Independent in Indonesia: Speedy,
Professional Editing in the Jungle
For those not familiar with Indonesia, the title of the documentary film Samboja Lestari: One Square Meter at a Time requires some explanation. Samboja is an area of former rainforest in the Kalimanstan province of Indonesia, Lestari means 'eternal' in the Indonesian language, and 'one square meter at a time' is the novel, high-tech way this deforested section of the Borneo rainforest may be saved.
The 30-minute documentary itself, however, requires little explanation. It underscores the joint mission of the Gibbon Foundation and the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation (BOS) to create a sanctuary for orangutans, sun bears, and other endangered species in Borneo. The plan is to turn 17 million square meters of land, now overgrown with elephant grass, back into tropical rainforest. The project will help Indonesian farmers plant new trees to benefit both the ecology and the economy of the area. It is the hope that within a few years BOS will release the first orangutans into their new habitat.
To raise money for the project, the foundations are 'selling' square meters of the land for a donation of three Euros per square meter. Benefactors can track the progress of the reforestation project by watching satellite pictures on the project's Web site, http://www.createrainforest.org/.
"When it comes to a large project with a lot of media in a lot of formats and a tight deadline, I've always preferred to use Avid, say over Final Cut Pro."
- Jason Neal, Editor, Samboja Lestari: One Square Meter at a Time
Creative Reforestation Project
The Gibbon Foundation and BOS commissioned wildlife photographer and documentary filmmaker Alain Compost to produce a 30-minute documentary film about the conservation project. Compost enlisted the help of longtime friend and colleague Jason Neal to serve as editor and post production supervisor for the documentary. Neal, formerly an editor from Los Angeles, now works with GMM Films of Jakarta, Indonesia.
"We took on the project to make a difference, not a profit," says Neal. Faced with little time or money, they scaled back their normal operations for both production and post production. "We wanted to run as lean and mean as we could," he says. Compost served as producer, director, and director of photography. Neal was virtually a one-man editing department, serving as editor and assistant editor as well as post production supervisor.
Their post production equipment was lean as well, based on two Windows-based laptops with Avid Xpress Pro software. The choice of Avid Xpress Pro software was a quick - and mutual - decision. The filmmakers needed a post production system that met a range of needs. Because it was a non-profit project, the system had to be cost effective. Because they would be using a variety of formats and resolutions, including HDV and DV footage, the system had to be flexible. Also, because Neal and Compost had to frequently travel to the Kalimanstan province, the editing setup had to be mobile and reliable. "For this project, the Avid Xpress Pro proved to be a godsend," says Neal.
"It was a unique workflow that I had never attempted before. But it was fast, and it worked flawlessly."
- Jason Neal, Editor, Samboja Lestari: One Square Meter at a Time
Mixed Formats, Resolutions, Aspect Ratios
The half-hour documentary was created from more than 30 hours of footage. Compost shot 20 hours of HDV footage during several weeks in the bush and at a nearby compound. The rest of the source material included existing footage in a smorgasbord of formats such as QuickTime, DVCAM, DVCPRO 25, and HDV. Some of the clips were in the 16:9 aspect ratio, while others were 4:3; some clips were full resolution, while others were a lower, draft resolution.
Neal knew at the outset that the Avid Xpress Pro software with its Open Timeline could easily handle this wide variety of formats, aspect ratios, and resolutions. He transferred Compost's original HDV media to DVCAM 16:9 with window burn. His DVCAM deck didn't accept a timecode signal, though, so Neal had to assign an alternative timecode track to each clip. This process was easily handled using Modify Clip, one of the features of the Avid Media Tools media management system. When Neal was done, each clip had a timecode that matched the original on the HDV cassette.
Several hours of footage had already been captured natively at DV 420 for another project, so Neal used the Avid Media Tool's consolidation feature to duplicate the media to his work drive. Because some of the stock footage was in the 16:9 format and some was not, he used the Avid Xpress Pro software's Reformat Effect feature to convert all the footage to 16:9. "It was a tremendous amount of material," says Neal. "But we managed it easily."
Light, Fast, Mobile Editing
Neal also used the Avid Media Tool to essentially recreate the entire project on his director's laptop to accommodate a collaborative workflow. "We didn't have time to go through all the material and put together a tight shot list," says Neal. "But Alain [Compost] wanted to be actively involved in editing the film. He has a solid knowledge of the Avid software, so he asked me to duplicate the media and the project onto his laptop. This way we could review takes and shots while we were working. It would speed up the editorial process."
Using this workflow, the two men could easily work together on location in the rainforest, where the compound was equipped with a wireless T-1 Internet connection for easy communication with Neal's home office in Jakarta. "We carried all our gear in backpacks and threw them down whenever we needed to do something. So while he [Compost] was out in the jungle shooting, I was at the [Samboja Lestari] compound ingesting footage and cutting, uploading rough cuts, and exchanging files with the GMM office back in Jakarta. It was intense."
With both laptops mirroring each other's content, the director and the editor would share editing data with a simple thumb drive. Neal would store his latest edit on bins that he'd copy to the thumb drive and hand off to Compost. Compost would plug the thumb drive into his laptop, open the bins into his Avid Xpress Pro project, and re-link to the duplicated media on his system. He'd watch the latest edit, add his own locators with notes, changes, and so on, and then pass the thumb drive with the updated bins back to Neal.
"It was a unique workflow that I had never attempted before," says Neal. "But it was fast, and it worked flawlessly."
Neal used the Avid Xpress Pro setup for the online edit of the film as well. After receiving approval of the offline cut from their clients in Jakarta (again via the T-1 connection in the Samboja Lestari compound), he used the Avid Media Tool and Avid EDL Manager features (Decompose, Batch Import, Relink) to conform all of the material at full resolution from its native format into an HDV project. Ultimately, he used the system's Real-Time Down-Convert and Export features to produce the project's final deliverables: a diverse lot of formats and files including SD, DVD (NTSC and PAL), Digital BetaCam (PAL), and BetaCam SP (PAL), as well as QuickTime files and Windows Media Player files suitable for the Web.
Why Avid Xpress Pro?
Since mobility and a limited budget were the hallmarks of this project, why did Neal choose an Avid system? "I've worked with Avid since I became an editor in the mid-1990s," says Neal. "I'm proficient at it and comfortable with it. When it comes to a large project with a lot of media in a lot of formats and a tight deadline, I've always preferred to use Avid, say over Final Cut Pro."
He cites several areas of functionality in which he believes the Avid Xpress Pro software excels: "It's easier to manage media with Avid, and I don't have to worry about deleting unused render files. Final Cut Pro is confusing - it has multiple terms for the same function, and it's not backwards compatible. [The] Avid Xpress Pro [software] allows me to mix media and resolutions without the need for rendering. It has real-time capabilities like rendering and a real-time matte key, among other features, that save valuable time on projects like this one. It's simpler and customizable so I don't have to rely on software engineers - who aren't editors - to determine what's intuitive for me. Plus it gives me so many media management features that create smooth, streamlined, organized workflows. I'm freed up to concentrate on doing a good solid edit, not worrying about where my most recent autosave file went."
"Final Cut Pro is popular, and it has come a long way," he says. "But to me it's still not an Avid. Back at the beginning of this project I put my faith in the Avid Xpress Pro system. I'm happy to report I made the right decision."
*CREDIT: Photography courtesy of Alain Compost and Samboja Lestari