Any editing workflow tips for a first timer?

[Mission Built]

This is my second post but my first addressing specific concerns. I appologize in advance but this is rather long. I am the on the board of a non-profit and our main project is an orphanage in Mexico. Several years back we decided it would be beneficial to produce a video to send out to churches interested in visiting. That became an idea to make a documentary about the orphanage and the founder. I am going to try to keep this consise (as much as I can). In 2007, a friend's daughter contacted me about shooting some footage for her thesis project in film school. In return, we would get all the raw footage to incorporate into a feature length doc. As we started trying to figure out a game plan, we realized that it was going to be more affordable to build an editing and post production suite than to hire out. I come from almost 20 years producing and recording music and the last ten years or so I have really embraced Pro Tools and other DAWs. I have experience with NLEs but nothing like Final Cut, Avid or Premiere Pro. We have a dedicated video workstation and are having a dedicated audio workstation built right now. We have zero budget so I have spent a lot of time just contacting companies and bringing them on board to sponsor this. With the exception of our computers and some software I already owned (Vegas Pro 8, Edius 6), everything has been donated. The video workstation is Windows 7, 64-bit Pro, i7 Quad Core 3.35 MHz, 12 gigs RAM, 2x 250 gig for system drives, 2x 1tb in RAID 0 for media and too many external source drives to count and our video card is a Quadro 4000 with GPU.

So far, I am not impressed with the video playback if I put any filter or effect whatsoever on a short clip (just playing around) as the GPU is not GPUing like I thought it would Since we're having a new computer built, the builder has offered to take our existing MoBo and install it in the audio PC and put a new MoBo that can take up to 24 gigs of RAM because I have a feeling that when we start using After Effects and PhotoShop, we're going to regret having only 12 gigs of RAM. We have a Matrox MXO2 Mini for full screen preview on an NEC 46" Monitor and I don't know if that is affecting things but any suggestions on what my system might be lacking would be welcome. I have posted on other forums but without exception at least one or two jokers have come on and informed me that we should hire a professional crew and editor. Well DUH but non-profit means just what it sounds like I can only imagine the stuttering I will get when I start mixing and matching formats and color correcting, etc. The only thing I have not verified is how much RAM I have allocated for Adobe and how much for other apps or whether I indeed have hyper-threading enabled. I don't even know if you have to enable that but I know some of this I will figure out as I go. Being donated, I hate to bug my contact at Adobe for basic tech support.

We are going back to Mexico (pray for us) in March to shoot additional footage. All of the existing footage was shot at 960x720/23.976p with two Panasonic HVX200s but it is 99% interview and not very dynamic. We'll be using a Panasonic HDC-SD1 AVCHD consumer camcorder (1440x1080/60i) for the new footage but the camera is coupled with a Brevis35 and flip module and a selection of Nikon 35mm lenses to give it a shallower depth of field. Test footage looks great for a highly compressed format as long as we shoot outside or with plenty of lighting. Audio will be captured using a Zoom R24 in controlled situations and a Zoom H4n for convert filming. I can handle the shooting. We have enough volunteers to have a boom mic holder, camera assistant, on location sound guy, etc. We have a Glidecam stabalizer that can accomodate the weight of our contraption so our shots won't be so locked down. Where I am more than a little confused is in how I should address the post process once I have all the shots.

All of the P2 footage was transferred to an external drive and I have yet to preview all of it but again the files are 960x720/23.978p. We have a ton of home video footage taken over the years that will be incorporated and obviously this is not HD. We were provided with a Lumagen Radiance XS video processor that we can use to deinterlace and scale then capture in real time via the Matrox MXO2 Mini. For the AVCHD footage, I can do the same, or do all the deinterlacing and processing in Premiere. CineForm provided NeoScene so we can convert the AVCHD to AVI or MOV for easier integration.

I have the jist of things. I understand the concepts but don't know the best way to get started since we have so many different formats, resolutions and framerates and everything needs to be scaled to match the final output which I would prefer to be 1080p/23.976 because we really would like to submit to some festivals and definitely distribute on Blu-Ray. Would you let software do all of your frame rate conversion and deinterlacing or would you capture it as close to your final project will be using the external Lumagen unit. I can obviously do this with everything except the P2 footage.

With the exception of telling my I'm nuts, which I already know, what should I look at to improve my CS5 performance and how would any of you recommend getting the editing process going without losing my religion? My thoughts are to select all of the footage I am going to begin with and edit it all as separate files then start a new project and begin cutting things together and then finally doing any color correcting. If I work with shorter sequences I assumed I could handle the render times better, adding a Magic Bullet filter or similar and rendering it out in a segment rather than doing that in the final project. Is this backwards to what the norm is?

I am reading as much as I can and I am planning to sign up to an online video tutorial site to help move things along. I am not a TOTAL new comer to video editing as I mentioned above, but this is obviously on a different level than Pinnacle or some of the other consumer oriented NLEs.

Sorry for the long post but thanks in advance. I'm off to pour over this forum for the rest of the evening.

Chris
Mission Builders and Casa Hogar Elim Orphanage

[Mission Built]

Here I am being that guy that replies to his own post. I forgot to clarify that I have Vegas Pro 8 and Edius 6 but this new workstation ONLY has Adobe CS5 Production Premium installed plus some third party plug ins (Topaz Labs Photoshop Bundle, Magic Bullet Suite, New Blue Film/Light/Stabilizer Effect, NeoScene). I may load Vegas or Edius if I find I can do some things quicker in those but the plan is to use CS5 for everything if possible. Thanks again.

[petereit]

I recommend taking a good week and read through as many threads in the Creative Cow forums as you can, as well as viewing as many tutorials as you can. Just about EVERYTHING I know about the entire video production process I learned from the pros on Creative Cow. (Everything else I learned from the community here!)

[Mission Built]

Yes, I am doing just that. I got some "smarmy" replies on a certain forum telling me basically not to even try. That makes me want to complete everything that much more.

There is certainly a steep learning curve but that's part of the fun of it too.

Creative Cow does look to be a really great resource and this forum will be a great read, especially since it isn't all secular so there is some sympathy at least for what we are trying to do.

I am having my MoBo swapped out so we can upgrade to 24 gigs or RAM but most of all, it's figuring out the workflow. That's probably something that is unique to each editor. There are a couple of things I would like to ask. I am searching but perhaps might not be using the correct terminoligy so first of all, if any of you have any links you want to share, I would welcome that. And last be DEFINITELY not least, keep us in your prayers that the knowledge will come and the project will be a success.

Best wishes.

[shortcircuitcg]

Don't stress over ram for video editing!!! I made this mistake. After 4 to 6 gig it doesn't matter as much as hard drive speed and graphics card.
1. Do not edit off external drives unless it is esata, usb 2 and firewire will work for basic editing but not for more than 3 concurrent streams
2. editing off external is begging for data loss. Higher hard drive failure and if it becomes unplugged at the wrong time, can delete data.
3. Using raid 1 will increase editing performance. Any other raid has to be tested thoroughly to ensure it has the speed necessary.
4. Have somebody test your machine for bottlenecks in the system. Broke people spend more money guessing. Ie new motherboard and 24 gigs of ram is outrageous for video editing! Please get a professional to diagnose your machine bottlenecks and you will save money.
5. Check your drivers! More times than not it is has been graphic drivers causing poor playback for me. But check all drivers
6. Antivirus software can occasionally cause machine slow down.

I remember being where your at... By the way Vegas video has served me well for 10 years now. It has it's quirks but is the best for pc's and new beginners.

I wish you the best on your journey.

[Mission Built]

Thanks for the tips everyone.

petereit - I am doing just that. In fact, at night, I have my laptop running into my 43" Runco plasma in the bedroom and have been watching video tutorials instead of catching up on American Chopper and Goldrush Alaska I've been reading all the forums too.


shortcircuitcg - Regarding the 24gigs, I hear ya!. After speaking with someone at Adobe (not someone outsourced to answer calls but a head of a particular division within the company) he said that 12 gigs should work great on my system. However, since my current mobo tops out at 16 and we are already beginning a buid for a dedicated audio workstation, I am going to go ahead and swap the existing mobo out and grab at least 12 gigs and see how that works out. If I need any addition memory, it will be as easy as pie to add 12 gigs more, which I was told would be perfect for my needs.

My audio system requires a minimum of 4 gigs, 8 gigs makes for some more intensive plug in use so the existing 12 gigs with the other mobo should prove to be plenty of headroom for our audio work.

I like Vegas since I am an audio guy at heart and Vegas is really well suited for audio work, even if you don't use any of it's video features. We chose Adobe CS5 for this project since it is a low budget documentary. There are a lot of tools within the suite of programs that we can really make the most of the still photos, animating them and enhancing them. With HD video, the system is just taxed more. There may very well be some things I decide to do in Vegas (currently have version or Edius 6. Right now, it's definitely about learning the specifics.

As for bottle necks, again, I hear ya! My system drive is separate from my media drives which consist of two 1tb striped in a RAID O config. I may add a third 1tb and do a RAID 10, which I read would provide the speed of raid o with some protection. One good thing going my way is that the department head at Adobe gave me his personal email and said not to hesitate to contact him directly to make sure everything is optimized in my workstation, even suggesting they could do a remote connect and dig around in my system files and settings. I thought that was nice of them.

I am not running ANY antivirus software right now. I will not be using any of the "popular" programs from Norton or others. I have always had the best luck with freeware and cheapware like AVG and Spybot. These workstations really won't be used for web browsing or email at all. I guess the occassional plug in or update but we will have a seperate PC for web and email. I know they are separate things, but all of my work with DAW based music production has given me some good do's and dont's that I know apply to entensive video editing as well.

Once again, thanks for the comments. I hope to be able to provide a link really soon to our project website so everyone can see what it is we're trying to do.

Chris
Mission Builders and Casa Hogar Elim