Įarly 1950s video tape recorders (VTR) were so expensive, and the quality degradation caused by copying was so great, that a 2-inch Quadruplex videotape was edited by visualizing the recorded track with ferrofluid, cutting it with a razor blade or guillotine cutter, and splicing with video tape. The goal of editing is to manipulate these events to bring the communication closer to the original goal or target. Using video, a director can communicate non-fictional and fictional events. Motion picture film editing is a predecessor to video editing and, in several ways, video editing simulates motion picture film editing, in theory and the use of linear video editing and video editing software on non-linear editing systems (NLE). Video editing is the process of editing segments of motion video production footage, special effects and sound recordings in the post-production process. A vision mixer is used to cut live feed coming from several cameras in real time.
This process is not destructive to the raw video footage and is done by using programs such as DaVinci Resolve, Avid Media Composer, Adobe Premiere Pro and Final Cut Pro.
Several video clips from different tapes are recorded to one single tape in the order that they will appear.
Video editing includes cutting segments (trimming), re-sequencing clips, and adding transitions and other special effects. Though once the province of expensive machines called video editors, video editing software is now available for personal computers and workstations.