Get Real About Editing

Happy Sunday! If you want to complete your documentary quickly, it’s a good day to get real about what it’s going to take to edit your film.

As a benchmark, the average hour-long PBS documentary with thirty hours of footage takes approximately six months to edit.

Great, but what if you’ve shot more than 30 hours? That’s where estimates get tricky. But let’s be optimistic and ballpark one additional week of editing for every additional ten hours of footage you’ve shot.

So, for example, if you’ve shot 100 hours of footage, that’s 7 additional weeks. All together, you may be looking at an eight-month edit.

That estimate could increase if you’re still shooting, developing extensive animation/graphics, researching archival footage, or writing a narration-heavy documentary.

Next, let’s turn to your chief cost: hiring an editor. Fees for documentary editors span a big range: on one end, you can find a so-called editor who knows their way around Final Cut Pro for $500 per week. But can they tell a story?

On average, in the independent documentary world, you can hire a talented editor in the range of $2500-$3500/week. Rates go up from there and can climb as high as $4500/week.

So, let’s do the math. Assuming that a documentary with 100 hours of footage takes 8 months (32 weeks) to edit, and assuming the fee is $2000-$3000 per week, the total cost of paying an editor could climb as high as $100,000.

Given that this figure would be a fundraising stretch for many independent filmmakers, how can you lower that number?

First, by being crystal clear on your vision for the film. With the help of a talented story consultant or editor, decide what you want to say.

What’s your film’s theme? What’s your film’s take-away message? And what’s the best structural vehicle for delivering it?

Next, whittle 100 hours down to 30 hours yourself. You’ll hand those selects to an editor, and your editing cost will drop dramatically.

I’ve developed an innovative system that shows you exactly how to select footage for an editor and save on post-production costs. Look for my next newsletter (on Tuesday) titled “New Ways to Log Quickly”.

You can also learn more in our new Finish Your Film Program, which will help you complete your documentary within one year:

newdocediting.com/finish-your-film-program

Do you really want to get your film done? Bite the bullet and email me for a free consultation today. We currently have a talented editor available and he’ll get snatched up quickly.

Here’s what director Dan Goldes (5 Blocks) said about recently working with New Doc Editing:

“Karen and her editor did a great job editing … Her editor was phenomenal at culling through our selects to find the bites, b-roll, and images that really helped tell our story. Karen’s guidance in knowing what to keep, what to discard, and what to rearrange was invaluable.”