The deadline for one of the first TV pilots Joke and I ever delivered collided with my Dad flying in to Vegas. He wanted to see us, since we were “just” in L.A.
Not wanting to feel like a horrible son, or ruin our budding careers, it was time to improvise.
I decided to finish editing, create all graphics, and prep the timeline for sound mix…you guessed it!…in the car, on the way to Sin City.
Should you one day find yourself with a deadline you can’t push, a G-Raid full of footage, and an aging laptop with shortened battery life, here’s how you, too, can edit your project while driving to Vegas:
- You need a driver.
Do not attempt to drive and edit at the same time. That could lead to disastrous results (and your driving wouldn’t be so good, either.) Thank goodness I have a wife and business partner who puts up with my shenanigans. (Love you, Joke!)
- A fully charged laptop.
- One of these bad boys:
- Your Firewire Drive
- A Creative Power Management Strategy
As per number 5 below, part of your editing strategy while heading to Sin City is creative power management. Make sure your laptop is fully juiced before you rev your engines.
A power-converter thinggee (the technical term.) Available and over-priced at most Best-Buys. Necessary if you’re going to power…
This is assuming you can’t just fit your raw materials on your laptop internal drive itself (which would make life way easier!) In my case, I had hundreds of gigs of footage. With just one power source (the car’s otherwise useless lighter) you’ll need…
Here was mine: I started with the fully-charged laptop, plugged the firewire drive into the converter, and edited away. About the time the computer’s battery was ready to call it quits (like 90 minutes later) I ejected the drive, and plugged in the computer.
What’s that you say? No drive, no media? No problem! Time for some After FX and Cinema 4D title design (or Motion, Photoshop…whatever.) Unleash your creativity as your laptop recharges. Not the easiest thing to do, but with practice, I was able to rotoscope using the trackpad while bouncing down I-15.
Laptop recharged? Rinse and repeat.
There you have it. Go edit your movie while charging into your own, real-life “Hangover.” Just try not to lose too much at the roulette table.