Logging Your Video Footage

Today I want to dig into my own method a little bit and talk about logging.

I’ve always had a love/hate relationship with logging (basically the process of creating a separate timeline and using markers to identify different aspects of footage for later use). It’s time-intensive but invaluable to me in the edit.

But what I find is that, the most valuable part of logging for me is the connection to writing. Logging forces me to decontextualize the massive amounts of information being conveyed in the interview and look at the physical words (I add back in the audible layer by using asterisks to mark the most emotional delivery).

Then I open a notepad in another window, and things really get rolling.

For me, there’s power in the written word. Seeing it physically helps me think about it structurally. I know what a 3 Act Structure should feel like. I understand the idea of going with the flow and using music and whatnot, but why not use the information that’s being communicated? Why not allow the emotional content of the interview to actually be revealed in a more significant and meaningful way?

It may sound like I’m waxing eloquent, and that’s because I am. Logging is just one of those things I hate to love.