FROM 3/4" SP TO BETACAM, FROM DIGITAL VIDEO TO WEB...

When we made Women of Steel in 1984, the 3/4" SP portapak had just become widely available. The camera was connected to the recorder by a 5' cable that was carried by a second person, usually the sound technician. The off-line editing was done on 1/2" VHS because it was available and affordable. Online editing onto a 1" video master was very expensive and done in an edit house. Three years later I was producing Labor's Corner and On Camera at WQEX-Public Television where everything was shot and edited on BetaCam. Out of This Furnace was produced with that technology.

Because we used thousands of black and white photographs and filmed dramatic, recreations at night in the making of The River Ran Red, we shot it on 16 mm film to preserve the best detail and contrast range. That film was transferred to BetaCam and edited on 1" video, then the best format for broadcast television. Wirewoman Memories used outtakes from The River Ran Red, but was digitally edited on a video Toaster. That machine was soon replaced by a PowerMacIntosh computer with Adobe Premiere and a Targa card that I used to edit the Bloodline documentation video.

Currently I shoot with digital video mini and edit with Final Cut Pro, Premiere, Flash and other programs.... using Media Cleaner Pro to optimize clips for the web, CD and DVD (see the subRosa documentation). Since Terminal Time is always digital and never printed to tape, the videos are compressed with Cinepak to reduce their size and facilitate quicktime performance.