OT-Old Day Editing Systems

Before Mac and FCP I used to edit on Fast Electronics "Video Machine".

Does anyone else have stories of editing systems of old?

Video Toaster (1991 - 1994)
Premiere (1994 - 1998...and now looking at CS 5.5 / CS 6)
Avid (1998 - 2003...and now just upgraded to full Media Composer 6)
FCP (2003 - present...until FCP7 stops working...then see above minus the toaster)

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

I used to edit on 4 and 6-plate Steenbecks.

- Loren

Today's FCP 7 keytip:
Summon your Video Scopes with Option - 9 !

Your Final Cut Studio KeyGuide? Power Pack
with FCP7 KeyGuide --
now available at KeyGuide Central.
www.neotrondesign.com

I did a couple of school projects on linear tape to tape stations. But it was Avid when I started, then FCP.



www.strypesinpost.com

Ahhh ... D-Vision. Where are you now?

Harry

3/4" Umatic tape to tape systems. Then Video Toaster (which was painful). Then Adobe Premiere...then finally Avid. Eventually FCP...


www.shanerosseditor.com

Listen to THE EDIT BAY Podcast on iTunes
[itunes.apple.com]

Dubbing 1" open reel to Beta, 3/4 and VHS
Loading 1" open reel in a central rack/playback room
3/4" U-matic tape to tape
Beta tape to tape
(D5 robot arm playback/editor)
BetaSP 900 series switcher tape to tape
AVID 4.2 to AVID 7.2
(AfterEffects)
(Premiere edit rescue consultant)
FCP 1.2

ak
Sleeplings, AWAKE!

16mm B/W TVC on a hand-wound Picsync.

Also used the FAST Video Machine for many years. Windows 3.1, chequerboard every cut, "Film" and "Video" modes, shortest clip about 15frs. Shame it faded away.

FAST to Avid, Avid to FCP, FCP to ?

Still FCP actually...

Started on moviola, then to Ediflex and then to Montage. Wow, I remember waiting for tapes to cue... that's like waiting for rendering, but longer.

My first was 3/4 U-matic and VHS tape to tape. I think the first software Editor I used consistently was Premiere. Oh, wait, there was something I mucked about with at home .. what was that called .. it was about the time Quicktime first came out, and there was a trial for Mac. Exceedingly simple, but still mind blowing at the time to think of editing IN YOUR OWN HOME!

So, no one cut their teeth on Heavyworks or Media 100?

JVC VHS to VHS editor - 1991-1993
Adobe Premiere - 1993-1995
Video Toaster (A/B Roll with 3/4" tape) - 1995-1997
Video Toaster Flyer - 1997-1999
DPS Velocity - 1999-2005
Newtek Toaster2 - 2000-2001
Final Cut Pro - 2005-present (am transitioning to Premiere, either used in tandem or as a replacement to FCP)
Adobe Premiere - present-?

In 1993, I also used an SVHS frame accurate recorder to record my 3d Studio Dos version 2 or 3? from a targa 16 board from the Video Controller built into 3d Studio. It wuold preroll the tape deck, record one frame, advance a frame, prerol, etc...

It was cool for the time!

1" "online" which was tape to tape to tape.
3/4" Umatic tape to tape systems. Ahh remember having to lay back the 3 and 4 channel of audio over the existing audio for multi tracks.. only to have the producer say.. I need to change the VO.
Then there came "8mm" tape to tape by Sony
BetaSP Tape to Tape.. was telling an intern the other day about "insert editing"
Video Toaster
Media 100
Avid
(box that had built in CG, Animation, Sound Effects - was tape to tape then went digital)
Adobe Premiere.
FCP (until it does not work anymore)
Now back to AVID

Let's see.

Tape to Tape on IVC 9000 2" machines
Tape to Tape on 3/4"
Tape to Tape on Quad and 1" machines with CMX
Tape to Tape on 1" machines and BetaCam using CMX, Grass Valley, Sony, Editware
Quantel Harry
Avid
Panasonic Postbox
FCP
EVS IPEdit

and probably a few more I have forgotten or blocked out. Every few years brings a new adventure. I would guess that my 10 years or so with FCP may be one of the longer relationships I have had with software. I will miss it when it is gone.

16mm News Film
Machine to Machine Ampex VR 1100's
Machine to Machine U-Matic 3/4"
Ampex ACR 25
Convergence 1" suite with Hitachi 1" decks
Grass Valley Super Edit VPE Series suites (Editware) with 3/4", Beta, 1", D2, D3, D1, Digital Beta, Kadenza, K-Scope, DVEOUS
Ampex ACE Suites
CMX
Sony 9100 Suites
Stratasphere
Affinity
Avid Symphony
FCP

What's next?

I actually started with 16mm on an upright Moviola. You do not want to cut 16mm on a upright Moviola. You could literally rip the film. That's where the term Handbrake came from. When I got to 35mm uprights, different story. I do miss airspooling.

Interesting, only one CMX person! There was a time that was the cat's arf!

- Loren

Today's FCP keytip:
Set a motion effect keyframe instantly with Control-K!

Your Final Cut Studio KeyGuide? Power Pack.
Now available at KeyGuide Central.
www.neotrondesign.com

Hi.... no one has mentioned the Sony video Rover system I used in high school.... model AV3400 with separate portable deck and black and white camera... I had to manually thread the 30 minute tapes in the VTR. It was heavy but then I was much younger and looked 'cool' carrying around all that equipment on my shoulder. I remember you could hear an audible click each time I hit the pause button. As I recall the Rover package was priced around $2000.00. It was followed by a color version (forgot the model number)
For 'editing', it was crash editing to another deck by hitting the record button at just the right moment.
I still have my umatic decks and they work perfectly... it was a solid system and once in a while even now I still need to use some of my 3/4 inch archival footage that I shot during the 1980's.
I also did editing on VHS, super VHS, betacam.
As an aside, I distinctly remember that a brand new single VHS T-120 tape had a store price of about $40.00 when it first came on the market.... for the longest time I kept one of those tapes in its original shrink wrap and price tag.... wish I still had it.
Nearly forgot.... I still have a few betamax tapes and a consumer high end Sony betamax deck that cost around $1600.00 new.... it has a jog shuttle dial..... amazing!
Presently using FCP 7
we've all come a long way haven't we..... have a great day..... Ron

"no one has mentioned the Sony video Rover system I used in high school.... model AV3400 with separate portable deck and black and white camera..."

I started there, too, but have mostly managed to block it from my memory. Those were nasty, nasty things to try and edit with...redoing each edit 3-4 times to try and get a glitch-free edit was not conducive to inspiration. Steenbecks and trim bins were a relief.

Favourite antique hardware: Linear tape to tape edit controllers (Sony RM 450s and such) Linear tape was a nasty system, but the controllers were great- your eyes virtually never left the screen, and they were wonderfully tactile. Way better than keyboards and mice, IMHO.

randy

Started on manually editing 16 mm.
Later, as my job was what nowadays is called VFX, we used my airbrush foils and the famous Grass 35 mm cam to record openers, trailers etc.
Then with my first Mac I used some Paint tools to create the graphics and used the onboard graphic card with a modified cable to transport frame by frame to a Paintbox - was pretty cool that you needed only a little bridge inside the cable to view either PAL/NTSC progressive or interlaced. The only thing you needed was a RGB to YUV converter.
Later is wrote a little app which allowed to transfer image sequences to VTRs frame by frame and merged half height frames into interlaced frames. That time it was the fastest available, as we had sources to modify the Sony machines Pre- and Post-roll times. Unfortunately nodoby believed us, that this could be a production environment.
Than I made the package design for Video Machine - never used it.
Then i was on Media 100, Premiere, and sometimes on Sphere.
Made quite a lot of support for Avid for some time - was actually one of the guests of the first presentation of an Avid in SF. Was same day QT was introduced by Apple.
Ended on FCP.

Andreas

P.S. Used my old beloved Grass(build 1956 - one year after Iwas born) cam, FCP, After Effects, Synthetic aperture, a simple Apple Script, a Cinema display and a hard wired USB to electric relais switch controller to bring some movies to film with a beautiful look. Was only a very few years ago.

Over the 20 or so years I've used a variety of systems - I'm sure in the next 18 I'll be working on a few more!

Linear Edit controllers (usually Sony) with 2 and 3 machine tape-to-tape:

1" Type C
U-Matic High and Low band
SVHS (and occasionally VHS)
BETA SP
DigiBeta

Also worked as a Vision Mixer (aka Technical Director or TD in the USA)


Non-linear suites:

Adobe Premiere 2.0 (1992 - present)
LightWorks Turbo & HeavyWorks (1993 - 1998)
Avid (1994 - present)
Media 100 (1996 - 2002)
EditDV 1997- 2000
FCP 1999 - present



For instant answers to more than one hundred common FCP questions, check out the LAFCPUG FAQ Wiki here : [www.lafcpug.org]

1995: Radius Video Vision Studio BABY!
1997: Media100
2000: FCP
2011: considering going back to Premiere...

Started on CMX and GVG.
Used the very first ADO (not an actual editor, but still essetial)
Also CMX 6000 laser disc system.
I'm still rocking the Linear bay on an Axial editor with a Sony switcher.
Lightworks
Avid
Premiere
FCP

wayne granzin Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> 1995: Radius Video Vision Studio BABY!

Yeah I forgot that one and the famous British Kingfisher.

- Andreas

I remember as far back as the early 90's Ampex ACE (25?), but wasn't cutting yet. You had to be lucky to get your hands dirty on one of those here. It looked so impressive too - especially with a great big mixing desk alongside. Not like today when you go to a job to find a computer and a set of headphones.

And you tell that to the kids of today, and the wooooon't believe ye.

I remember...88...interning at ITV in South Florida...threading Ampex 1" machines and getting to use a huge Ampex Switcher like this:

[1.bp.blogspot.com]

I remember hearing in my headphones...

"Ready 1 - take 1"
"Ready 2 - dissolve 2"
"Ready 3 - FOCUS YOU MORON - take 3"

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

Looks like I'm the only one who used Strata Video Shop.

------------------------
Dean

"When I see you floating down the gutter I'll give you a bottle of wine."
Captain Beefheart, Trout Mask Replica.

i started on Super-8! (not professionally, though)
had a hand-wound machine with a unique movement that was guaranteed to damage your film!
cut double system super-8 on a motorised bench. weird. but i was 17 or 18 and had no idea how crazy it was!
then got a motorised sound machine.
tried super-8 flatbeds, but thought it was the wrong machine for that medium.

learnt 16mm on the old Blue pic-syncs,
1st job in the industry was edge numbering 35mm by hand... oh, my... the boredom!
then sound transfers from 1/4'' to 35mm mag. (Aussie film Gallipoli!)

then worked at our ABC on 16mm Steenbeks for a long while: 4, 6 & 8 plates.
there i also learnt tape to tape editing on VHS & then beta (would sneak into the news edit suites after hours to edit my super-8 films!)
i completely agree with the comments about the Sony controllers... really great to work with, and i still fantasise about running FCP off a RM450
wound up buying an 8-plate steenbeck to finish the super-8 magnum opus

then a lot of 3/4 inch U-Matic at film school, and cutting music videos, also SP Beta.
this was with the Aussie "Shotlister" program that tracked your TC all though the offline. very cool

could never afford avids, and tape- to tape was really great for performance-based music videos, i reckon.
we cut a few on an old Abekus system that the post house had put into a back room.
kind of like driving a tank, but fun once i got used to it.

a couple of jobs on Avids, a coupe on Light-works, avoided the "Dave" (Aussie non-linear editor by the "Shotlister" people. their paradigm was excellent for tape, not so great for non-linear)

as digital became more affordable i started looking around at something to have in the home, like my early super-8.
looked casually at the Fast system, Speed razor, & 2nd hand Avids among others, but they were still too expensive for what i needed at the time.

digital really clocked for me when i was standing in a queue at the post office, and saw they were selling a PC home-movie editing app for $30!

looked at premiere, and then FCP came out.
was still cutting on film, and cut a feature on 35mm, witch i really wanted to do before i dived into non-linear.

did one last job on an old avid.
as the director and i were transferring our Music CD to Digibeta so we could capture it into Avid, we looked at each other.
we both had FCP at home and knew what we were doing was crazy!

FCP all the way after that.

(last time i physically edited super-8 was in '93)


nick

God, thank you, Nick, I can't believe how far back we're going here. Yes, at 17 I started in Super-8, shooting a Vivitar and making Kodak S-splices on my spy film at a boarding school in New Hampshire.

In '64 James Bond in GOLDFINGER and soon after The Man From UNCLE on TV were taking over the media. (UNCLE btw is about to make a return trip to big screens -- one of the last of the great semiserious 60's action-thriller TV franchises yet to be "chromed". It was a great time to see great editing in the Bond films especially, (John Glen, Peter Hunt) and I emulated those best I could, but those S splices always showed up as a weird kind of wipe between scenes. I hated it so.

THEN in the late 60's I moved to 16mm, started cutting on a rewind bench, then on the (ugh) upright green monster, then to flatbeds. What a blast. And stayed there for two decades, cutting a couple things on upright 35mm too. THEN I took time off in the mid 80's because computers and desktop publishing had just become affordable. I actually learned HyperCard programming! Don't laugh. Everybody was into HyperTalk scripting, it was the coolest construction kit ever made and told me Apple was the company to watch.

I did a few years of offline video Umatic and JVC VHS, and wrangled with shot by shot EDL's for online, yowzer, but mostly leapfrogged linear video. Looking back, I should have done more -- it would have prepped me for digital video fundamentals sooner.

THEN found an opportunity to jump in on Avid, which at version 5.1 had just become serious for TV series and longform- the first with the ABVB board, as I recall, although at the time I landed a TV series for the fledgling HGTV cable channel, they and most other broadcast companies weren't taking Avid "broadcast quality" output seriously. Producer had hoped we could do everything on the desktop in 1994. Well, producers are visionaries, eh?

THEN Final Cut Pro came along... what a long strange trip it's been. If I hadn't gone digital in the mid-80's with HyperCard I'd likely be in real estate today.

on mouseup!

- Loren

Today's FCP 7 keytip:
Summon your Video Scopes with Option - 9 !

Your Final Cut Studio KeyGuide? Power Pack
with FCP7 KeyGuide --
now available at KeyGuide Central.
www.neotrondesign.com

• EIAJ half-inch machine to machine
• Datatron 5050 U-matic
• Datatron Tempo 76 U-matic
• Sony BVE-3000A U-matic
• Sony BVE-3000A Beta-SP
• GVG VPE-151 One-Inch Type C
• Avid NewsCutter and Media Composer
• Final Cut Pro (beginning with version 2)

The best on-air work came from the BVE-3000A/Beta-SP era.

editBOX/Henry
I remember pretty well I was onlining 60 minute documentaries with a 8 layer editBOX with 50000 frames dillanpack and a digi beta VTR... fun though from todays perspective.