Mixed frame rates, 9 GB free and a 24-hour edit
A two-person editing team must deliver a 6-minute corporate video in 24 hours. The shoot produced 47 minutes of footage: 25p from Camera A, 30p from Camera B, and 50p slow-motion from a phone. Audio was recorded separately on a 44.1 kHz recorder and the cameras recorded 48 kHz. The edit laptop has 8 GB RAM, a 4 GB graphics card, and 9 GB free on the system drive; the footage is 180 GB on an external USB 3.0 drive formatted exFAT. The client wants a 16:9 YouTube master and a 9:16 vertical cut for Instagram Reels, with burned-in subtitles. One interview clip has visible noise because the gain was raised; another has a 1.5-second audio drift. The client has approved nothing and says, 'Just make it look premium.' The editor has never used proxies before.
1. Design an editing workflow for the next 24 hours that is realistic on this hardware. Explain the sequence of technical decisions and why each one matters.
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The laptop cannot edit 180 GB of mixed footage smoothly with 9 GB free on the system drive. The first decision is not creative; it is to stop the machine from failing.
1. Back up and free space (first hour). Copy the 180 GB card/Drive to a second drive. Do not edit from the only copy. Move at least 50–60 GB off the system drive; free space is needed for cache, previews and exports. An exFAT drive is convenient across systems but has no journaling, so avoid pulling the cable during editing.
2. Ingest and proxy (next 2 hours). Create a project folder with bins: A_CAM, B_CAM, PHONE, AUDIO, GRAPHICS, EXPORTS. Generate low-resolution proxies - 720p, preferably ProRes Proxy or a lightweight H.264 proxy - and edit with proxies. The 8 GB RAM and 4 GB GPU will struggle with native 25p/30p/50p mixed footage; proxies make scrubbing reliable. Attach the separately recorded audio to the proxies.
3. Set one sequence base. Choose 25p as the master timeline because Camera A is the main angle and 25p is the common Indian delivery rate. Conform 30p clips to 25p with frame blending or optical flow only where motion is simple; otherwise accept a slight cadence change. Treat 50p phone footage as slow-motion material: interpret it at 25p for a 2× slow-motion effect, not as normal-speed footage.
4. Sync and organise. Sync the 44.1 kHz audio to the 48 kHz camera audio by waveform, then convert the recorder audio to 48 kHz in the sequence. Build a selects stringout before cutting the 6 minutes. This is faster than searching 47 minutes repeatedly.
5. Edit, review, export. Lock picture, then create the vertical version from the same sequence using adjustment layers or a second sequence with safe zones. Leave 3 hours for export and testing.
2. Explain how you would handle the mixed frame rates, the audio drift and the noisy clip, including what you would fix and what you would not promise to fix.
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Mixed frame rates: do not drop all clips onto a 25p timeline and hope. Decide the purpose of each source. Camera A (25p) is the base. Camera B (30p) needs conforming; a simple frame blend is acceptable for talking heads, but fast motion may show judder. If Camera B is a secondary angle, cut to it less often or use it for cutaways. Phone 50p is best used only for slow motion; conform it to 25p and slow it to 50% for a smooth effect. Do not mix 30p and 25p in the same multi-angle scene without checking the motion.
Audio drift: 1.5 seconds over a long clip is too much to ignore. First check whether the recorder and camera clocks differed or whether the audio was started late. Re-sync at the start, then check the end; if drift accumulates, split the clip at natural cut points and re-align each segment, or apply a very small time-stretch (for example, 0.1–0.3%) only if it does not change the pitch. Do not stretch the entire interview if it makes the voice sound unnatural. If the drift is only in one section, cut around it.
Noisy clip: use light denoise and reduce high-frequency hiss, but do not over-process. Heavy noise reduction makes voices sound underwater. If the words are intelligible, keep the clip and cover it with cutaways; if not, ask whether the client can supply a replacement take or use subtitles. Do not promise to make a noisy clip sound like a clean studio recording. State the limitation in the review link.
What I would fix: sync, obvious clicks, excessive hiss, and level mismatch. What I would not promise: removing all room echo or making a clipped recording broadcast-clean.
3. What export and delivery decisions would you make for the two aspect ratios and subtitles, and how would you manage the client's 'premium' expectation without overcommitting?
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Exports
- 16:9 YouTube master: 1920×1080, 25p, H.264 MP4, high bitrate (about 12–16 Mbps for 1080p), AAC audio at 48 kHz, stereo. Keep a clean master without burned-in subtitles for archive, plus a subtitle file (SRT) and a burned-in version if the client insists.
- 9:16 Reels: 1080×1920, 25p, same audio, with the subject reframed inside the vertical safe zones. Do not simply crop the centre; check that faces, hands and captions are not cut. Rebuild titles for vertical, because a 16:9 lower-third will be too small.
- Subtitles: burn in only on the delivery copy the client requests. Keep an SRT and a clean master so the video can be reused. Check spelling of names and technical terms; auto-captions will make errors.
Managing 'premium': ask the client for two references - one video they like and one they do not - and translate that into concrete choices: colour temperature, music energy, title style, pacing. Say, 'I can deliver a clean, consistent grade, steady pacing, clear sound and legible graphics. I cannot promise a cinematic look from this footage in 24 hours, and I will not hide that.' Offer one review round with a deadline, then a final export. Put the delivery specs in writing: two files, two aspect ratios, burned-in subtitles, one revision. That protects both sides and turns a vague adjective into a checkable list.