{Cost Savings} You can save a lot of time and money by being well organized. This means knowing exactly what scenes you want to use and in what order you want them to be from each tape you have, before you come to the edit session.

If you have a lot of material to work with, and if you don't have detailed, accurate logs of the footage, it is a good idea to first make a VHS "window burn." This is a copy of the raw footage with the time code superimposed over the video. All professional video formats have time code. To make a window burn of a consumer format, it is first copied to a DVCAM tape. Then that tape is copied to VHS with the time code numbers visible on the bottom. You then watch that tape on any VHS player and make a list of the exact in and out points of the good stuff. The time code numbers will be used by the editing system to quickly locate the selected scenes.  This sounds like a lot of work, but it can save a lot of time at the edit session.

If the video is really simple, then there is no need for this process. But please review your tapes, and at least make a list of what subject matter is on each of your originals. Another time saver is to print out the titles (after running a spell check) of any text you will need on the screen.

{The Editing Session}
The more you plan ahead, the better. Even though the final video will have gone through many changes, it is always best to have a definite idea of what it should look like from the beginning. A script or storyboard is a map. Please write one so that everything proceeds in the right direction towards a final destination.

Be sure to get cutaways, close ups, and reaction shots. This is just as important as good lighting and composition. {Camera Banner} Shoot more than you think you need, and let your shots run long. If there is an alternate angle, or a possible alternate in the copy, shoot it again. It's always more expensive to re-shoot. If you make written comments with time code references while shooting, it can save many hours of reviewing footage. Plan ahead. Tell us about your idea (a script,storyboard or outline is best), and show us the materials you have to work with. Next, your selected video material is digitized into the computer, as well as music, narration, and graphics.  All of these elements can then be placed on a timeline.

After the video clips are in the right order and finely trimmed, the program is polished. The video clips can be cropped, resized and color corrected. Titles are inserted or superimposed. Transitions (over 60 types) can be used between clips. The camera audio, voice-over, and music are equalized and mixed. Special effects and visual filters can be applied, from a simple sepia tone to the bizarre effects used in a music video.

When the timeline is finished, the transitions, titles and filtered clips must be rendered before being output to tape or a DVD file. Most effects and titles play back in real time right away, but the project must be rendered before it's really done.When the rendering is completed, the program is played back from the computer onto a master digital video tape, or converted to an MPEG-2 file for use on a DVD.




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{Software}


Curtis Systems uses the Latest editing software which has unlimited layers in the video timeline and multiple audio tracks.  The video and audio elements are represented graphically in what looks like a spreadsheet that scrolls sideways. The interface also includes a bin where the video and audio clips are located, a viewer of the picture in the timeline, and another window for composing titles and manipulating the video with filters and transitions. Once in the timeline any of the elements can be edited and rearranged much like a word-processor. The video clips can be put into any order, repeated any number of times, made to go in fast or slow motion, forward or reverse, etc. A still picture can be made from any frame of video and remain on the screen as long as you wish.
{Video Editing}
{Multimedia}
{Final Production}


{Video Editing} The master video tape, which is a perfect digital copy of your original tape is then used to make copies. The video program can also be converted into an MPEG-2 file that is used to make a DVD. DVD authoring is a separate process. The DVD can be as simple as making a video play continuously without any menu, to a very complicated menu driven DVD similar to commercial movie DVDs, being able to be played back on any DVD player or computer.In addition, the finished video program can be compressed into special files that will playback on a computer for use in a PowerPoint presentation, or from a self-running interactive CD, or for use on the Internet.