It’s not sexy or glamorous. But it’s vital. So tomorrow, I’ll be speaking on a topic near to my heart: how to prepare for your video edit. So, when is the optimal time to start planning your edit? A few days before you step into the edit suite? When you start digitizing your media?

Not surprisingly, the answer is well before you even shoot the first frame. Working in the digital media space now often means drinking from the firehose of assets–millions of frames to choose from as we acquire with more and more flexible cameras. So it’s even more vital to be prepared before you start working with all of that content.

As we all launch back into fall busy-ness, it’s a great time to re-assess workflows, consider new technologies, and find new digital platforms for distribution. So take the time to review your steps as you prepare for your next media production and ask these questions (which I’ll help to answer for those of you at my session at IVMG tomorrow):

1. What tools can you use in the field to help the editor (or that might be you) locate and metatag your footage properly?

2. What other assets can you be collecting (audio, music, supplemental photos and visuals) to help tell the story once you’re back in the edit room?

3. What systems can you put into place for logging footage and identifying the best soundbites?

4. And what process can you use after the project is over so that you can find all this stuff in 6 months, or even 6 years?

There is no perfect system, but there are better systems. I’m updating mine and hope I can help you do the same.