Field notes

Field notes

Notes on recording, logging and cutting interview-led films, from the people building Earwig.

How to build a paper edit from documentary rushes

A paper edit is how you find the story before you touch a timeline. Here is the process I use on documentary interviews, and what to hand an editor at the end of it.

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XML timecode problems: why your edit lands a frame out

An XML does not carry timecode the way most people think. What actually breaks between set and edit: frame rate flags, drop frame, relinking and one-frame drift.

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I forgot to do this during the most important interview of my career

A 6am shoot, a well-known journalist, and the worst feeling I have ever had on a set. This is what I learned.

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Documentary is just words with pictures?

Strip documentary back and it is words with pictures, yet we shoot as if the image comes first. A documentary PD on what changes when you treat the film as a language, and where that thinking should stop.

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You can talk to Earwig now

We've added voice activation so you can make selects while you film

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Documentary has always had a transcript gap

A running log of everything you filmed has never really existed. Why documentary is a blind run to the edit, and what changes when every shoot leaves you a word-perfect record you can actually use.

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Try Earwig on your next shoot

Mark the exact line as it is said. Arrive at the edit with the selects already on the timeline.

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