video editing

Our two Panasonic AG-1960 video editing recorders are identical. The left one is used as the player or source and the right the recorder or target, so that we always edit from the tape in the left machine onto tape in the right one. Always zero the frame counters at the beginning of each tape. In order to have a clear idea of what is on your tape and where it is on the tape play the tape right through. Note the beginning and ending addresses of each segment that you are going to include in the final tape along with a brief descriptive note about the contents.

Viewing modes which are available on the VCRs include playback, still playback (pause and frame advance), cue playback (normal play and fast forward), review playback (normal play and rewind) and double speed playback. If the jog/shuttle button is pressed the shuttle ring can be used to advance or back up at various speeds, both slower and faster than real time. This is especially useful for finding a particular piece of tape. There may be some noise visible on the screen in this mode. If the shuttle ring is in the middle of its range the jog dial can be used to advance or retreat frame by frame with about 12 frames per rotation.

Most often you will be doing what is called assembly editing, in which one sequence is recorded after the other onto the target tape. This may simply involve editing out the bad parts or it may involve changing the sequence of original takes. It is also possible to dub the audio track later, either by adding sound or re-recording over existing sound.

The simplest form of editing involves putting the player into play mode and the recorder into record mode. Tape will be copied until pause is pushed on the recorder. The next scene can then be found on the player which is played while pause is simultaneously released on the recorder.

Each or both player and recorder (depending upon which is/are punched up on the display) can be controlled by the controller instead of from its own control panel. In addition to the functions described above, the controller allows automated editing. Press in sequence Player, Program and Jog/shuttle. Search for the beginning of your ``take'', pause with the shuttle and press InSet. Search for the end, pause and press OutSet. Press Recorder and use the shuttle ring to find the point at which the copy should begin and press InSet. Then press Assemble followed by Preview at the same time as Edit Start. The edit sequence will be dubbed automatically. 

Today most video editing is done digitally using Apple's Final Cut Pro and Quick Time Pro, Adobe Premier or Sony Vegas. These are all non linear "drag and drop" editing environments that result in digital MPG, AVI or MOV files.