Repair shots before or after editing?

[Jason Hinkle RIP]

I'm editing a short and a couple of shots had some problems that were fixable, but require fairly severe repair, by which I mean using a several layers of masks and plugins.

 

I'm wondering in that situation, would you edit the un-repaired footage and then worry about cleaning up only the pieces you need later? The downside being that you probably have to apply the tedious repair work to various clips. Or would you render a new repaired source file and use that as the master? The downside of course being one generation lost.

 

My master file is Apple ProRes HQ 1080p if that makes any difference..?

 

Thanks!

[Elliot Rudmann]

Hi Jason, what kind of problems are you referring to in these clips? What specifically needs fixing? I would just get picture lock with the offline edit and then figure out what needs to be fixed in the online high resolution version (assuming you're doing the traditional low-res offline to high-res online method).

[Saul Rodgar]

Hi Jason, what kind of problems are you referring to in these clips? What specifically needs fixing? I would just get picture lock with the offline edit and then figure out what needs to be fixed in the online high resolution version (assuming you're doing the traditional low-res offline to high-res online method).

 

Second that.

[Jason Hinkle RIP]

Hi Jason, what kind of problems are you referring to in these clips? What specifically needs fixing? I would just get picture lock with the offline edit and then figure out what needs to be fixed in the online high resolution version (assuming you're doing the traditional low-res offline to high-res online method).

 

thanks very much for the info. i'm editing the simpleton way, i suppose. the only way i know. I get apple pro-res .mov files straight from the telecine lab and i just drag them into my project. i'm sure it's not the best way to do it. anyway, the repairs that have to be made are all over the map. everything from covering up some acne to removing flicker to fixing lens flare problems. Repairing the footage is not really the problem, I've gotten pretty decent at it. it's just that some shots take a few layers of mattes and some cpu-intensive plugins and they take so long to render, it made me wonder if I should just repair them first until they're fairly "normal" looking and work from there.

 

i suppose the real solution is to shoot better footage in the first place, but try as i might a few shots always seem to be messed up.

 

thanks a bunch for any ideas.

[Phil Rhodes]

This is always tricky. On one hand, you don't want to spend time fixing stuff you won't use. On the other hand, you don't want to end up relying in your edit on stuff that turns out not to be fixable.

 

It's really a judgement call as to how fixable you think these things are. If you know beyond reasonable doubt that you can make the required fixes, then do the cut first, no question. Personally I'm always highly conservative about this sort of thing and the moment I become even slightly unsure about it I'd tend to do the fix first. Ultimately that's a decision that has to be made on a case by case basis.

 

P