Today you can record an hour of color programming at regular speed on a tape cartridge that is 3" by 2". The tape is about 5/16" in width. The quality can be as good as broadcast video depending on the camera that is used to produce the tape. It’s digital, copies are exactly the same as the original. Progress!

Videotape editing has progressed from physically cutting the tape to selecting portions of original footage on a playback recorder and dubbing it onto a second recorder to capturing it onto a PC hard drive, "editing" from the hard drive, then downloading the program onto tape.

The cost of editing equipment has gone from hundreds of thousands of dollars to as little as the cost of a computer plus as little as a hundred dollars for video editing software. Again, progress!

Digital cameras (mini-DV preferred) are not covered in this article, but they range in price from a few hundred dollars to several thousand. The major difference is a single CCD (charge coupled device) as opposed to a three CCD camera, the accessibility of controls, and the quality of the lens. If you are just starting out and are not sure you want to get serious, buy a single CCD camera. A CCD is a sensor that captures the image. A camera that has three CCDs splits the incoming color, one for each CCD. This makes for better color and improved resolution.

Editing software can cost as little as $99 for entrance-level Pinnacle Studio to $800 for Adobe Premiere 6.5 to Avid hardware and software packages that are a few thousand dollars. The latter would be for industrial- and broadcast-level producers. If you just want to dip your toe in the water, I would suggest Pinnacle Studio as a very good starter. Then if you decide this is a really neat and productive hobby, you may want to spend a little more money to include more bells and whistles in an editing package.

There is a major difference between editing in what is referred to as linear editing (selecting clips from a source playback deck and dubbing to a second recorder) and non-linear editing (NLE) as you would have using a computer. Linear editing is something like stringing beads together (somebody else’s analogy). If you’ve strung all the beads and discover the beads were put together incorrectly, you have to start all over again. In linear editing videotape, if a segment is too long or out of place you must likewise go back to that segment and redub every segment that follows. Very inefficient!

In NLE by computer, you’re not really editing at all. You are merely creating a file which contains a set of instructions for the computer. Those instructions tell the computer where you want to have a clip start, where you want it to end, and where you want to locate it in relation to all other clips that you have selected. Those instructions also include what transitions you want to use and where you want to place them. If you want to make a change you need only change the instructions by merely dragging a clip from one location to another.

Most editing software looks somewhat the same on your monitor. There will be a window that shows the files containing your source video, a window for viewing your source video, a window for viewing your edited footage, and a timeline strip on which you drag and drop your edited clips, transitions, and if desired, your music and sound effects. It looks like you are editing, but as I indicated earlier, by moving clips around on the timeline, you are merely changing instructions already given to the computer.

The first thing you must do with this software, however, is to "capture" your camera footage. That is, you must play back the digital video from your camera via an interface wire to your computer. If you have a really compatible combination of software and camera, the software will start and stop your camera. If not, you may have to start the camera playback right after pressing the Record button on your screen. The capture process will create individual files as it records and asks you to name the files. Once finished, a list of the files is in your edit window.

You must now drag your files one at a time onto the source window for viewing. You select "in" and "out" points on each clip and then drag the "trimmed" clip to wherever you want it on the Timeline. Do this with each scene in your movie. When you’ve finished placing all of your clips on the timeline, in the order that you have selected, you can play them back in sequence on the final program window. You can then make any additional trims to clips as you wish. All subsequent clips in the timeline will be moved forward to fill the vacant space. Once you have the desired clips appropriately trimmed and in the right sequence, you can then add transitions, if you so desire, between clips. Transitions are the fades, dissolves, and graphics (page turning, twirling blocks, screen sweeps) that move you from the present picture to the next one in succession. You can then add music, titles, and sound effects.

When editing is fully complete, it is a matter of dumping the video to a video recorder, including placing a new tape in your camera and set it in the video record/pause position. On your computer you click File/Playback to Movie, start the record-mode on your camera, and hit the Playback Timeline on your screen. As with capturing, the device control in your software may do this for you. This will vary somewhat between different versions of edit software and different versions of cameras.

Please understand that what you have just read (as complicated as it may seem) is somewhat of an oversimplification of what actually takes place in the editing process. Don’t panic. When you have this all on a computer screen in front of you, and there is a little handholding along the way, it is indeed fairly simple. More important, the end product will look very professional and be very satisfying.