Cut Time

NEWSSHOOTER3

NEWSSHOOTER3

Well-known member
On average, how much time does your reporter "grace" you with to edit what you've put your blood, sweat, and tears into on a "day turn"?

The reason I ask is that I hear photographers say, " I only had 45 minutes...", I'm STUNNED! ONLY 45 MINUTES!?! Most days, especially for our 4p show, I have less than 30 minutes... usually, FAR less that 30 minutes. On too many occasions, its a 15 minute, or less, make slot, pig fu©k and its really starting to burn me out... :eek:
 
15 and lovin it

I have typically 15 minutes to edit my pkg and do a live shot on the weekends. And being the nightside crew we are ALWAYS the lead at 6. I never leave for my story before 3. Yeah...it's awesome :)
 
Look, this is all a negotiation.

Why does it take so long to write a package when you're a reporter? Many times you get back to the shop, and you start screwing around.

They have to understand that the majority of the work comes from the camera side, and losing track of time in the office when you return is as bad as you losing focus on the story, and coming back with doo-doo. Focus on the story in the field, with a unique perspective, and it writes itself. If you have no focus or desire on the story, it's coming in a half hour before the show.

You have to stare down your reporter and sometimes say to them, "Give me a full hour cut, or I'm dropping nats."

Where I am, WTVF Nashville, there is a high standard to the cleanliness and overall performance in your pack every day. It's got to be NPPA hardcore every day, or you're going to get heckled. Someone will call you on it, every day. That being said, it is an understood rule that the paper has to come in one hour for a decent cut, 90 minutes for a super high polish, where we really drop in the nats.
Many, and I do mean many, many days I get a 90 minute cut, even on nightside. They know every photog here is going to give it to them with bonus nats if they have the time. However, the expectations could not be higher.

If you're an experienced photog, you'll drop whole bridges where the reporter repeats themselves, and put nats in place of it. Just ask first.

Tell them that time is important to you as well, and when they give it to you, give them the best pack you can, and they'll rush it to you next time.
If they're a procrastinator, call them on it, and tell them to get off the phone until you "get your paper."
 
Exactly

G_Roll said:
I have typically 15 minutes to edit my pkg and do a live shot on the weekends. And being the nightside crew we are ALWAYS the lead at 6. I never leave for my story before 3. Yeah...it's awesome :)
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See, that's EXACTLY the BS I'm talkin' about... :eek:
 
Not to get all Rosey on ya....

but this is why I love working alone. Not only do I shoot it the way I want to, but writing's a breeze when your intimately familiar with your footage before you even start logging. Properly manage your time and you'll have all the time you need to polish it in the booth. When I edit for reporters I often mumble and curse at the gaping holes and missed opportunities; it's quite noisy! When I edit from my own script I don't talk at all - as usually I'm in some kind of trance.

Now before someone gets their cables in a knot over this seemingly pro VJ stance, save your spittle. I'm not suggesting newsrooms invoke solo newsgathering across the board (though it IS coming to a TV station near you), but when executed correctly on stories that lend themselves to a solo approach, the editing can be quite rhapsodic. Having said that, I still work with reporters who take three and a half hours to write a script about potholes, then hand it to me with thirty minutes to spare before the anchor's scheduled to read the intro. That's when the profanity starts...
 
NEWSSHOOTER3 said:
On average, how much time does your reporter "grace" you with to edit what you've put your blood, sweat, and tears into on a "day turn"?

The reason I ask is that I hear photographers say, " I only had 45 minutes...", I'm STUNNED! ONLY 45 MINUTES!?! Most days, especially for our 4p show, I have less than 30 minutes... usually, FAR less that 30 minutes. On too many occasions, its a 15 minute, or less, make slot, pig fu©k and its really starting to burn me out... :eek:
Click to expand...

I've had to shoot, edit, and set up a live shot in 45 minutes.

It did help that the reporter did some finishing editing touches....I just made sure there were no black holes and then went to set up. He wanted to make changes, it was a story I didn't care that much about so I let him do some editing. Plus, I trusted this reporter to do that.

I've had to shoot & edit a story for five, then edit a completely different story for six, but at the same live shot location. It wasn't as bad as I thought it'd be....
 
Favorite Reporter...

Not to get all Rosey on ya....

but this is why I love working alone.
Click to expand...
I just have to laugh because when I'm shooting a nats piece, or on vo/sot patrol, someone may ask me, "who you workin' with today?" And, I'll reply, "my favorite reporter..." :D
 
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Lenslinger said:
Not to get all Rosey on ya....

but this is why I love working alone. Not only do I shoot it the way I want to, but writing's a breeze when your intimately familiar with your footage before you even start logging. Properly manage your time and you'll have all the time you need to polish it in the booth. When I edit for reporters I often mumble and curse at the gaping holes and missed opportunities; it's quite noisy! When I edit from my own script I don't talk at all - as usually I'm in some kind of trance.

Now before someone gets their cables in a knot over this seemingly pro VJ stance, save your spittle. I'm not suggesting newsrooms invoke solo newsgathering across the board (though it IS coming to a TV station near you), but when executed correctly on stories that lend themselves to a solo approach, the editing can be quite rhapsodic. Having said that, I still work with reporters who take three and a half hours to write a script about potholes, then hand it to me with thirty minutes to spare before the anchor's scheduled to read the intro. That's when the profanity starts...
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I agree with that...

I once had a reporter that would give you half a script so you could edit that portion of it, then give you the rest probably like 30-45 minutes before it was to hit. He actually voiced the half he gave me the script for too.

I didn't mind that at all. Let me edit what I can, give me the bytes so I can get those cut.

But he used to be an editor and knew what it took to edit a good story. He's the only one I've worked with to do that.
 
Lenslinger said:
Not to get all Rosey on ya....

but this is why I love working alone.
Click to expand...

I started as a one man band myself and left it so I could follow my real passion photography. Anymore, I rarely get to edit and I am not allowed to write anything (union shop). I still follow my passion of photography with my Nikon F100 taking pictures of nature, but it's hard to stay motivated when you don't feel like you have any ownership over your hardwork. I shoot something, then another package, then another and I usually only see it when it airs.
 
On a daily basis usually 20 min to edit. now we shoot on a hard drive and tape, so while the reporter is logging, I am taking the hard drive and moving the clips into the avid. the 20 min, is from when I start recording track to feed time. If we are in the first block we usually feed by :45. We will do live shots and packages at 4, 5, and 6 a few times a week.

A lot of breaking news during the week here in Philly. I have in the past rolled up on a scene, shot, edited and set up for a live shot in 15 min. Not fun, but if you are organized, and have a good reporter it can be done, the edit in those cases might be nothing more than a tracked vo, and one or two bites.
 
What I hate more than anything else, is working with a reporter who's yaking away on thier cell phone with one of thier friends on the way back to the shop, instead to putting thier thoughts in order and drafting an outline of thier story.
 
Amen

code20photog said:
What I hate more than anything else, is working with a reporter who's yacking away on their cell phone with one of their friends on the way back to the shop, instead to putting their thoughts in order and drafting an outline of their story.
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And the church said, A M E N...!!! :eek:
 
Editing with non linear, you shouldn't need much time at all once the reporter gives you the track.

By that time I have already laid down the broll, sots, nats and I'm just waiting to insert the track and make minor adjustments to the broll to match.

It's all about time management, you can't wait around and start when you get the script and track from the reporter. You can either get a working script as the reporter writes or go into inews/enps and grab it yourself.
 
Fifteen minutes?

Fifteen minutes?
What the hell can you do in fifteen minutes?
Nothing! Why on earth do you have only fifteen minutes to get something together?

I work at a shop where a 2:10 pack for any given day may cause a cringe, but it gets slid in.

Honestly, this is what I call the negotiation situation again.
You can give a producer what they want, or you can give a television audience what they NEED to know. One is going to be mad for a day, the other is not going to watch your show. A producer will only know that you did a good job, just like the audience, and when you fight them, AND WIN by making a good story, they'll leave you alone.
Negotiation over.
Good communication is key.

If you've got fifteen minutes how on earth do you make a product look like you didn't just put fifteen minutes of thought on it?
Remember, you're selling thoughts. Dumb thoughts cause channel changing.
How does the audience, outside of breaking news (and spot news is not always breaking news), get any value out of fifteen minutes of work? Someone explain this to me! I don't want a fifteen minute "Dick and Jane" story. I want a brain to enlighten me to something I didn't see.

Fifteen minute news is not audience value... that's just silly work in the name of speed. If you want to be on air first, and be WRONG, that's the way to do it. The audience doesn't care about how hard you worked to be WRONG, they'll just find out, sooner or later, that you are WRONG AGAIN. Then it won't matter if you're first, because they won't turn to you anyway, because you're always WRONG.
It only takes one major WRONG to bone you.

I run on spot news almost every day. But the reason why I run on spot news so quickly is to give my producers and desk an opportunity to EVALUATE what is going on. If they're telling you to take a live truck every time, because they think that the story is automatically worthy because it's standing on a show, they're nuts...
That's bad producing, and you need to call them on it.
Producers have to be like ringmasters of interest, not showstackers with stopwatches. If they start screaming, "I don't have time for that package," yell right back, "What? You can't pull the kicker for the story of the week?"
The people want COMPELLING television. They want interesting thoughts to fill their brainpan for the water cooler. They don't want to see something that looks wrong, sounds stupid, or feels like it was slapped up fifteen minutes ago. That's show stacking. Show stackers, in a nutshell, are the catfish at the bottom of the lake of producing.
Producing isn't easy, because if it was, there would be a lot of successful TV stations these days, and well, they're dying. Not too many people can run a show that is interesting.

I'll beat the hell out of your spot news, any day.
Let's put it this way, you do spot news all day, every day, and stack all that exciting video up for the ten. I'll do three really well thought out magazine style packages at my ten, and I'll slaughter you.
I guarantee. Every time. There's a reason why 60 Minutes is running the Mercedes ads for thirty years, and Headline News is running the Chia Pet ads. 60 Minutes watchers have a brain.
Your producers better learn how to make good television, instead of fast TV.
Fifteen minutes is unconscionable for a producer to pull that crap on a crew outside of breaking news.

It's hurting their show.
 
I think that there have been some great comments so far and I would like to say that it comes down to communication and respect. You need to tell the talent what kind of time you need. Some photogs can edit a bang up piece in 30-40 minutes others need more time. Sometimes stories run longer or have longer editing sections and will need longer edit times.

I think that editing time starts right in the morning. I start to talk with my reporter while we're in the car to the first shoot. As the day goes on and as you start to know what you have and you can start to talk about what you think the edit time will be.

I think it is important to have a reporter that keeps on task as the day goes on. This is a fun job but it's still a job. This is where respect comes in. You need to respect the reporter and work with them and give them a reason to give you edit time. The whole relationship should be a two way street and should be about putting on the best product you can every day.

I also have a reporter that I work with regularly that gives me packages chuncks at a time and it really helps. I can spend quality time adding nats and sequencing while he still writes. As long as a reporter can write this way it will help in the editing time crunch. Even if a few things change, with computerized editing, you can change things fairly easily.

I think so many photogs, especially those that have been in markets a lot longer than the green reporters, feel that they run the show. This is about the team and about putting the best product on everyday. Some days you're going to have a crap package but if it's the best you could do then that's ok. If you explain to your talent that everything you do and expect makes them look better, makes the product look better and actually engages the audience, they usually respond.

As always, just my 2 cents.
 
phxtvwatcher said:
I think it is important to have a reporter that keeps on task as the day goes on. This is a fun job but it's still a job. This is where respect comes in. You need to respect the reporter and work with them and give them a reason to give you edit time. The whole relationship should be a two way street and should be about putting on the best product you can every day.

I also have a reporter that I work with regularly that gives me packages chuncks at a time and it really helps. I can spend quality time adding nats and sequencing while he still writes. As long as a reporter can write this way it will help in the editing time crunch. Even if a few things change, with computerized editing, you can change things fairly easily.

Yes it should be a TWO WAY STREET, but it rarely is. As for getting pkgs in chunks, I can't stand that, it breaks the flow of my editing, and the pkgs when finished runs chunky. I can finish what I need to do well before I get the next track. I look at it this way, we don't go on air and show 10 seconds of a pkg and then tell the viewers,
we'll bring you the rest in a few minutes. What I like to do is to explain that if your going to take an hour to log, and hour to write, you should be kind enough to give me and hour to edit. All the fancy writing in the world isn't worth a thing if the photog is slapping down shots just to make slot. I have had good results with that approach in the past, and the reporters seem to then understand, that if they don't want their pkgs to look like something from a high school class project they will give the time.
It all goes back to communication with your reporters.
Just my 2 cents. but with the economy, it's worth about half a cent.
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I once had a reporter take three hours to write a seven minute (yes SEVEN) package. Gave me 25 minutes to edit it. It was a live to tape show, and even just slopping stuff in, I took an extra 20 minutes. He kept popping in to the bay to check on his little masterpiece, which I quickly informed him was just lucky it was gonna air. Seriously, this is no joke. And the package wasn't pretty either. I'm not proud of the editing job (there were no holes or jump cuts or repeated shots--this didn't start out shot to be a seven min. pkg) just proud I finished it in the time I had. Also had the same guy voice the same track 15 times once to get it right, so just laying A-roll was no picnic either.
 
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