Viewfinder: Two-finger Editing

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 ev…