cut the relevant parts out and make a final decision on what goes where as I edit the feature. Premiere Pro CS4 was supposed to make transcribing a doddle via its built in engine that does it for you. Sadly all I got was fluent gibberish!

Output...

Getting the completed edit out can be done in various ways but at least the CS4 media encoder can streamline the job a bit. If you want multiple variants of the job you can queue them in the encoder and it will do a batch conversion in the background. You'll need an up to spec computer with lashings of RAM to do it though!!

Once the job is exported to your DVD authoring tool you can create a master folder inside the DVD one. This way you'll always know where the bits are for each stage of the project and nothing will get lost.  These days hard drives are so cheap you can give the whole job to the client after it's done and as John says, "I don't keep tapes anymore. Create an M2T file (identical to what goes on tape anyway) and store on a hard drive (one for client and one for me). As I said earlier, major clients (read government) and important people get a hard drive as part of the project (works a treat for repeat business). After 3 months I wipe the project or when I'm paid."

David recognises that finished never actually means finished and says, "Once the project is officially 'dead' (although clients being what they are, that's difficult to be sure of!), I do a special save to a folder I call a Project Bundle. I use the Vegas "Save with trimmed media" option so this folder will contain everything actually required for the final project. Then I can safely delete the rest to reclaim space. I NEVER delete the lot. Too much heartache..."

Premiere also has the trimmed project feature and this is good for making a small but usable version of the whole project either for your own storage or to give to the client.

The end...

I find that even if projects appear to have no further use I am sometimes looking for a certain piece of footage. If you remember what it was shot for it's brilliant to be able to copy if off the hard drive rather than find the tape and then the shot. I also now keep a stock footage folder on the PC that has vision that may be useful for other jobs. One example is the aerial vision I've done of the city and suburbs.

So if you've followed through on keeping it all organised and under control then all the bits will be neatly stored where you and your client can easily get to them when needed. Really does minimise production rage.

By Steve Turner

I started in TV as a videotape operator for Channel Nine in 1980 and went to News editing in 1984, becoming Senior News editor for Nine Adelaide.

In 1988 moved to production editing (doing everything from sport to station promotions and programs) and then in 1989 moved to London to work for Sky News UK. This was just starting up and I helped set up the news editing operation.

The highlight of this year was covering the fall of the Berlin wall (where I location produced and edited continuously for five straight days and nights - grabbing sleep here and there). The best bit was interviewing people crossing the wall for the first time in years.

I returned to Adelaide in 1990 and freelance vision switched and also did graphics for news and production. Left again in 1991 to backpack the planet for 12 months with my partner Rochelle.

Back in 1992 and returned to production editing and graphic design for Channel Nine. I worked on all the Adelaide Formula One races (1985-1995) bar 2 (while away) doing foreign broadcast editing - packages for overseas networks in their languages.

Began Directing news in 1997 and started my own production business doing weddings and corporate work. This was followed quickly by producing science films for Flinders University and the setting up of our web business selling science related videos, CDroms, and now DVDs.

Started writing for Australian Video Camera in 2003 then Auscam when it started. Produced and shot news features for the Ten network and worked freelance on the Athen's Olympics in 2004 for Seven.

Left Channel Nine to join Channel Seven in 2005. Involved in the setup and operation of Seven's new news operation and regularly direct the six o'clock news. Directed and produced Seven's Anzac day telecasts for 2005/6 and independently produced the 13 part series "Fishing and Boating" for Channel Seven.

Produced and shot a documentary on drug abuse with an Indigenous Elders group as well as a two part docco with the RAAF. Current project include a docco on Alzheimers and another on the lives of siblings of disabled people.

I have three gorgeous small children and am a part time stay at home Dad...

...It's a busy life!!