STANDARD-DEFINITION VIDEO FUNDAMENTALS 5

“The devil is in the details.”

—German proverb

Back in the early days before nonlinear editing became the way of working, editors learned the craft a certain way—and learned about far more than why and where to make a cut. Before they could work in the edit bay they had to cut their teeth in the video dupe department, then work as an assistant, and so on. Of course, this meant they spent years—for very little pay—doing something other than what they wanted to do; but it was about more than simply “paying the dues,” it was all about learning. And one thing video editors had to learn before they were allowed in the edit bay was signal.

Editors had to become intimately familiar with video signal, with ...

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