The basis of editing is putting two shots together.

The Editing Process (1)

It will be helpful to step through several edits made on a basic editing system just to become familiar with some concepts of the process. You begin with the master tape (containing the shots in nonsequential order), a blank tape, and the VTRs on which to run them; the playback VTR, which will run the master tape; and the record VTR, with which edits will be recorded on the blank tape. First, you find the beginning and end points of the first shot, also called edit points, and stop the master tape in the playback machine at the beginning of that shot. Preparing a tape for editing in this manner is called cueing up the tape. This is the first step in recording the first shot onto the blank tape.

The motors in each VTR must be at full speed and have achieved their full level of lockup before accurate recording can begin. Most modern editing machines take about half a second to reach full speed and lockup. This is not much time, but it is still 15 frames. Thus, rather than beginning the recording process at the first edit point, you must start the VTRs approximately half a second before this point. This is called prerolling the VTRs. You stop the machines when the edit has been fully recorded onto the blank tape.

You then locate the edit points for the second shot on the master tape. The beginning of the second edit is cued up on the playback VTR, and the tape in the record VTR is stopped at the end of the first edit. Both machines are prerolled and then started in the playback mode. At the precise instant the playback and record VTRs reach, respectively, the beginning of the second edit and the end of the first, the record VTR is switched into the record mode. After the second edit is fully recorded, both machines are stopped and the entire process can be reviewed. You should be viewing shot one with a sharp, clean cut to shot two at the right moment.

You go through the same process for the rest of the shots in your show. This is how you build scenes into sequences and sequences into final shows.

1.  Manual editing.

2.  A typical video edit. A segment of tape is recorded from a master tape to its proper position on the record tape.