What video editing software is used for reality TV and unscripted shows?
Most unscripted television in the US has long been cut on Avid Media Composer, often on shared storage, because the shows involve huge amounts of multicam footage and several editors working on one episode at once. When choosing software for unscripted, look first at multicam and transcripts. Then look at how several editors and assistants can work on one show without getting in each other’s way. Being able to open existing Avid projects and hand off to sound and colour matters too.
Unscripted television is a volume business. A single episode can draw on days of footage from many cameras, and the story is found in the edit rather than written in advance. That shapes what the software has to do.
What makes unscripted different
- The ratio is enormous. Hundreds of hours can stand behind one season. Finding the moment matters as much as cutting it.
- Almost everything is multicam. Group scenes and interviews are shot on several cameras at once, often with cameras starting and stopping all day.
- Episodes are shared. It is common for one episode to be split into acts, with a different editor on each, while assistants keep ingesting the next day’s footage.
- Producers shape the story. Story producers and executives watch cuts and give notes constantly, often from somewhere else.
What to look for
- Multicam that keeps up. You need to cut live between angles and change your mind later, and to cope with cameras that roll in pieces.
- Transcripts that tell voices apart. Most stories in unscripted are built from what people said. Reading interviews is much faster than watching them.
- Several editors on one show. Check how editors avoid overwriting each other, and how assistants add footage while editors are cutting.
- Notes that land on the right frame. Producers’ notes are only useful if the editor can find the moment they refer to.
- A clean hand-off. Sound and colour houses will expect AAF or EDL files, and change lists, in a form they already work with.
- Compatibility with Avid projects. Many teams in unscripted already work in Media Composer, so opening those projects and keeping the keyboard layout matters.
How B/side handles it
B/side uses the Media Composer keyboard and layout, with Source and Record monitors, so an editor who knows Avid can sit down and cut. You can drop in an Avid project folder and its bins and cuts open intact, multicam groups included. Anything that does not come across is named on the frame rather than quietly dropped.
One project holds the whole show. Each editor cuts their own act on their own machine, and assistants ingest dailies while you cut. There are no bin locks and nobody touches your timeline. Every act, and every earlier cut of it, is kept in the project.
Multicam lets you cut live from a grid of every angle and switch afterwards, and cameras that stop and start become one angle. Any clip can be transcribed when you need it, with the voices told apart. Producers open a link in their browser and write notes on the frame they are watching. Each note appears on the editor’s timeline. When the cut is locked, you hand off with AAF or EDL, along with change lists.
When something else is better
If your facility already runs a large Media Composer setup on shared storage that serves the show well, there is no reason to move a series mid-season. A pilot or a smaller show is a sensible place to try a new tool. The Editor seat and Production plans are arranged by talking to us.
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