What the Director of Intelligence advises

The problem

My name is Taylor from San Diego, CA. I and my friends want to do a low budget music video with my 8 mm camera. I want to know what editing equipment to get (low budget) so I can match the words of the song to the mouth of the artist on the video.

The Director of Intelligence replies

Lesson #1

First up, it's called synchronising, or synchronizing since you're in the USA

When you say 8 mm, I assume that you mean film and not Video 8, especially since you need to match the words. You could be really confused and want to match the words on a video, but since the sound is recorded with the visual, it's already done. In case no one realises, that was a joke (all right, not a very funny one, but it was still a joke).

What you really need to do is contact your local film school or a film production company (both will be in the Yellow Pages) and enquire about hiring an editing suite. It will be cheaper in the short term and you will have a guarantee of quality equipment and everything you need. If you really, truly, madly, desperately need to do this yourself... *sighs* you're going to have to fork out big bucks and it could take you a long time to get all the things you need:

A room which can be made light tight so you can see what's on the film: the light from the editing machine isn't very bright. You will need room for a desk (for the editing machine), a table (for your notes, caffeine and pizza) and a couple of chairs (for friends who want to drop by).
A film editor. this consists of a viewer, spools and built-in splicing equipment. Not cheap.
A tape deck. Exactly what sort depends on how you are recording the sound, but if you want non-digital technology you're looking at a reel to reel. You also need a tape splicer and a pencil to mark the tape.
A lot of time! Once you've edited the film (put aside a week for an average clip) you get to go back through your sound recordist's notes and match the correct sound clip with each of your edits. Then, depending on the type of film stock you are using you get to lay the sound down onto the film, one edit at a time, or make a master tape to play alongside the film (FYI: many films these days come with a CD which has all the film's sounds on it - so that the theatre can have digital sound - and which plays along with the film by means of electronic synching with coding on the film stock).

Or... you could hire a quality video camera from the film school or production company and shoot your clip over a weekend (yes, you will need that long) then spend a couple of days in one of their video editing suites. If the worst comes to the worst, you could edit the tape at home with the camera, your VCR and TV (or if your computer is big enough, you could upload the raw footage and do it digitally). No mess, no fuss, and if you use quality video tape, your clip will be fine.

Or... you could look around for a community TV group who makes music videos, or find some music junkie at film school who would love to make your music video and use it as an assignment, or just for the experience. This is the cheapest and least painful method (depending on who you get to do it for you) and you will have someone who at least knows what they're doing wrong.

Making even a short film is a lot more complicated than you'd think and more expensive than using video tape for not much improvement in quality. Remember, too, that if you are going to use it to sell your band or show everyone at school you will have to transfer it to VHS anyway. If you are dead set on filming stuff, why not use video to record a master track (that way the sound is synched to start off with) and record your non-singing stuff on film: the cutaways, the artistic stuff, etc.

If all you want is some fun shots of your band playing a song, then definitely go with video. Trust me on this, there is no such thing as a low budget film.

Taylor replies

Thanks for responding to my post. I am going to shoot the music video with my home video camera so I won't be shooting it with film. What is a cheap editing machine I could use after I take the footage?

Lesson #2

The cheapest way is to hook your video camera into your VCR using the connector cable that came with your camera. If you can't find it any spare VCR to TV cable should be fine (but not the one that's currently connecting your VCR to your TV!). Otherwise you can get one cheap from an electronic store. Run the camera from the mains using its adapter to ensure a steady power supply.

For best quality, copy the master tape with the raw footage from the camera onto a blank tape in the VCR. Using the duplicate (dupe) watch the footage through several times, making sure to write down which parts you would like to use and where they will come in the final edition. Use the VCR's counter to save hunting around. Put another blank tape into the camera. Press play on the VCR and record on the camera. Use pause, fast forward and rewind to get a mock up of your vision. Repeat as necessary until you have what you want, making notes all the while.

Now put the master raw footage tape into the VCR and a new blank tape into the camera and create your final masterpiece, as above.

You may be wondering why I've told you to make so many copies of your video. The reason is this: all the playing and pausing of the dupe will damage its surface. If you used your master this way you would degrade it, giving you lower quality on the final cut. You should also use new, high quality tapes for your master and final edit (get them from a video shop or record store - they are usually marked Super-VHS or something similar). If you use previously recorded tapes it will degrade the image. The dupe and mock-up can be any old things that're lying around the house.

Feel free to cut corners if money becomes an issue.

Other than this you are looking at thousands of dollars for a video editing suite or hundreds to hire one.

Cinematic Intelligence Agency