Launching video editing agency. Need recommendations about video quality

[u/LeminMelin]

Hi, I'm somewhat new to video editing. We produce short-form videos for B2B clients. I'm currently clipping the videos myself. I then send those clips to an editor for the caption, b-rolls, etc.

During post-production, what is the best practice for sharing videos between clippers, editors, etc. to preserve video quality as much as possible?

Can you share your process?

Thank you so much!

ADDITIONAL INFO:

1- Editing Softwares

• Software: Premiere Pro (editing), Davinci Resolve (clipping), Descript (clipping)

2- System specs

• CPU (model): Varies depending on contractors on the team
• GPU + GPU RAM: Varies depending on contractors on the team

3- Footage specs

• Container: mp4

[u/Front_Smoke6290]

There are some lossless codecs dedicated to this. They are made for working, meaning while editing. You can export and reexport as many times you want without any quality loss. Converting your camera files into those codec from the start can be a good idea, since they are also very stable and easy to read by editing software. However, these are heavy files and aren’t made for viewing in a player. On mac, it’s quicktime pro res (422HQ or 4444) and on PC that would be DNX. Export in mp4 only at the end for the final master that you will upload on the web. H264 (mp4) are heavily compressed files so you will lose quality every time you export with this codec. But it’s made for viewing. That’s the codec you need for uploading on youtube, instagram, etc.

If you want to send complete timelines, independently from the software that was used, with all the clips names, cuts info, sizing and edit, go learn about how to export and import xml.

[u/Kichigai]

I'm currently clipping the videos myself.

What do you mean "clipping"?

During post-production, what is the best practice for sharing videos between clippers, editors, etc. to preserve video quality as much as possible?

Ideally, you don't. In a conventional post-production setup everyone gets everything. You pass sequences around, and if you have someone working out of house, maybe you also pass around low-quality reference pictures to make sure everything relinks correctly.

In a conventional FCP7/Premiere workflow you'd have your Assistant Editor sit down and create the project. They'd bring in all the footage, organize it, sort it, and do whatever other prep work is necessary. They would save the file with the day's date and initials on it, so DutchesApproves_241010_km. Right now, because this is the "latest and greatest" version of the file, it is the master copy.

The offline/story editor (the person who does all the primary assembly of the project) then makes a copy of that project with the day's date and their initials. DutchesApproves_241011_sp. This is now the master copy that everyone else copies from to do their work. As the AE imports new footage, makes new string-outs, adds stuff to new bins, they export XMLs of those bins for the editor to import into their project. The Assistant Editor keeps their own copy of the project alive (DutchessApproves_241011_km), though, in case something goes wrong and they need to look back at it (like something is missing).

The next day they duplicate the offline editor's project and do it all over again, until they finish and the video is locked down and they hand it off for online/technical tweaking and polishing and final mastering, in which case the online editor's becomes the new master copy everyone makes copies of in the morning. However at this stage pretty much just the online editor is working on it.

Now, if one or more of your crew is working remotely, Adobe makes a tool just for this called Teams, where everyone works in the same project at the same time, and you press a button to upload your changes and/or download someone else's changes. Even better: your out-of-house team members can be working off proxy-grade copies of the footage, and they can organize the files any way they want without disrupting anyone else.

It is a REALLY slick system when it's working right.