Whether you work alone or with a partner, with two cameras or one, you're going to end up with at least two different tapes--that's the whole idea, right? So here are some tips for wrangling them.

First, label them distinctively. Very, very distinctively. It's hard enough to keep all your reels straight when editing. But when you're juggling A and B tapes at once during real-time shooting, it's all too easy to mix them up. To avoid confusion, I color-code the labels. For my A roll, I use the white face and spine labels that come with the tape.

But for my B-roll tapes, I use distinctive blue-colored labels printed on my laser printer. I get mine from Professional Label Service (301 570-0774). They make labels for all types of printers--or no printer at all.

Because my tape spines are color-coded, I can push open the tape bay doors of my source decks and instantly remind myself which tape is in which VCR. (It may surprise you how easy it is to mix them up.)

A second big problem concerns syncing the tapes. This is not an issue with titles, cutaways and general shots, of course; but if you make two tapes of the same action, you'll need to synchronize them in order to transition between the A and B rolls. Unless you shoot and edit with time code, you'll find that aligning two tapes of the same action takes a bit of ingenuity and practice.

The easiest way to do this is by using a sync point: an identical and easily identifiable instant on each tape. The classic way to create a sync point is by training both cameras on a clapper board while an assistant snaps the clapstick down onto the board. The result is a single frame, on each tape, during which the stick makes contact. By lining up this frame on both tapes, you synchronize them.

An ingenious alternative once suggested in this magazine is to have both camcorders tape the flash of a still camera. Because the actual flash is so brief, the resulting flare begins cleanly on a single video field.

Even with clear sync points, it can be tricky to align A and B tapes and keep them running in perfect sync longer than a few seconds. So what follows are editing rather than shooting tips, but as long as we're on the subject, we might as well include them.

First, if at all possible, use identical VCRs for both A and B source decks. Different VCRs have different run-up times and even different delays between the instant a command is sent and the instant it takes effect. Suppose you push PLAY on both decks at once. If one takes half a second longer than the other to begin, you'll be that far out of sync--and in footage with on-screen speech, half a second is way, way out of sync.

If you are out of sync--often because you don't have a sync point to start from--you can align your source decks on the fly, like this:

Line up the decks as well as you can by eyeball, as far ahead of the cut point as possible. This can even be as long as a minute or two if the shots run that long. Then start the source decks together.

Watch each deck on its own monitor and listen to the on-camera speech, if any. (In some cases, it's helpful to turn off the sound of one roll and listen to A while watching B.)

Identify the deck that's lagging behind and "bump" its tape by tapping the visible fast forward (or double speed play) control and then very quickly tapping it again to resume normal speed. With practice, you'll find that you can pull the lagging tape up into sync before you begin recording.

One last trick before we leave the editing bay: when you have a choice, make transitions between shots of the same action from a close shot to a wide shot, but continue the sound from the close shot over the wide shot. Because subtle lip movements are very hard to see in wide shots, small mismatches are often undetectable.

So there you have it: several ways to create B rolls for editing with first-generation transition effects, plus a handful of editing tips at absolutely no extra charge. It's not surprising that this camera column sometime strays into editing. After all, the pros know that to make good videos, you have to keep all three production phases in your head at once.

Good shooting!