Edit Suite: Linear Editing: Ten Tips for Success

Jim Stinson
June 1999

Even in these glamorous digital days, a solid majority of video editors still work in traditional linear mode: assembling programs from original footage, shot-by-shot from start to finish. If that's how you edit video, then here are ten key procedures that you can use to smooth the process and spiff up the results.

Before you even shoot, prepare both your camera tapes and your assembly tape by "blacking" them: record the entire length of each tape with black, either by taping the output of a camera with the lens cap on, or with the actual color black from a mixer or color processor.

Blacking a tape does two things: first, it lays down time code and/or a control track throughout the tape. This means that any unrecorded sections between shots will still register on the counter of your VCR. On the assembly tape, it means that the sections preceding and following the program won't display as video snow and audio hash.

Also, by previewing part of a blacked tape, you verify that it will take a signal properly (yes, you'll occasionally find a defective tape).

If you don't have time code, finding individual shots on a camera tape can be a chore. To make it easier, use the video insert function to record a reference frame:

• Using a macro lens setting to fill the screen, record a digital stop watch running for about a minute or so.
• Before the first shot on each camera tape, insert the stop watch as it runs from zero hours/minutes/seconds/hundredths to at least ten seconds.
• Pause the tape on a frame like maybe 00:00:01:00 and reset the VCR counter to zero. Make a note at the top of your shot log to remind yourself of this calibration frame; e.g. "counter 00:00:00 = watch 00:01:00." Log all your shots on the tape from the counter.
• Each time you re-insert the tape in the VCR, pause at the reference stop watch frame and reset the counter.

Lag time is the amount of time your record VCR takes between the instant when you enable the record function and the instant when recording actually begins--typically a gap of one to two seconds.

To determine how long that gap is, precisely, you need to calculate it, using that ten-second shot of your running stop watch:

• Insert a tape in the assembly deck and go into Record/Pause mode.
• Set up the stopwatch shot at 00:00:00:00 in the source deck.
• Roll the source deck and watch the stopwatch counting up.
• At 00:00:05:00, press Pause (or Play, depending on your record deck) and record a few seconds.

Now play back your transfer, looking for the first frame of stopwatch actually recorded. If it reads, say, 00:00:06:50, then the lag time for your particular VCR is 1.5 seconds.

When editing, rewind the source deck back a few seconds before the in point of the next shot and roll it. At 1.5 seconds (or whatever your calculated lag time is) before the in point on the source deck, enable Record on the assembly deck. With a little practice, you can consistently make fairly accurate edits this way. If you use an edit controller, you may be able to program it to always send the "record" command 1.5 seconds early.

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