Post Fifth PicturesPost Fifth Pictures | Archive | Film | Video Editing

“I haven’t seen that shot yet” and other problems with a bad assistant editor

Bryce Randle — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 16:23:08 +0000

A little while ago, I was going through some footage of a really cool scene with some guest stars and a really cool set. I cut the scene together and something felt kind of lop-sided. The director came in and took a look at the footage and right away noticed that only one angle of the scene was being used in the edit.

On this show, it was not uncommon for the crew to shoot some takes with both angles and only camera on others, so at first it didn’t alarm me. However, if I had looked at the lined script more closely, I would have noticed right away that the footage was missing it’s equal pair.

We checked the on site and off site backups. It was gone.

What? How could that have happened?

Easy. The assistant was sloppy and she had backed up the same piece of footage twice. D’oh.

I don’t blame myself for the mishap, but I do wish I would have caught on to what was going on sooner. The lesson for me in this cause is check your lined script as you are first going through your scenes, not when you are just looking for your desired shot.

Make sure your assistants are qualified. Train them. Talk to them. Don’t do their job for them, but mentor them. Luckily, this isn’t one of those shows where someone had to be fired because of it (in fact, it was a stand in substitute that just won’t get hired back again). We got along without it, but every time the director watched the episode he expressed his wish that he could just have that footage back again.

“Ditch the Ice”

Bryce Randle — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 15:25:02 +0000

I think my favorite line is “you can tell that to corporate.” What do you think? Which of these spots was your favorite?

“Doorbell Ditch” Spot

Bryce Randle — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 15:26:41 +0000

The last of the AFCU ads I edited. Which was your favorite?

“Don’t Delete” Spot

Bryce Randle — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 15:23:45 +0000

Novell spot. Gotta love those VPs.

“Fridge Delivery” Spot

Bryce Randle — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 15:26:41 +0000

“Forget The Flash Drives” Spot

Bryce Randle — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 15:21:49 +0000

Another short piece edited for Novell along with BluFire Studios and directed by Scott Dastrup.

“Dressing Room” Spot

Bryce Randle — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 15:26:39 +0000

Orphan Files

Bryce Randle — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 14:35:19 +0000

Here is another spot I edited recently. I think this one was really fun to do. Turned out to be very funny.

Robbers Spot

Bryce Randle — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 19:25:57 +0000

Here is a spot I just cut for a group in Salt Lake City. It was a fun piece to edit. There were 4 spots total. Nate Hoffman did the sound work on it. I think it turned out well.

CHOC Night at the Honda Center

Bryce Randle — Wed, 19 May 2010 16:49:28 +0000

A few months ago, Suzanne Broughton, lead blogger at OC Family, approached Post Fifth Pictures about a benefit for the Children’s Hospital of Orange County that takes place at the Honda Center every year. I’m quite a sucker for hockey related events so we made sure that we participated. This piece, shot on a 7D by Ashkan Memarian and Suzanne’s FLIP HD, was edited converting the 7D h.264 files to Apple ProRes using a Compressor Droplet. I am very excited for June 10 when I will be editing this pieces in Avid Media Composer 5.