The Joy of Rendering

Episode 2 culminates in a 30 second sequence that I cannot wait to edit. I'm so excited about how it's going to cut together and how it's going to look and sound, I'm actually going to start there. However, before I can begin editing together those 30 seconds, I have to wait 16 minutes for the video files to render. And that's 14% of the way into the render process. I think it started at something closer to 20 minutes.

I'm actually beginning to enjoy editing. I'm no pro like my pal Loren Small, but I've come to realize that it's in the edit bay that I get to have one last crack at the script. This episode, for example, had 5 drafts to the script. As I sit down to edit it, I'm beginning to suspect there will be a sixth draft to the script. I won't add any lines (though with some crafty ADR, I could), but I might drop a line. I'm actually eyeing a montage right now that get dropped (sorry, Tenika!). But we'll see.

The part of editing that drives me up the proverbial wall is the rendering. I wish rendering existed somewhere else in the process. Maybe at the end. The very end. After I completed the edit and liked the way it looked and sounded. Once I had finished everything, then I would render it and save it as a .MOV or what-have-you. Because here at the beginning it's such a drag. I'm excited to edit, I'm excited to sit down and start the next step in the filmmaking process . . . and I have to wait. Right now I'm only rendering the last five or six shots, so it's only a 20 minute wait. If I wanted to render the whole thing, I'd be looking at a 2 hour wait.

Oy.

I guess I shouldn't complain. This render time is letting me blog and the rest-of-the-episode render will met get caught up on Glee. So at least there's that.

UPDATE:

First part of this blog was posted at 9:25. It is now 10:53. I just finished editing the final sequence, as well as putting together a rough closing credits. It's pretty sweet. Watching it brings a smile to my face every time. I hope everyone responds to it the way I do (with a cruel chuckle). It is now 10:54 and the rendering for the rest of the episode begins. Status bar says it'll take 5 hours.

I say again: Oy.