On-Line Editing

Background:

Digital component editing is now the industry standard as facility companies have slowly phased out 1 inch machines, very much like 2 inch vanished from our machine rooms.

The main reason for using a digital editing suite is the need to retain the highest quality pictures when combining several layers, and for keying in special effects work. However, to achieve this high quality the pictures have to be digital to start with.

How on-line editing works:

Normally by the time you reach the on line edit stage, a rough edit will have been created and provisionally approved. The rough edit comes in two basic forms, a film cutting copy or a video cut, also called an off line which often comes with an EDL on a floppy disk. Whichever route is taken, the selected film rushes have to be graded to video tape in the telecine suite.

On the video tape, timecode is recorded to identify each frame. During the editing process, editors use the timecode numbers to edit pictures together, although new devices let us edit by pictures rather than crunching numbers.

The first part of the on line edit is spent conforming - matching the master material to the rough edit supplied by the film editor, either by cutting or dissolving the pictures together.

Having completed the conforming edit, there are normally captions to add, either from artwork or from the caption generator. The vision mixer can colourise the captions and introduce shadows and boxes, etc. Captions are not always static and can be flown around or simply repositioned using a digital effects device such as Kaleidoscope. The vision mixer can also be used for keying images over another background, mixing images together, dissolving one shot to another, wiping between one image and another using a variety of different wipe shapes, e.g. a clock wipe.

Digital video effects or DVE, can also be used to create page turns, flip one image over another, create trails when moving an image around the screen, create ripple effects, ad sparkles, rotate the image, bend the image, create boxes, etc.

At this stage, or later, the Audio Track is laid on the master tape, usually from a mixed 1/4 inch or R-DAT tape containing the music and voice over. Different tape formats have a number of audio tracks. D1 has four separate digital audio tracks.

The final stage of the edit is to add a clock and a unique identification number to the commercial.

What it is; How it works:

Rushes digital editing suites employ the highest quality digital technology and are amongst the most advanced in the world. This means that no matter how many layers are used, there will be no generation loss in pictures or sound.

Both suites are amongst the most sophisticated all-digital edit suites in the world, each having access to up to 6 X D1 machines, 12 minute digital disc recorders, 4 X Beta SP and 4 X 1"C.

Both suites incorporate a new generation of higher resolution technology and provide unparalleled power and creative flexibility in editing. The suites are based around a fast and powerful picture based editing system called Axial. As with Avid and Flame, Axial editing is conducted by visual reference rather than number crunching, and is the first non linear online editing system available for traditional edit suites. From one keyboard the editor can control and integrate each component of the suite - vision and audio mixers disc recorders VTR s, effects devices R-DAT and even routing.

Both suites also use new higher resolution 10-bit disc recorders, called RTDs. These work at four times the resolution than the majority of post production devices (including Henry), can store up to 6 minutes of material and provide extremely flexible slo-mo's. The extra resolution from these RTDs will noticeably improve the keying quality for special effects work.

Pictures in both edit suites are mixed through Kadenza digital vision mixers, with Kaleidoscope effects, to provide a powerful combination of mixing, keying and multi-layering. Used in conjunction with the digital disc recorders, multi-level effects work is now extremely fast.

A colour corrector is also available in suites for general colour correction. Edit 1 has a secondary colour corrector for more precise correction. An Ultimatte 45 is available in each suite providing the ultimate blue screen keying.

Captions are provided either by camera captured artwork or from the Delta character generator/titling machine.

Audio is also digital thanks to new Sony DAT machines. Any other department in the building -Telecine, Flame, Flint or additional VTR's, etc - can be accessed from the suites via the digital matrix.

Both suites have been designed to handle complex special effects work. The combination of the Kadenza, Kaleidoscope, the Axial and RTDs, the Ultimatte 45 and the colour correctors add up to a suite which is very powerful, versatile and extremely fast.

Recent work:

Andrew Mortimer | Toby Taylor

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