What is collaborative video editing, and how does it work?
Collaborative video editing means more than one person working on the same project, either cutting it or reviewing it, without passing files back and forth. Good collaborative editing lets each person work at the same time on their own part. Reviewers can give notes on the cut without receiving an export, and nobody can save over someone else's work.
For most of the history of editing, collaboration meant taking turns. One editor had the project open while everyone else waited. A cut travelled to a producer as an exported file. Collaborative video editing is the effort to stop taking turns.
The jobs people mean by it
The phrase covers a few different needs, and most teams want more than one of them.
- Cutting together. Two or more editors working on the same show at the same time, each on their own scenes.
- Reviewing together. A producer, a client or a director watching the current cut and leaving notes on it.
- Sharing footage. Getting the same media in front of everyone who needs it, wherever they are.
- Handing on. Passing a cut to the next person, such as an assistant, a sound team or a colourist.
What makes it work well
- Each person owns their part. The classic disaster is two people opening the same project and one saving over the other. Good tools make it impossible rather than relying on everyone to remember.
- Notes land on the frame. “At about two minutes in” is a guess. A note pinned to the exact frame of the cut is not.
- Nobody waits for an export. If every review needs a new file, reviews happen less often and notes arrive late.
- The footage is somewhere sensible. Either everyone works from the same storage, or each person has what they need on hand. Both work. Mixing the two without a plan does not.
- Earlier cuts are kept. When a note says “go back to how it was on Tuesday”, you should be able to.
Questions to ask before you choose a tool
- Can two editors work on the same project at the same moment without locking each other out?
- Can reviewers simply open a link, or do they need an account?
- Where does the footage live, and does it have to be uploaded before anyone can start?
- What happens to your project if you stop paying?
How B/side handles it
B/side keeps a whole show in one project. Each editor cuts their own part on their own computer, in Chrome on a Mac or a PC. There are no bin locks, and nobody touches your timeline. Every earlier cut is kept in the project.
On the Studio plan you can invite anyone to cut with you. Producers and clients open a link in their browser and write notes on the frame they are looking at, and the note lands on your timeline as a mark. People who only watch and give notes are never charged. Camera originals stay on your own drives unless you choose otherwise.
When something else is better
If your footage is never allowed to leave one building, collaboration has to happen on that building’s machines, and the edit software installed there is the right answer. If you only need a client to approve a finished film, a review tool on its own may be all you need.
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