Time Management

 

One of the most difficult aspects of AVAing is time management and organisation. In theory, everything seems simple... but when you unzip everyone's lines and realise you've got to mix over 300+ files together, and make it all sound good... it can be a little overwhelming.

 

Everyone has big dreams of producing a full series fandub, or a 3 hour radio play epic, but the work involved will leave them with nightmares.

 

There's several different methods you can use to ease the pain of a huge project, or to prepare yourself. 

 

When a project starts to look like a huge gigantic monster of a project, break it down in to smaller pieces. This way, instead of having to worry about mixing 30 minute segments and waiting longer to see the fruits of your labour, splitting them in to smaller segments results in something much less intimidating. You'll also feel better when you're able to show people your work as it's being completed. 

 

When you start out, everything seems like it would be "awesome!" to fandub/adapt to a radio play. Sometimes this can also originate from losing motivation on previous projects, or assuming that while you're on vacation that everyone will be able to move as fast as you think you will be able to.

 

Starting out with one project and getting a feel for your cast, and how long things take is the best way to have a good understanding of how long these things take. 

 

Starting out with smaller projects, clips, etc. to practise and get a good feel for mixing is the best suggestion if you're new to this. As you progress, increase the length, or difficulty of the clip -- this will help you practise with sound effects, background music, or mixing vocals.

 

Another suggestion, is don't pick the most difficult clip you can find -- an action scene may be interesting, but it's easy to feel defeated if it doesn't come out sounding the way you want, especially when many people spend countless hours mixing, and have some years of experience who are still trying to understand this.

 

Organising your project in a way you feel comfortable will help a lot more than jumbling everything in to 1 folder, or searching e-mails trying to find lines if you think you're missing one, or accidentally save over another.

 

A big cause of time loss are mindless activities: chatting online, posting to forums, etc... If you're in front of your computer for 8 hours with MSN, forums, and your project open, actively chatting and responding to topics, that's less time devoted towards your project. Try shutting down an IM client, or try avoiding forums while you work on your project, so you can allocate more time towards your project than the bare minimum.

 

Ultimately, it's not just your time -- but think about the time of the people involved with your project, who are doing their best to help YOU bring it to life. It's about respect for your cast and crew... if you're having a problem, don't be afraid to ask for help, and sometimes: just taking a break and coming back to it later is the best thing to do.