10 Commandments, Lies and Video Tapes

I love me some lists... so here's a few I picked up while reading:

from http://www.videouniversity.com/10edit.htm

TEN COMMANDMENTS OF DV EDITING

1. Thou shalt not screw up thy client's job.

2. Thou shalt not record in LP mode, lest ye receiveth thy glitch.

3. Thou shalt not mix tape brands, nor shalt thou allowest them to intermingle freely, lest ye recieveth thy glitch.

4. Honor thy Alimighty Vectorscope and thy Almighty Waveform Monitor, for in Darkness and in Light art thou guided by them.

5. Thou shalt not covet thy scene transition for the sake of vanity, but shalt thou cut with reason and purpose, and only then, keeping thy transitions modest.

6. Thou shalt have thy proper subject on screen at the proper time, thy speaker when he speaketh, thy reactor when he reacteth, thy glance and then thy object.

7. Thou shalt not cross axis.

8. Cast down thy recording tabs and breaketh them, and if thy tabs slideth, and not breaketh, then shalt thee slidith thy tabs into the "save" position, so that thine precious video might then be saved from eternal loss.

9. Loggeth thee thy master tapes, and with marked labels shalt thee cover them, for their nakedness is sinful.

10 Thou shalt not linger too long in black, lest thy viewer kick his TV set reproachfully, thinking it hath conked out again.

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With additions from http://www.scottsimmons.tv/blog/2006/09/17/10-commandments-of-editing/

Thou shalt at least attempt some type of written script or paper edit to at the very least give the editor some starting point, albeit however small, or futile said script shall be.

Thou shalt give the editor some time to work on the edit on his or her own without the interruption of director, producer, writer, client, cinematographer, videographer, executive producer or production assistant.

Thou shalt not ask the editor to review every single cut or parameter change the second after said change is executed thereby giving the editor a bit more time to get the particular thing done.

Thou shalt not give an editor a DVD as a master source reel and expect it to function properly in an offline to online environment without the dubbing to a master tape reel with timecode and/or expect the quality of compressed DVD mpeg material to be the same quality as HD video or 35mm transfered film.

Thou shalt give the editor some time to make a change and review said change before making comment out loud that a glaring, unintentional error needs to be fixed or changed.

Thou shalt keep partying to a minimum in edit suite when edit job is on a tight deadline, least you expect editor to get interrupted or distracted and not be able to finish on time.ÂÂ

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Half truths and whole lies from http://lfhd.blogspot.com/2007/07/lies-i-tell-you-lies.html

TOP TEN LIES EDITORS TELL THEIR PRODUCERS:
10. It’s just a preview glitch…
9. It’s out of the safe area, you’ll never see that on the air…
8. It won’t really look like that…
7. I’ll fill out the paperwork tomorrow…
6. Why no, I don’t mind working on Saturday…
5. Oh, don’t go by THAT monitor…
4. It works better as a cut…
3. That glitch is on the source tape…
2. I’ll have all your changes done by the end of the day…
1. No, I agree. It’s much better that way.

TOP TEN LIES PRODUCERS TELL THEIR EDITORS:
10. It’s pretty simple. It should only take an hour…
9. Budget? Don’t worry about it…
8. Feel free to be creative with this…
7. I only need a couple dubs…
6. The network will love it. They won’t make any changes…
5. I’m positive we’ve got that shot on another tape…
4. I’ve never had this problem anywhere else I have edited…
3. Could I see it just one more time?
2. I thought you’d be able to just paint it out…
1. How hard could it be?

TOP TEN LIES EDITORS TELL OTHER EDITORS:
(when they pick up the second half of a session)
10. It’ll only take about an hour to render…
9. I’ve pre-built all of the chyron…
8. It should only go a couple of more hours…
7. I’ll be at home. Call me if you have any questions…
6. The producer has been really organized so far…
5. All of the decks are working perfectly…
4. The list has been working great…
3. I’ve had no problems with this Avid…
2. Don’t worry, the credit roll is short…
1. I’ve already done the hardest parts…

TOP FIVE LIES EDITORS TELL THEIR ASSISTANT EDITORS:
5. Kick me off if you need the station.
4. You don't have to log everything.
3. We'll finish early today.
2. I organized the files really well already.
1. An hour of footage a day, tops.

#1 LIE EDITORS TELL THEIR SIGNIFICANT OTHERS:
1. “I’ll be home soon.”

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Things to be made into posters when I get my own swanky edit suite ;]