A friend of mine likes to say, “experts make it look easy.” When we don’t understand the process behind a finished product, we tend to underestimate the time it takes to produce what we see. I’m as guilty of that as anyone else.
I am often asked by clients to make a ‘quick change’ to an existing video, let’s say to change a header or a title. Here’s why that isn’t actually always a quick process. If Capture Video is currently working on the project, and all the original footage is still on our system, changes can happen quickly. The problem with time happens when the change requested is for an older, archived project, or for a video produced elsewhere.
When I am given a DVD to work from, for example, first it has to be ‘ripped’ to my computer. That means taking the video off the physical DVD and creating a useable electronic file. That takes time. Once it is on the computer, it has to be converted to a file format that works with our editing software and then imported into that software.
Once I have the video in a format I can work with, then I can start to make changes. I first need to determine the font and style of the existing titles so I can match them. If there are stylistic features, such as a title that fades out, I have to find the exact place that the fade begins and ends, which sometimes requires covering some extra footage on either side. Then I can put the new title over the old title.
If that is the only change, then I can export the video again from my editing software as a new DVD file format. From there, the file is imported into the software that creates the physical DVD. DVD’s have options such as be menus and chapters, that need to be created all over again. Once the DVD features have been added, you can burn a new DVD.
Depending on the length of the video, that ‘simple change’ can take 2-4 hours. Video files are large, and video production is complicated. Simple changes take time.
When you are completing a project, give some thought to whether or not you’re likely to need to change anything in the next six months or so. If you know a change is coming down the road, talk to your video production company about keeping the project on their system. This is a space issue so it may not be possible, but if it is, it can save time.
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