Managing everything on set

You’ve picked a camera and audio recorders, everything’s charged, and you know what kinds of shots to capture — what next?

Most importantly, if you’re working with more than one device, be sure to synchronize the clocks (to the second!) on all of the devices before you record anything. This will make the syncing process far easier, and you’d be surprised at how quickly cameras and recorders can drift from the correct time.

If you’ve bought a camera that lets you customize the names of the files it produces, set up each camera to make files with different names. My A and B cameras make files that start with P_IA and P_IB to make life easy, and a shooting colleague uses P1RC and P2RC.

With or without this feature, label the physical media cards so that you don’t get confused about which card is which:

Figure 2.26: No duplicate names here, and I can tell at a glance which camera each clip was shot on

Some cameras have two card slots, and this can be a lifesaver if you’re recording to both slots at once as a guard against faulty SD cards. Alternatively, you can record different kinds of media to each card (which is good if you’re shooting photos as well as video) or simply fill up the second card once the first is full. That’s less safe, but it means you never run out of space; you can swap the card that’s not currently in use while the other card records. This is a dangerous operation, though. If you accidentally eject the wrong card, your current clip, no matter how long it is, could be entirely corrupted and unusable. Use this with great caution.

Similar caution is needed around using mains power rather than batteries with your cameras and recorders. If you have to connect main power via the usual battery compartment and the power is somehow interrupted, you can lose your entire current clip. Batteries will eventually run out, but they are significantly safer.

A final question — should you shoot as well as edit? On a smaller production, shooting the video you’re going to edit can be a big time-saver because you’ll know what you want, you’ll remember what you shot, and you’ll have a much easier time when reviewing the footage. You’ll also get to know the kinds of shots you need to capture.

Editors and camera operators can do their own jobs better if they each know how the other’s job works.

However, larger budgets mean more specialization, and on larger productions, some editors actually prefer not to be involved in the shoot at all. That’s because a crew might spend hours getting a perfect shot, and they can become emotionally attached to that shot in the edit. In contrast, an editor who wasn’t there can choose to use that shot — or throw it away — on its own merits. If you’re doing both jobs yourself, remember that most of what you shoot will probably be thrown away, and that’s OK.

Review — managing everything on set

These details seem small, but ignoring them can have serious consequences. If it’s not easy to know which camera a file came from, it can be lost. If one file has the same name as another file, it can be mistaken for it, or even overwritten by accident. Battery failure is real, and cables can be tripped over. All you can do is your best. Get to know how the set works, even if you aren’t always there, and you’ll be a better editor.