how things used to be, vol. 1

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45 years ago or so, there was no such thing as non-physical non-linear videotape editing, it was all a manual process involving cutting and pasting program segments-

[using a smith splicer] in a linear order.
[img][800:565]http://www.iasforensics.com/VHS1.jpg[/img]
above is a pic [for illustrative purposes] of a highly magnified VHS videotape painted with a solution [marketed as "edivue magnetic developer"] of fine iron filings suspended in carbon tetrachloride [a nasty solution which was carcinogenic], which caused the suspended iron filings to line up with the magnetic pole positions of each raster field on the tape [crude explanation] making them visible under magnification. back in the early days [1960s] of video tape editing, the tape editor would have to lay his tape at the desired edit point down upon the manual editing block, paint his 2" quadraplex tape-
with the aforementioned nasty stuff to see [through a microscope] where each field ended so he could take a razorblade or gillotine blade and carefully make his cut during the retrace interval between the fields-

[illustration detailing the 40-power microscope visualizing the painted magnetic field lines with alignment frames for reference while cutting tape]
while maintaining the existing cycle of alternate odd/even fields so as not to lose sync [which causes picture rolling/breakup]. the editor would then complete the splice by bridging the two tape sections with a piece of videotape held on with editing tape. the cut also had to be at the same angle as the field lines laid down on the tape. to maintain a/v sync, a portion [several inches' worth] of audio track had to be copied and pasted [re-registered] in the correct relationship onto the next tape segment, otherwise performer's lips would move but the wrong things would come out of their mouths. this was an arduous process requiring several minutes [in the hands of a deft engineer] per edit, and generally avoided if at all possible, by careful [pre-edit] on-set timing of "roll tape" and "cut [pause]." editing tapes via copying segments from source to destination tapes [back in the days before time/base correction was widely available] was deemed too lossy for routine use, which made the physical cut [linear editing] method the only practical way.

better editing through technology

Please do more of these.

I think there may be some 2" videotape lying around in the archives here. I have to lay the closed captioned master onto betacam SX digital tape because to be able to lay captions in letterbox in HD would require some expensive software upgrade to our XD decks.

Kids were not allowed to rush, screaming , through stores, like packs of spider monkeys screeching through the treetops in old Tarzan movies.

Sylkat

"Girls were girls and men were men, those were the dayyyyyyys."

Like Rock Hudson?

Raymond Burr?

Jim Nabors?

Marlene Dietrich?

Joan Crawford?

Yeah, them.

Cell phone

I think that that is a baby Dalek.

Sylkat

Interesting combination.

When I took radio production, and helped run the college radio station in the late nineties it was right on the cusp of the two centuries in radio production technology. The first semester I was trained to edit reel-to-reel tapes. In the next- the same professor taught us the first version of Cool Edit on computers. So I have a foot in both eras.

So I got a taste of editing brown half inch wide audio tape with block and razor.

You listen to the tape-rock the reels back and forth (kinda like record scracting)- to listen for the exact edit point. Then you mark the edit point right on the tape with a china marking pencil. Then you place the tape on the block and cut diagonally with the razor.

Then you splice the cut ends back together with a special kind of narrow white colored tape on the non audio back side of the brown recording tape.

We all thought THAT was hard.

But though it was basically the same process- it was a breeze compared to this video editing you're talking about.

^^^
just think about how audio restoration was first performed using magnetic audio tape- the click or pop impulse noise to be removed had to be isolated using an oscilliscope while rocking the tape, and the 0-crossing points A and B were IDed and marked with china pencil, then sliced/rebutted using razor on block. this process might have to be repeated hundreds of times for a 10" 78 rpm record dub. in the absense of an oscilliscope, the click was crudely IDed by ear, then the edit cuts were diagonal so as to minimize any non-linearities per the 0-crossing points, in effect accomplishing a short local fade. this method was far less precise and resulted in discernable disturbances to musical meter. sometimes a pencil eraser was used on the magnetic emulsion side of the tape in spots where there were crackles. orin keepnews [a noted restorer of archival jazz recordings] described all of this in an interview a few years back.

How things used to be?

Televisions, dishwashers, and more than one telephone in the house were considered luxuries!

And the telephone?

Everyone was on a party line, unless willing to pay extra!

Sylkat

When and where I was a kid, there were only 2 TV channels, which usually stopped broadcasting after about 10-30pm, and often for a couple of hours during the day. Sometimes there was literally nothing to watch but cricket. When we went to Brisbane ("the big smoke") for the holidays, there would be 4 channels, and that was just fantastic.

We explored our property (100 acres) (but we only ever looked at about 5), we played with the dog, made pies out of mud, rode the bikes, and dragged Mum's blankets into the living room to make a house out of furniture.

And Mum cooked everything from scratch, including bread. (without breadmakers!)
And we only had a few things to wear, which Mum sewed, and never wore shoes except to town or church.

And you could get a whole bag of lollies for 5 cents, but we were in the sticks and rarely got to go to the shops.