How do you edit skydiving content?

[DSE 5]

Curious to know who is doing what...
If you're using NLE, what don't you like? What do you like?
If you're using analog/switcher, what don't you like? What do you like?

Overall I'm interested in how your workflow goes after a tandem, coach, or competition practice jump (or fun jump with video).

[PhreeZone 20]

Personal? NLE. I like Adobe myself. Tandems? Mixing board. I don't have the $ laying around to buy another computer for the DZ and then buy more software too. I really really want to go to NLE at the DZ, but its a $1000 investment for an improvement that only about 25% of the people are really going to care about 2 months down the road. It would make life easier on back to back days, but there aren't enough of them in the May-September season to warrent the investment right now.

If I stumble across a good hardware deal... maybe. If Blueray/HD-DVD explodes and the demand for High-Def video is there it will be a no brainer to buy an NLE to edit on.

Yesterday is history
And tomorrow is a mystery

Parachutemanuals.com

[jtval 0]

Same way here.

For my seasonal dvd's I use Premiere.

For tandems the DZ provides a mixing board and all equipment.

My photos

My Videos

[stratostar 5]

I'm doing everything on a mac in imovie, love it, easy to use, super fast and imove HD dose some pretty cool stuff with SD video. The DZ system is slower because we have to share it, working on my laptop is faster for me because I can keep MY settings and music.

you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

[velocityphoto 0]

I MAC! And imovie idvd....
schweeeeetttt stuff! I edit at home unless i have time and people want to wait or stop back by and pick it up ,i spend an average of about 1.5 to 2hrs with an beautiful finished product .
I know it sounds like alot of time but i have people who contact me to find out where i am working at so they can come and have me film for them .
It is a great feeling knowing your work is so appreciated!

A friend will bail you out of jail , a REAL friend will be sitting next to you in the cell slapping your hand saying "DUDE THAT WAS AWSUM " ................

[PharmerPhil 0]

Analog for tandems (Panasonic MX-12 board). Mainly because it is fast and it does what I need it to do for tandem videos. I shoot to edit, so it takes me 8 minutes to edit an 8 minute video. I usually give tandem students their video the same day. If I am not on a back-to-back, they get it within 15 minutes of landing. Only on a very busy weekend do I have to mail some videos out, but they are all complete before I leave the DZ.

Work Flow: Finish videoing on the field, give customer film roll on the field (we use film for tandems), drop rig, edit video, start video for the next student while DVD finalizes, grab DVD for customer, do it all over again. I can do this while the plane is in the air, and meet it for the next hot load.

For RW, I usually just dub right to whatever the team/group has for debriefing (hard drive, DVD-R, VHS) for review only (no editing). If I am the only video for a big-way, I bring my DVDr and dub each jump to that. That way my Powerbook is free for downloading photos. It amazes me that DZs still use VHS for review. Trying to identify who's bad on a big-way using a paused VHS image is silly.

For all other editing, I use FinalCut Pro (FCP3) on an old (6 years?) PowerMac G4 867 (plus a FW800 scratch drive). I was planning on a Mac Pro this summer, but I was hoping for the new OS and built-in Blue Ray first. I might not be able to wait that long. My 867 won't do HDV.

Maybe your poll should include a "both" category.

[dragon2 2]

On our DZ in the video rotation you edit the video yourself using an analog system (end result burned to dvd). This is done right after the jump, only sometimes a back-to-back so you'd have to do two videos before the next tandem.

I only shoot the occasional tandem so I edit mine on my laptop using premiere pro cs2 (BTW I recommend everyone stay the hell away from the cs3 beta, trust me). If I do get into the video rotation I'd need to buy my own dvd recorder, 2 cd players, mixing board and tv ($$$$$$$$) and I'd need room for all that, which is not availably at the dz at the moment. So for a few tandems each day I'll stick to my laptop, which means that sometimes a customer may have to wait an extra load for me to finish as I'm not as fast as the others. however it is mandatory at our dz to give the customer their dvd + stills quickly, while they wait. If I can't keep up with that i'll have to buy the linear editing stuff.... And learn how to use it...

I burn the stills to cd on my laptop too.I shoot digital which is not mandatory at our dz (yet?), takes up a bit of time to burn those too.

My 2 FS4 teams I dub (no edit) to another camera or onto a laptop.

Other (fun) jumps I edit on my laptop usually and give them a dvd. Sometimes people want the raw footage and have their own camera, easy for me.

A lot of stuff ends up on my laptop as I often make end-of-day videos, i use premiere pro cs2 for that too.

ciel bleu,
Saskia

[LouDiamond 1]

I was using a Screenplay NLE for a long time but have switched over to Mac FCP but haven't had time to dial it in like I had my workflow on my Screenplay.

I usually shoot to edit so my sequences are pretty much already in chunks as I need them. What I liked about Screenplay's NLE is that there was no render time so I could cut and trim where needed, throw a transition or titler in with an audio track and watch it immediately. It made for some fast,clean editing and I prefered it over linear editing/mixing. My only bitch with the Screenplay is the add on packages you have to buy that now a days come standard with most joe blow editting computer based software suites. Otherwise, it was a damn good machine.

"It's just skydiving..additional drama is not required"
Some people dream about flying, I live my dream
SKYMONKEY PUBLISHING

[freekflyguy 0]

Started editing on a PC and tried a number of programmes, before settling on Sonic Vegas which I found very intuitive and discovered some great reference material and turorials by some guy from VASST (didn't know at the time he was a jumper)

I continued to use Vegas and DVD Architect through it's various incarnations until I moved over to Mac last year.

I now use FCP on a MacBook Pro and burn DVD's using IDVD.

Depending on how many camera jumps I have in a day I will download the footage whilst I pack, and if I have time edit it to a standard template which reduces editing time.

Generaly the DVD will be burnt at home and then posted out the following day with a CD of stills.

All tandems filmed are uploaded to our website by the end of the day, and a link is sent by email to the student so that they can see their jump and forward the link to freinds and family.

It's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice.

[Peej 0]

I haven't yet ventured into editing anything outside of DZ tandem videos, but it's getting to a stage where i'm going to want to start going through footage and making a leader for mine. I'll get hold of premiere for that. At the DZ i use a linear system.

Advertisio Rodriguez / Sky

[flyer299 0]

Has anyone been able to get NLE edit times anywhere close to what you can do with a mixing board? For Tandems/student operations, I just don't see that going away with out hiring a full time editor.

For personal use, I use Premier, but then again, I have a strong background in broadcast television. For Tandems, it is mixing board and out the door. We can make some good products with a mixing board, and NLE would only be better if I could spend an hour on each video, otherwise, it isn't that much better of a product.

I wonder if one day someone will build a template to automatically edit a video on NLE quickly.

[stratostar 5]

I'm able to do edits just a tad longer in time then when I used a MX-1 system and produce a better product.

you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

[DSE 5]

I'm marginally faster than the analog guys using MX. But, I have a template (several, actually) that helps a lot. Plus, in Sony Vegas I can crank up the speed of the entire timeline, and do all the work at double, triple, or quadruple speed. Once you learn to recognize the waveforms for what they are, you can cut damn fast.
My template includes titles for their names (very personalized) sound effects, etc.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8xrUXIEFlQ has a 7 minute edit. That includes building a couple extra graphics and animations, because her husband's brother in law is a skydiver.
Flying is for shit on this one, you'll see where he ran into me on exit, but that's a piss poor excuse for what I turned out here. But it was a fast edit, which is the salient point.
The slow down is rendering/burning the DVD. If you're starting with MPEG content or have a fast computer, the render/burn is equal to finalizing time. If you have a slow computer or are starting with DV, it's slower than finalize. If you have a fast computer and start with MPEG source, it's quite a bit faster on render/burn. HDV is MPEG, so it's only resized, not transcoded.

[stratostar 5]

Quote

The slow down is rendering/burning the DVD.

We have been exporting the file back to the camera and into the DVD to rec. so we don't have to render it. I have seen other imac users burn in idvd, but i didn't time it, however it did seem fast. After spending time a few years ago working on a mac and getting fast with it, I got my own and sold my videonics system, best move I've made in regards of updating systems.

you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

[AndyMan 7]

Personally? If I'm creating a video I'll use Premiere.

My DZ's tandem operation uses an analog board.

Most often I'm doing 4way video, which means I'm just dubbing down to a DVD recorder.

_Am

__

You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

[Laszloimage 0]

For tandems I use my video camera. My Digital-8 has real press bottons so I have direct access to my fader, program AE, picture, and digital effect. Basically I keep the "time line" in my head and shoot the video according with that. I just dubb it down with the 3 source audio mixer (two music input and the original sound). Also I have pre-made leader which is pre-recorded in every 6 minutes on my tape. This way I can make the 20min call including the packing.
an example: http://laszloimage.com/Tandem_10_5_06.wmv
For NLE I use ULEAD's Media Studio-7 most of the time (I like it better than Adobe). I also have Avid Express Pro HD on my PC laptop. To make nice DVD's I use ULEAD's DVD Workshop-2
I have no problem using PC vs. MAC my runs perfect.
(it just needs to be set up properly)
-Laszlo-

[AFFI 0]

I use a microwave oven, a brick and a bucket of water....

[stratostar 5]

Well, when you "cavemen" going to get with the 21st. century, nobody uses a bucket of water anymore......

you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo