Offline Editing | Codec and Shooting Ratio

For editing, the codec that’s being used is different than codec from the original footage that was recorded by the camera. The codec is being transformed into a smaller one to ease the editing process, meaning that something is discarded.

  1. Capture Codec/ Aquisation Codec: codec that’s being applied by the camera (eg. H.264, H.265, prores)
  2. Intermediate Codec: a transition codec between capture codec and export codec
  3. Export Codec: codec used for online editing
1.1 Illustration of Capture Codec, Intermediate Codec, and Export Codec in Editing Process
Source: Author's Personal Documentation

Shooting Ratio: comparison of the shooting material’s duration with the final film’s duration per minute. (eg. 1:2, 1:3). 1:3 or 3:1 means that: 3 minutes of shooting material is needed to make a 1 minute scene.

This information is necessary for editors as well as cinematographers, for they would have to be able to negotiate with the producer regarding their department’s budget allocation.

Let's try and do the math

For example, let’s say you were to shoot a RAW footage with 4k resolution and 24 frames per second which takes up the memory for about 12GB/minute of footage. And then you find out that the desired shooting ratio is 1:6 (90 minutes film ÷ 540 minutes of shooting material). Therefore, it requires a hard disk with 6,4 TB (times 3 for backup) = 19TB. If the price of a 1 TB hard disk is 1 million, it means that a total budget allocation of 19 million is needed for hard disk.


2.1 Example of Storage Calculation based on Shooting Ratio
Source: Author's Personal Documentation

3.1 Example of Storage Calculation
Source: Author's Personal Documentation

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