Overview of the role
The edit producer works creatively with an editor to put together the best possible programme, series or piece of content to fulfil a commissioned brief. In most cases the edit producer has not been on the shoot and is only involved with the editorial and creative decisions made in the edit.
The edit producer role involves meticulously watching the rushes to make decisions about what to include in the finished piece. The edit producer then works with the editor to craft the selected rushes into viewable cuts with the addition of music, GVs, cutaways and voice-over, as required.
The cuts will then be shown to more senior members of the team (series producers and executive producers) and commissioners, who review and give feedback. The edit producer needs to understand and take on board this feedback, either given verbally or in the form of written notes, and work with the editor to implement any changes until final approval and sign-off is reached.
The edit producer’s role can involve writing commentary and directing master interviews and additional “pick-up” filming. All these tasks are undertaken from what is known as an offline edit, working with low-resolution files, which are usually compressed versions of the original footage. Once the offline edit process is complete the edit producer and editor usually hand the cut over to a different team who work in what is known as the online edit.
Core responsibilities
These core responsibilities are provided as a guide and are not exhaustive. The exact responsibilities in a particular job will vary depending on the scale, budget, genre of the production and whether the project is a series or a feature documentary.
- Read treatments and shooting scripts to understand what is expected of the finished show
- Analyse and comprehend the format beats of an established series
- Work to establish the tone, shape and style of a first series or one-off production
- Liaise with senior team and production manager to find out what’s expected from the offline edit, including duration of content and any additional deliverables eg social media cut-downs, trailers, snap-ins, and series billings
- Analyse the rushes log to get an overview of the shot material available to the edit
- Collate and manage any extra material e.g. archive, graphics, animation, UGC
- Watch all material with fresh eyes and no preconceptions, working out what is relevant, interesting and potentially usable, and what should be disregarded due to irrelevance, repetition or inferior quality of footage
- Make thorough logs to retain an accurate and detailed record of the rushes, or make cut-downs (also known as sync-pulls) of the footage and media, using software such as Avid, Blackbird or Premier
- Make selects from the logs or detailed paper edits to instruct the editor which footage might be usable
- Work with the editor on the selects to create assemblies of scenes and rough cuts
- Refine the rough cuts by further editing and by adding music, commentary and master interview, as required, until it starts to take shape as a viewable piece of content
- Work within the limitations of the allocated schedule to make the best use of time in the edit suite
- Ensure there is adequate time to watch the all the raw material and rushes required
- Plan for a sensible amount of time to work with the editor to make an acceptable cut that is in good enough working order for the first assessment or “viewing” with the senior team
- Leave suitable time for taking on board feedback from viewings
- Keep a close eye on what needs to be achieved in the edit on a daily basis and what deadlines need to be met
- Liaise closely with senior management if the schedule is proving unrealistic or impossible to achieve
- Liaise with the production manager and senior team about the type of music that is to be used (commercial, library or composed)
- Understand copyright and licensing checks that need to take place if commercial music is being used
- Work out how best to communicate with the composer if composed music is being used (eg finding a shared language, or using musical references)
- Be open and able to adapt and change the music according to feedback from viewings
- Liaise with production manager to ascertain archive requirements and budget
- Research affordable libraries to find suitable archive, or work with and brief an expert archive producer with requirements
- Keep detailed log of archive used in working offline cuts including where it is from and duration of each piece of archive used
- Write the voice-over script in an appropriate style and tone of voice to give the information required to understand and thread the story together
- Analyse the existing master interview rushes to work out what can be used in addition to, or instead of, voice-over to narrate and add interest to the story
- Plan and organise pick-up master interview shoots to gather additional material, if required, to help the storytelling in the edit
- Work out if the existing raw material available to the edit is inadequate to convey crucial story-points
- Plan and write up pick-up scripts if no alternative can be found
- Liaise with production management and the shooting team to ensure the required content is obtained in the most efficient and cost-effective manner to fulfil your edit needs
- Ensure the production manager, any legal and compliance personnel, and senior team members are across any legal and compliance issues in cuts and edits
- Understand editorial policy, fairness and accuracy requirements and ensure that cuts are truthful and fair towards contributors and the events that are portrayed
- Refer up to senior members for advice if in any doubt about misrepresentation or editorial truthfulness
- Liaise with the shooting team to ensure you have all the material from the shoot and a deep understanding of their perspective of what happened on the shoot
- Communicate with senior management about quality and quantity of shot material, the workflow of the edit, if deadlines are proving hard to meet and if so why, and if there are any question marks over the ability to reach the end-goal
- Communicate with production management about legals and compliance issues, music copyright, archive requirements, online requirements, and schedule
- Work effectively with the editor so that both the editor and the edit producer are busy throughout the edit process, at times individually and at other times collaboratively
- Listen to feedback without taking it as personal criticism
- Be able to take on board multiple sets of notes and work out essential points and priorities
- Ensure the editor has clarity about what’s required
- Ask for clarification if any feedback is unclear
- Take on board the feedback to produce alternative and improved iterations of the content before future viewings
- Stay calm under pressure
- Create an edit script to an agreed template with timecode, voice-over script, sync, legal and compliance notes and online notes, as required
- Provide details of any low-res archive in the offline cut which will need to be replaced by high-res versions in the online
- Provide a music cue sheet
- Prepare detailed notes for the online editor about blurring, astons, archive, sub-titles, audio levels, and graphics
Skills
Check out role specific skills, transferable skills and attributes for the role of edit producer.
- Able to watch and judge vast quantities of raw material
- Understand editorial aims of a show and how to achieve these aims
- Good storytelling and writing skills
- An understanding of editorial policy and how to ensure a truthful and fair representation of contributors and reality
- Able to work well with an editor and to liaise effectively with senior management and other members of the production team
- Able to manage and stay on top of multiple rushes, scripts, and cuts
- Organised and able to ensure edit schedule is working and deadlines are met
- Communication: communicate the requirements of the final deliverables to the editor
- Team-working: collaboration within editor, series producer, executive producer and production team
- Creative problem-solving: able to make the best use of the raw materials of the edit (rushes, music, commentary, archive, UCG etc) for editorial and practical considerations, creatively solving issues and adapting the approach, as required
- Delivering under pressure: responding to tight deadlines calmly and efficiently
- Resilience: able to listen dispassionately to feedback which you may not agree with, and which may include new and divergent opinions, priorities and expectations
- Productivity: able to organise work effectively and efficiently to achieve results within tight deadlines
- Ethics and integrity: honest and principled in editorial choices
- Collaborative: The ability to work in a highly co-dependent way with another person, without whom you cannot do your job
Acknowledgements
This checklist has been created in consultation with Jo Woolf, supported by the Unscripted TV Skills Fund.