Unlike shooting, editing, and some post-production techniques, when we come to negative cutting we are always told to get it done by a professional. So what is so mysterious and complex about this area of filmmaking? Today's trend is to cut the film on video, using such non-linear systems as AVID, and then provide the negative cutter with a floppy disk containing all the timecoded cuts. The traditional system of editing the rushes on Steenbeck and providing the neg cutter with a cutting copy, although it still retains some advantages, is becoming obsolete. It is the Edit Decision List (EDL) cutting now which, according to Tom Mayclim, accounts for almost 80% of all the jobs. The traditional process is pretty straightforward: you just match the edge numbers on the cutting copy with those on the negative. But what about the cutting via an EDL?

In this article, FW would like to explain some of the trickery involved in editing film on video, and will follow the process up to the neg cutting list.

Saving money being of paramount importance, you start by skipping the rush print copy; then process the negative and telecine it in a post-production house. You then have a couple of options here: either you hire an Avid or Lightworks suite or buy yourself a non-linear system for your computer (or you borrow it from a sympathetic friend, with plenty of hard-disk space). The second option may be worth considering if you already have a computer and can afford an investement of about a couple of grand.

The wonderful thing about editing on computers is that you can preview all the effects you plan to add to your film. You need not to be reminded that twirls, zig-zag, winds, etc. are out of bounds, but you are free to play around with fades, superimpositions and grading. The system is cleaner and efficient, and you end up with a videotape - which you want anyway - to be sent to organisations which could give you a completion grant.

Now, what if you get the money and can finish your film? We went to talk to Vaughan Mullady and Tom Mayclim, of Tru-Cut in Soho, who specialise in negative cutting using EDL systems.

Tom operates a system called Excalibur which consists of a PC, a barcode reader and some software. The first step is to take a roll of negative, wind it through a kind of synchroniser (barcode reader, picture 1) and find the punch hole that the telecine operator marked as zero timecode; that timecode is inputted on the computer, together with the can number, the camera roll number, on the logging screen. Most of what they do is 25:25, i.e. 25 frames of video matching 25 frames of film (but other ratios are possible, e.g. 24:25). Then, very simply, Tom winds through the roll while the machine counts the frames up, picking up all the barcodes. On the edge of every piece of film there is a barcode plus the conventional key number (or edge number, see picture 2). The barcode is every foot on 35mm or every 20 frames on 16mm. During the process the computer is locking up the timecode with key numbers.

Whenever there is a join in the film, - generally the end of the camera roll - the computer must be informed. At the end of the roll we find a final punch hole which should match with the final timecode marked on the can.

Next stage is taking the EDL ...