FOCUS Enhancements Bridge/Router MX-4DV - Manual (Page 121)

A DVANCED O PERATIONS P ERFORMING R OLL E DITS
117
P
ERFORMING
R
OLL
E
DITS
Two types of roll edits are commonly used in video editing — A/A rolls and A/B rolls. You can do
both types of rolls with the MX-4 DV. A/A rolls can be accomplished with relative ease. As you’ll
learn later in this section, you can also do A/B roll editing with the MX-4 DV, although it does
require good preparation and manual control of the devices.
Cutting Between Scenes
Simple cuts between scenes do not require special features. All you have to do is pause the record-
ing VCR at the end of one scene, then release pause when the next scene begins.
A/A Roll Edits
A/A roll edits can be defined as Single-Source editing because all of the original materials come
from a single videotape. The MX-4 DV offers special features designed specifically for these types
of situations.
An easy way to add interest to a single-source transition is to use the A/A roll edit (sometimes
called an A/X/A edit). In this situation, the video freezes at the end of one scene, then a dissolve or
other effect transitions to the next scene.
Example…
You are producing a murder mystery. The door opens and the villain sneaks into the room.
Slowly he moves toward the camera, then you press
FREEZE to freeze the killer’s menacing
glare!
Next, you pause the recorder and set up the MX-4 DV to perform a dissolve. Then you find the
next scene and start it playing a bit before the scene starts. There’s the victim — it’s granny,
sitting in a rocking chair with her back to the camera. You start the recorder. It’s still recording
the frozen picture. At the correct moment you transition from the frozen close-up of the
murderer to granny in her chair. As the killer’s face dissolves away, granny turns and we
discover it’s the constable, ready to arrest the scoundrel!
To perform a roll edit such as this:
1 Roll the tape and press FREEZE at the appropriate moment to freeze the end of the scene.
2 Pause the recording device.
3 Set up the transition you want.
4 Position the source tape just before the next scene and let the scene play.
5 Release pause on the recording device to record more of the frozen picture.
6 At the appropriate moment, run the transition between the frozen picture and the rolling video
from the next scene.
This type of A/A roll works best when the recording device has flying-erase heads — a feature that
lets the VCR make a clean break when you pause the recording.
You can perform an A/A roll with an automatic editing system. Press FREEZE at the end of one
scene and wait for the editing system to start the next scene. While the controller locates the next
scene, set up the transition you want. When you see the editor release the recorder from the pause
state, press
PLAY on the MX-4 DV to run the transition.
Limitations on
A/A Roll
Transitions
Transitions might not produce the impact you want when the frozen picture is similar to the incom-
ing video. Experiment with various transitions to determine which ones produce the results you
want.