Viewfinder: Two-finger Editing

by Matthew York
March 1997

Editing videotape in the old days was a crude affair, but the same two-finger editing is just as valid today.

When I first began editing videotape in 1975, things were very different. While in college, I learned how to edit on open reel-to-reel videotape recorders (VTRs). These VTRs recorded black and white only. There was no such thing as an editing-control unit. To control the VTRs, we physically had to push their buttons. Since there were two VTRs, we had to use two hands (actually two fingers). Accuracy was hard to achieve because we had to do the edits "on the fly." There was no automation to input an edit decision, adjust it or trim it before executing it. Executed edits were the only kind of edits, and we often made them with very simple planning. So this became known as "crash editing."

I performed the "simple planning" that I mentioned in a very crude way. Once I logged the scene I was about to edit, I would refine my decision manually by using the slow-speed mode or, more often, by manually winding the video reel very slowly. Since the video heads were large and visible, I could actually see the videotape passing over the heads. When I found the exact spot on the tape that I wanted to edit, I would mark it with a grease pencil. This process was the closest thing to a preview edit that was available. And when it came time to actually edit, things got even funnier.

In those days, the edit was often accompanied by a "glitch"--an ugly disturbance in the picture, often accompanied by a vertical roll. The most common reason for a glitch was inadequate tape speed. To record glitch-free video, the tape in the playback deck needs to be traveling at full, normal operating speed at the moment the edit takes place. But it is a simple fact of physics that the tape in a VTR or VCR must accelerate from a stopped position. This acceleration process takes a little time, perhaps a second or two. If you tried to record video while the tape was accelerating, you'd get a glitch. So, to avoid the glitch, you had to perform what is known as a "pre-roll." After you decided where you wanted the edit to occur, you had to rewind the tape a little and then hit the play button. This allowed the tape to get up to speed before the edit occurred. Remember that grease pencil mark that I made on the videotape? I used it to tell me when to hit the record button on the recording VTR. When I saw the grease mark passing over the video head, I would hit the record button on the record deck.