Many times we cameramen forget that our work will show it's best when edited properly. A tape editor should be the cameraman's best friend, as he/she decides what is going to be used and how. The following tips from an editor are meant to help to achieve the best possible final result.

Hardly anybody ever writes down the correct stuff on the TAPE LABELS!

• What's on the audio channel 1,2,3,4?; IS IT THE SAME FOR THE WHOLE TAPE OR DID YOU CHANGE ANYTHING ON THE WAY.
  
• Are the channels pre-mixed?
  
• Is it filmed on 16:9 or 4:3 or letterbox?
  
• Who was the cameraman, name and maybe phone number in case something is wrong.
  
• Who was the sound engineer, name and maybe phone number in case something is wrong.
  
• In ENG multi-cam with slave-locked time-code, please take enough pre-roll.
  
• Be sure to use the right time-code (real-time or rec, run), note it down on the label.
  
• Is it PAL, NTSC, SECAM etc?
  
• Write down which tape is in which box, give them both the same number.
  
• Write down on which date the tape is recorded.
  
• Please use the record inhibit switch on the camera.
  
• SWITCH OF YOUR MOBILE PHONE when recording!!!!!
  

All these things help us editors to finish the jobs well that you cameramen started.

TIPS
When videotaping for chroma keying (blue background): Use a yellow backlight. Yellow is the component counterpart color of blue when keying in the video-mixer. It makes keying a whole lot better.

Wrong take: Don't put your hand in front of the lens to indicate that the previous take was wrong. We (the editors) decide whether it will be a usable shot or not.

Peter de Vink - Video Associates