The program is organized ithe way a film editor thinks. You can do in a day what would normally take a week behind a flatbed.

Tight production schedules and an eye on the bottom line have propelled a number of changes in film editing over the past few years.   One innovation which has caught the eye of many filmmakers is non-linear off-line editing. A number of these systems are currently on the market with new manufacturers cropping up almost weekly.

For the uninitiated, non-linear editing takes place inside of a computer. If your production is shot on videotape with time code you're ready for a non-linear off-line edit. If you shot on film, you'll need to transfer your camera negative or work print to videotape. This process is known as "telecine". As the transfer is done, time code is added to the resulting videotape. Editing videotape footage with time code track is called "off-line".

Before the actual editing can begin, a non-linear system must first convert your video footage to digital issues/12/images. These issues/12/images are stored on big and fast hard drives that are capable of holding gigabytes worth of video and audio data. Once this has been done, you can almost instantly access any scene or frame of your, film. You can call up a screen which will display initial frames of each scene logged, and by clicking the mouse button on that scene you can place it on a time line which shows you the order of scenes. After you have the scenes in the order you want them, you can trim scene length and place wipes or dissolves between scenes as you see fit. Add music and effects tracks (also captured digitally), and you're done with your first non-linear off-line edit.

So why not just edit the first time in a high-end editing suite? Simply put, it's expensive. What most (not all) nonlinear off-line editing systems do is produce an edit decision list, commonly referred to as an EDL. The EDL can be stored on a floppy disk in a number of formats that can be read by professional edit controller systems. With your master tape in hand (complete with time code), you can go to a professional post-production facility and they will cue up your videotape on an incredibly expensive tape deck. A few keystrokes later your master footage will be reassembled just like it was in the off-line edit. The best part is that your "on-line" (expensive edit time) is now a fraction of what it would have been had you done all of your editing in this environment.

TouchVision Systems' D/VISION PRO is one of the better non-linear video editing systems currently available. Being a hands-on kind of guy, I decided to build a D/VISION PRO system myself from the ground up and find out all I could about it.

After ordering the D/VISION PRO software, Loren Sears of Northwest Digital Media in Portland supplied me with the necessary components. TouchVision will gladly acquaint you with the qualified dealers in your area. I do not recommend that you build a system yourself unless you've built a few PC platforms and are thoroughly familiar with the construction process and initial set-up steps involved. Call folks like Loren Sears. You might spend a few more dollars, but the support and expertise is well worth the expense.

I made several calls to both TouchVision and Loren Sears about setup problems I encountered. The D/VISION PRO installation manual, although excellent in most respects, needs to provide more detail about which software files are necessary to get the system up and running.

Computers `N Things, Inc. of Tacoma allowed me to assemble the computer at their facility. This proved to be a wise move on my part. Although I'm probably a little more computer literate than most; I'm not in the habit of building them. Robert Nadasky, Computers `N Things' chief technician, oversaw my work and was a great insurance policy in case something went wrong.

I installed software from the CDROM disk that came with the package. Fairly straightforward. Although the system is capable of operating through Windows, I chose to install it in a DOS-based system to avoid any memory conflicts that Windows might impose. In order to use the Crystal Flying Fonts (a high-end titling/ animation program included with D/VISION PRO), you need a CD-ROM drive to download the program. Crystal Flying Fonts is perfect for small video production companies that want to blow the socks off their competitors. You can create dazzling fly-on graphics/logos with light burst and reflections, just like the networks.

There are seven resolutions of capturing video data for exporting to different formats. The highest is SuperRTV which will output video equal to 3/4" or SVHS. This is my favorite resolution but also consumes the most disk space (about 600 KB/sec). I'm not sure what it does to the actual video footage, but it goes in looking like hard edge video and, when played back, takes on a film-like quality. I don't know if this was intentional, but I really liked it and can see it being used effectively to produce on-line corporate/industrial videos for in-house distribution.

Capturing is simple with machine control of your VCR playback unit (the function keys on your computer keyboard provide record, pause, play and stop commands much like a regular VCR). During the capture phase you can log scenes with verbal description as the computer records your video and audio. It's really simple.

The D/VISION manual is very thorough in describing all of the editing processes. However, to use the Crystal Flying Fonts software effectively you need to buy another handbook from Crystal Graphics. This extra manual should be part of a software package that lists for almost $5,000.

The system is icon driven, and functions like a quasi-Windows environment. It's very intuitive and even without reading the book you can, with a little experimentation, figure out most of the editing options that are available.

One thing I find difficult about most non-linear systems is that you have to go through several layers of on-screen windows to find and implement various editing chores. Not so with D/VISION PRO. It provides edit functions used most in the film industry on the primary editing screen, and access is usually no more than two mouse clicks away.

The designers of the system had to be old-time film editors. The program is organized the way a film editor thinks. You can do in a day what would normally take a week behind a flatbed. You can create a film transfer log in several industry accepted formats which will allow you to trace the video transfer back to the film and Nagra reels from which they came. Cutting a negative is then a simple and accurate process with a minimum of negative handling.

The bundled Crystal Flying Fonts software by Crysta lGraphics, Inc., Santa Clara, CA is one of the easiest animated graphics programs I have ever used, and the flying logos that I've already created are sensational. For small video companies that want to blow the socks off competitors, having D/VISION PRO with FLYING FONTS will allow you to create dazzling fly-on graphics/logos just like the networks.

The whole process of building the D/VISION PRO took about 8 hours. I call my system the money machine. I can now do all my off-line (and some on-line) editing quickly and in-house, with the client present. I can show several versions of their film and make changes instantly.

Cut, print. Until next issue, that's a wrap.