Dialogue Editing

CHAPTER 6
Burn-Ins, File Names, and Backups
There are many quality-of-life matters you can address as you set up your
editing realm, some that will make editing easier and others that will protect
you from disaster. Developing a sensible fi le-naming system will make for
happier editing—and your colleagues will know which of your sessions to
use when you’re not available. A smart backup system will avert the worst
of disasters and help you to sleep at night. And intelligently preparing your
videotapes will reduce errors and save time.
Some of the processes described in this chapter will be handled by an assistant,
if you have any luck at all, but there will be times you need to handle
them on your own. Plus, it doesn’t hurt to know what your assistant is up to.
Make a Timecode Burn-In
Whether your picture is on videotape or in a digital video fi le, try to make a
copy of it and insert a timecode burn-in. Using tapes without a burned-in
timecode window, relying instead on the VTR’s character inserter, is at times
unreliable and inconsistent. If your tape contains only LTC (longitudinal
timecode 1 ),or if that’s all your VTR can interpret, timecode is valid only at
1 Timecode can be placed on a tape in a number of ways. The oldest method involves
converting the 80-bit timecode data stream into an analogue signal and recording it onto a
dedicated channel (the timecode track). In olden days, before VTRs had dedicated timecode
heads, an analogue timecode signal would be recorded onto an audio channel. This caused all
sorts of problems, including nasty crosstalk. Called LTC (longitudinal timecode), it worked
very well at play speeds but wasn’t accurate at very slow speeds. LTC is worthless when the
VTR is stopped. To get around this problem, a timecode was developed that can be read at
nonplay speeds. VITC (vertical interval timecode) is placed in the vertical blanking of the
video, just above the picture area. If you reduce the picture size or roll the picture down, you
can see it in the form of dancing white dots and dashes. Most VTRs read both LTC and VITC
and know how to switch between the two as the play speed changes. Finally, there’s BITC
(burnt-in timecode), also known as “window dub” or “timecode window.” This is a graphic,
human-readable display of the current timecode address inserted into the video. The fact that
your videotape has a burn-in is no guarantee that the tape has machine-readable timecode.
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