Linear, or Non?

In the last few years there has been an explosion in the variety of editing systems available on market. No matter what the brand name is though, editing systems come in two main varieties -- linear systems and non-linear editors (NLEs). Linear systems basically consist or one or two play decks, a record deck and an edit controller. The principals are the same as recording between two VCRs, except that the controller gives the editor the option of recording one or two tracks of audio and no video, or just video and no sound, or both. In addition, the controller allows you to perform very precise edits. Having two play decks allows you to dissolve from one image to another. With the additions of an audio mixer and a title and effects generator, you can recreate just about anything you see on TV or in the movies (I know, why would you want to). NLEs are different. They are computer-based editing systems, which combine various methods of "capturing" video to the computer's hardrive with various software programs which allow you to manipulate the footage. There are gazillions of varieties on the market, and they are getting cheaper all the time.

The first advantage of an NLE is that it allows you to work, well, non-linearly. With a linear system you work from beginning to end, like you do with a typewriter. If you finish your video and you realize that you made a typo at the beginning you live with it, or you start all over again. Therefore a linear system requires that the editor do lots of planning before she even starts, and usually it requires multiple drafts. An NLE is more akin to a word processor. You can start editing at the beginning, middle, end or whatever. If you get to the end of your video and you decide that you don't like the beginning sequence anymore, no sweat--you can just go back and change it.

Gathering, Organizing and Reviewing Source

Once you have decided on the subject, length and target audience for your video project, it's time to get your source materials together. In some cases you will already have all the source materials you are going to use. In other cases you may realize you that you need to plug the gaps by shooting additional footage yourself or by acquiring footage that already exists. Corporate sources like ABC News charge hefty fees for the use of their footage, but if they have what you need and your video is going to be widely distributed, you may decide it's worth it. Independent producers are usually open to allowing others to use their stuff as long as they are credited, and they have time. Offer to swap with your own footage, and make it as easy as possible for them.

How you organize your source materials will depend on what kind of equipment you are using. If you're going linear, you are going to be using the actual videotapes a lot, and you will want to play them as little as possible, since everytime you do, they will degrade a little bit. If you are editing on an S-VHS linear system, for example, you should transfer the source footage you think you will use (including music and voice-overs) to new, high quality S-VHS tapes. Be selective. If you are making a 10 minute video, you don't need more than 3 hours of footage. These are now your "source tapes" and you should be nice to them. Don't leave them in the car with your dog and baby on a hot day.

Take your source tapes and transfer them exactly to cheap VHS "view tapes". Make sure that you do this in Standard Play mode (SP), not Long Play (LP) or Extended Play (EP). To keep it simple, don't put more than one source tape on your view tape. Basically, you want the time code of the view tapes to be identical to the time code of the source tapes, so that you can effectively log your source tapes without actually playing them. If possible, transfer them with burned-in timecode. If not, try to find a VCR with a counter, that keeps track of your tape in actual minutes and seconds. Start at the beginning of the tape and reset the counter to zero. Make up some sheets with categories across the top: "Time", "Sequence", "Shot", "Comment", and "Mark Good" (Just a spot to star especially good stuff). Also, reserve a space to note what tape you're talking about. Now watch your tape and fill in the blanks. The better your logs are the less time you'll spend rewinding and fast forwarding when your in the editing room, so take the time to do it right. A good strategy is to run the entire tapes twice without stopping. Get as much as you can the first time, fill in the blanks from memory, then do it again.

If you are working on an NLE, your process may be somewhat different. Many NLEs feature "Log and Capture" interfaces, which can eliminate some of the above steps. You don't have to worry about degrading tape, so you may want to log, review and capture your footage in one step, and then review it further once you have gotten the footage into the computer. Video eats up lots of hard drive space though, so for longer projects, making the initial selection of footage through the use of view tapes is still a good idea.

The Paper Edit

Now it's time to get those creative juices flowing. By this time you should have a clear idea of the length and type of video you want to make, and a familiarity of the source materials at your fingertips. Now you can focus on the details of your video. How do you want to organize the information, communicate to the viewer, tell the story? Do you want to do it Chronologically? By topic? Conceptually? Spend some time grappling with these questions, and make a rough outline of your video on paper. Make some columns for A1(audio channel 1), A2 (audio channel 2), and Video. (NLEs may have the option for many more tracks of audio, but two are usually enough.) Envision your opening sequence. What is the first thing you want the viewer to see or hear? Go as far with this as you can, but leave yourself room to improvise in the editing room. Some edits look great in your head, but just don't work in real life.

Again, it's a slightly different story for the non-linear editor. They have the advantage of being able to experiment more easily at earlier stages of the creative process, to see what their ideas actually look like. They still have to come up with ideas first though, and attention to this part of the process will pay off. It's good to let yourself dream up ideas while you don't have the pressure of actually being at the controls. If your working on an NLE, you just have to keep tweaking and polishing until you are happy with the video. Take breaks when you get stuck, and get opinions from your friends.

A First Draft?

If you're using S-VHS equipment, you have the advantage of being able to edit right from VHS as well as SVHS. If this is the case, you might want to do a rough draft using your VHS view tapes. If not, use the source tapes. Don't worry about making everything perfect the first time. Skip the titles, music and effects. Concentrate on getting the story, pacing, and main sequences right. Show it to friends and get their opinions on it.

Finally, go to your source tapes and do the final edit with titles, effects and music. Have fun! Don't forget to get some exercise and fresh air! Most of all, don't let it sit on the shelf.

Interacting with Other Editors

Terms

Video Editing, like most other things, has some terms that are unique to itself. Learning the words to describe different video tape formats, cables and other specifics will enable the newcomer to interact with other editors and to begin editing themselves. The Bay Area Video Coalition has an on-line glossary of video terminology. They can help you decode the jargon of video editing, from "above the line" to "zoom".

Video Formats

In video, "format" can mean standard length and type of program -- for instance a 56 minute documentary or a 30 second Public Service Announcement. But it also has a meaning specific to video production: usually "format" refers to a specific type of tape. There are more kinds of video tape than a sane person would believe, and more than we can describe here, but here's a list of the most important ones:

• VHS
  VHS, sometimes referred to as "half inch", is the format most people put into their VCR's at home. Whatever video format you tape and/or edit with, if you choose to duplicate your work, you will be duplicating onto VHS tapes. These usually come in time allotments of 10 minutes, 30 minutes, one hour and two hour.
  
  Some of you might remember a time when "BETA" was a video format that was available for home viewing. Now, BETA and BETA(SP) are formats for the "pros" only and they are very expensive to work with. The electronics industry itself created VHS as the consumer video format. It degrades fast and is hard to edit with. This makes it perfect for passive mass consumption, promoting more product turnover and making it less attractive for self-empowering, home-editing.

• SVHS SVHS, or Super VHS, is the same size and shape as VHS, but the tape itself is higher quality. The colors are truer, the resolution is better, and SVHS tapes don't degrade as fast as normal VHS. Your typical VCR at home will not play an SVHS tape, although they are now becoming more available to the average "consumer." SVHS was widely used by corporations throughout the late 80's and early 90's to create in-house educational/training videos. SVHS edit suites are still common in the media departments of community colleges, in cable-access stations, and in community/artist/activist-oriented editing facilities. Typically, it it much cheaper to rent time in an SVHS suite than any other kind of edit suite, and tape stock is a little cheaper, too.
  
  Editing with SVHS is interactive because SVHS play decks also play VHS tapes. This means that people who only have a low-end video camera and a VCR can create "Edit Source" tape at home by recording things off of the TV or out of their camera. They can put their best shots on good quality VHS tape (in Standard Play (SP) mode), then use them to edit with themselves, or to give to other SVHS editors. So, SVHS and VHS formats are interactive, low-budget and grassroots oriented.

• HI-8 / Video 8 These formats are typically reserved for camcorders, altough there are some Hi-8 editing decks out there. Video 8 (or "regular 8") is one of the least expensive formats to get into. A video 8 camera is ideal for sketchy situations where your camera is at risk. Hi-8 tapes are the same size and shape as regular 8, but, like SVHS, Hi-8 is able to record higher quality images, and again, the tapes will last longer.
  
  
• BETA & BETA SP - (sometimes referred to as 3/4 "). This is a step up from SVHS and it is the format typically used by the corporate broadcast industry and other high-end users. Beta does not degrade as fast, has higher resolution and is generally much better than SVHS. Beta tapestock, beta decks and time in suites that use beta decks are all about twice as expensive however, as SVHS. However, if you have a budget, or plan to interact with more professional video editors, or want to place images on corporate TV - BETA(SP) is the format of choice for now. Even if shooting or editing on Beta is out of your range, you may want to transfer especially valuable footage to Beta for posterity.
  

• Digital Formats-Digital Editing and "Firewire" Right now there is a proliferation of digital formats, in which the video information is recorded onto tape digitally. These include MiniDV, Digital Beta, Digital 8, DVC Pro, and others. The most common right now, and most appropriate for the video activist is MiniDV. It's small, it's not (gulp!) too expensive, and there are lots and lots of cameras that use MiniDV, ranging in price from roughly $500 to the outer stratosphere. MiniDV is also ideal for use with a desktop editing suite, thanks to "firewire". Firewire is a kind of cable/protocol (officially named IEEE1394) that can transfer lots of digital bytes of data really fast. MiniDV cameras are usually equipped with firewire ports, which allows the user to keep her footage digital as she transfers it from the camera into the computer. (They also have analog outs for traditional transfers.) Without firewire, footage shot on a digital camera must be transferred to analog, then back to ones and zeroes as it is captured by the computer. The upshot is, digital is great, but it doesn't drastically improve the image quality unless the process remains digital from start to finish. So if you're going to be interacting with editors using firewire, it's preferable to be shooting on MiniDV, or some other format with firewire out. If you're going to be editing yourself with a desktop system such as Premiere, Edit DV, or Final Cut Pro, you should really consider making the next camera you acquire a digital one.
  
  More?!!!
  
  

• SP - Standard Play Mode - This is very important - most edit decks will not accept 1/2" tape (VHS) that was recorded in EP (extended play) or LP (long play) modes. If you are creating video source for an SVHS editor, then you have to record things in Standard Play mode. Additionally, any tape recorded at the Standard, or Normal, speed will be more dense with video information - meaning it will have higher resolution, more color and better sound.
  
  

• International "Formats" NTSC / PAL / SECAM - In addition to all the varieties of tape stock out there, there is a more fundamental division of video format. If you receive a tape from overseas, you will notice that when you play it in your VCR at home it looks like gobbledy-gook. This is because there are three varieties of recording standards in the world. NTSC is used in the US and Canada, SECAM is used in France, and PAL is used in most of the rest of Europe and Australia. If you plan to send your great video works abroad (say to Europe or Australia) - you will need to check-in with your mates there and find out what format they are using. If you need to conert your work to PAL or SECAM you can do it at camera shops and video stores in most major US cities.

• 3/4" / Three Quarter or One Inch Tape - Some broadcastors are looking for 3/4" - or even 1" tape. Hardly anyone edits in these formats, but you will find some broadcastors who are looking for 3/4" or 1" tape and you will have to have your master transfered to one of these formats before your material can be broadcast. BetaSP is also a standard, broadcast format. "DigiBeta" or DV Pro are digital formats that are coming into to use for broadcast purposes.

With all this variety of editing equipment and formats, a big problem for independent videographers is maintaing the ability to interact with other video people. One of the best things you can do is to arm yourself with a full array of cables and adaptors. This will allow you to "patch" your camera into various decks and transfer tape to whatever format is needed. For example, if your camera is a Hi8 camera and you want to give a select tape to a group that edits with BetaSP, you will need to be able to feed video and audio signal into a BetaSP deck. Carrying around your own RCA cables and a (BNC to RCA) adapter can allow you to do the transfer (from Hi8 to BetaSP) without taking away cables or adaptors that might already be in use. If your camera has an (S-V) or S-Video out, you should always carry an S-Video cable as well.

VIDEO / AUDIO CABLES:
* S-Video - BNC - Co-axial - RCA (or Composite) - Fire Wire for the Video Signal
* XLR - RCA - Quarter inch - Optical - Fire Wire for the Audio Signal

Video Editing Facilities - Bay Area

The facilities listed below all offer classes on video editing and maintain editing facilities for renting out.

Artists' Television Access (ATA)
992 Valencia @ 21st Street, San Francisco.
(415) 824-3890
ata@atasite.org
www.atasite.org

Bay Area Video Coalition (BAVC)
2727 Mariposa, San Francisco
415-861-3282 phone
415-861-4316 fax
bavc@bavc.org
www.bavc.org