Hi guys!
I was just thinking of something while beginning an edit and said this might be a good conversation starter.
So once apoen a time I used to nest my timelines when doing edits. It seemed like a good thing to do because it kept everything nice and organized but I always had a merging problem of different parts. How to put them together effectively.
But then together with my girlfriend we were working on editing this longer narrative edit and I decided to give the everything on one timeline a try.
I must admit that it wasn't as bad as I had thought and I honestly think that for narrative stuff that it is way better because it gives you more options on how to stitch different scenes together. Even though it's a little less organized and you have a little more work when moving stuff around when you have to select 90% of your timeline.
So how do you guys organize your edits, do you use one timeline or nest stuff in many different timelines and then combine it?
Have a nice day everyone!
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One timeline. Also use a 'Pancake timeline'.
Thanks for pitching in Lindbergh E Hollingsworth . That's interesting. Why do you use one timeline or should I say why is this your preference?
Hey Damian Lloyd, good point! I agree with that and see your point.
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I just posted a link from a series that partly discusses the "Pancake" timeline that Lindbergh mentioned: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoP1CbgP2uI&feature=youtu.be&app=desktop
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Not an editor by trade ... but when I do edit I just like to be able to see everything; obviously it allows me to play it through to ensure I'm in the feel of the piece.
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Wow Karen "Kay" Ross thank you! Very interesting and as far as organizing assets for editing goes I've got that covered. I use a similar method like in the video. There was local film producer at our place recently and I was showing him some shots from the shoot and we got talking about how important organization is in any part of production and he commented that preproduction was really well organized as well as the post production process. Which is how it was intended since I found a way to organize everything in a way that's industry standard but at the same time lets us work on small projects the same way but can be scaled.
Lindbergh E Hollingsworth yeah I can understand that. In the way how I was doing it at the beginning it was way more organized on the timeline but at the same time harder to work with. I agree with my girlfriend that it's much easier to work in one timeline. But there are other ways of organizing stuff. I usually use a lot of markers to mark the parts of an edit and colors for different type of clips.
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I work in 10 minute reels during the assembly and early director notes - then combine them into 20 minute reels as we get closer to locking picture. It's just easier to work with the material in smaller chunks, especially when there are considerable temp sfx and music tracks.
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Thanks Brett Hedlund . Very interesting and I have one follow up question, so these 20 min chunks were separate timelines and how did they get integrated later into one whole thing?
That's also one of the reasons why I liked having the timeline organized into different parts.
But people have told me they prefer working in one timeline.
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Hey Vital. So when we deliver the project to the sound and picture houses, we are in 20 minute reels. We will color and mix to these sequences. Once the visual effects are done and the sound mix is complete, the picture house will provide a "longplay" (all the reels joined) so we can watch the whole film back with the mix for final sound notes.
O waw that's interesting. Thank you Brett Hedlund . All the project that we've done have been mostly done in house or with a small collaborative team. But I always like to keep our workflow in a way that we could work within a bigger team.
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We work in sequences of 5-8 minutes and then quick render and pull into one long sequence for viewing. We do everything in-house so we have some flexibility.