Craftmaster Independent

Logging footage is one of the most tedious, time consuming tasks in the production process: You have to go over every take and label it - in this case digitally name and make notations on the file - according to scene, shot angle, and quality. You can get more detailed and write so many notes on the footage that you never get to the "real" editing.

Logging is crucial in keeping all the footage in order, because even if you've wrote, shot and are editing the footage there's a ton of it in a feature film. I have over forty folders of footage representing twenty or so days of shooting - somewhere around 458.1 gigs of data - that amounts to 19 hours of footage.

I shot 13 minutes of footage for every 1 minute I'll use in the final film. A lot of independent directors shoot from a low range of 2 to 1 to a more likely number of 5 to 1. When you're shooting on HD the footage chews up a lot of space, but is still no where as expensive as film - so that's where my higher ratio comes in and the fact I shoot the hell out of every scene - just ask any of the actors - and I have an improvisational style.

More pre-production and storyboards might lower that ratio in the future, but finding the scene hidden within the script takes time. And from what I can tell so far well worth the effort for all involved.