MicroCinema Scene

Would you like to know a trick that you’re probably overlooking that will save your expensive DV camera from editorial wear and tear?  I’m sure there are plenty of 3-chip digital video camera owners out there who use their cameras as their editing decks, and I’m also sure most of you want to try to make back the money you put into your gear rather than see it depreciate in value every time you fast-forward or rewind a tape in it.

So listen up.  After you’ve wrapped production, when you have all your footage and your tapes all numbered, most people log their footage as they edit while using the non-linear editing program du jour.  But a basic and really cool step many overlook is that you can mark in & out points for all of your takes, thus creating a log of your footage for each tape by only running your master tape ONE TIME. Why run a master tape in a deck or a camcorder - rewinding, fast-forwarding, and playing multiple times? That’s wear and tear on your expensive equipment, and it’s extra time.

So here’s a “not so secret” tip that most know about, but still don’t do: Make a VHS copy with the time code showing onscreen!

Most camcorders will allow you to select “data” or “time code” output in menus accessed on the machines themselves or by the remotes.  Now you can rewind, fast-forward, play over and over again your raw footage – and not risk your master tapes or your camcorders.  Your VCR may feel a bit ill, but it’s a dying format anyhow…

The next step is to watch and log your VHS footage and write down on a piece of paper the time codes of the in & out points of the takes you need.  And important step when logging is to think about the file name you are going to label each clip. The official name for your sheets of paper is an EDL (Edit Decision List). You can basically “edit” your whole piece using a sheet of paper, selecting best angles and takes. Use your EDL’s to make to create a kind of poor man’s “offline”edit!

All of this while only wearing out the heads of your $29 VCR as opposed to the ones on your $2,000 GL1 (which I’m sure some of you are still making payments on.) Not to mention watching the footage again will give you more familiarity with the raw, unedited takes.

At this stage, many a non-linear editing software will allow you to type the in & out points you wrote down and then do a “batch capture,” using the File Names you concocted on your EDL.  This was you can automate the process of capturing all of your best takes to your hard-drive and go do the dishes or something while it works.

But do make sure to save your batch capture list. It can be handy later on (like after you edit your masterpiece, delete all the raw footage from your drive and want to make changes a year or two later.) In that scenario, all you have to do is just load up the list and re-capture. Unlike me on my first few projects.  I’d go to make changes and it was an incredible hassle because I didn’t have a capture list or even an EDL to refer to.  Completely screwed, I couldn’t re-edit unless I started from scratch! (But I’m only a little bit bitter…)

Please note one other VERY big benefit: hard drive space. If you do an offline edit using EDL’s, you are only capturing the footage you need, as opposed to capturing takes and footage that will fill your hard drives with large, useless video files.

So let’s re-cap.  You get to:

• PRESERVE the life of your camcorder or expensive digital video deck.
• PRESERVE the life of your Master Tapes.
• Enjoy the SAFETY of being able to recapture and re-edit your footage without a tremendous amount of redundant effort.
• Become more FAMILIAR with your footage.
• SAVE valuable Hard Drive space

Yep.  Time code… those little numbers on the screen.  They’re there for a reason.  Use ‘em.

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