Let me start with a preface…I’ve been working with the same company since last December. In that time I’ve worked on four series and one pilot. So I have footage from all those shows floating in my head. Three of those shows are on the same ISIS system where I’m working, so I have access to all that footage.

Which can be dangerous. I’ve been on feature docs that are full of ‘temp images’ ripped from YouTube or some other online resource, and I’ve needed to find replacements…and the sticker price on those shock the producers. “But, that other shot is perfect, and it’s there already, can’t we just use it?” No. Or we can use it, but the quality of the footage is 360×240, and this is an HD show. “Can you bump up the quality to match?” No…I can clean it up, but only so much. and 240 to 1080…that’s quite a leap! There are many reasons you don’t do this.

Today I starting doing stuff that would drive me insane if I was the online editor or assistant editor on the show. I’m on a series that just started, so we don’t have a lot of stills and stock footage to draw from just yet. The fact that we started a week early because we have a very short time before this starts airing doesn’t help. So I’ve been assigned an cct to cut, but have darn little footage to add to it. Normally what I need to do in cases like this is add a slate stating FOOTAGE TO COME and what that footage should be…say “FIRE” or SHOVEL DIGGING IN DIRT, CIRCA 1530.” And then I prepare a list of footage needs and give those to my producer and researchers.

But see…slates drive me nuts. I want footage there, even if it’s temp. And…well, I have this ISIS full of footage from other shows, and since I worked on those other shows I know that, for instance, in one series we have a bin full of fire stock footage, and on another show, I know that we have recreation footage of someone digging in the dirt that I might be able to make look like it’s from the 1530’s, even though it’s supposed to take place in the late 1780’s. So I KNOW we have this…but I also know that I can’t use it. Because the producers and researchers can’t track it properly, and some of it was shot specifically for another show. I KNOW I CAN’T USE IT…

…but I do, because I want to see something. I did slap TEMP on it…with the intention of saying “I want something like this, but not this.” But this stuff has a way of accidentally sneaking it’s way through the show’s edit and ending up in an online where suddenly we find that we can’t use it and need to replace it (this has happened before).

I emailed my researcher asking, “OK…what will be the consequence of grabbing b-roll from, say, SHOW X for this show? Or a shot of a shovel digging take from SERIES Y? I know I shouldn’t, but here I am, needing to put SOMETHING on the screen, and know ‘Hey, I saw that in X,’ or ‘I know we have this shot in Y and it’ll be almost perfect.’ Shall I throw TEMP on it? Or just not EVEN go there and just slate it?”

His response?

“I will cut off a finger for each transgression.”

OK then…slates it is.