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ABS-CBN Editing suite |
Sunday 24th Jan |
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ABS-CBN Editing suite |
Sunday 24th Jan |
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ABS-CBN Editing Suite | |
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It was about midday on
Sunday when we set off for the ABS-CBN studios once more. Pilar had told me of the changes
in plan that morning, so I made sure I had my camera ready.
I couldn't see what the dialogue was being recorded on, but assumed that it would be edited into the tape of the show as soon as recording was complete so the show was ready to be aired in plenty of time. That, however, was making the big assumption that the tape was already ready to broadcast. How wrong you can be...
This part of the process fascinated me. The basic elements
consisted of the footage shot on front of a bluescreen the previous day, the background
graphics, and the foreground titles. A few swirling effects were added to give impact as a
presenter was zapped onto the screen as they spoke their lines, then the camera movements
that were so carefully rehearsed in the studio became apparent as the presenter would move
off to the side of the picture. The speed at which the operator manipulated the controls was breathtaking. She would wind one tape to the right spot, then the other, and then I'd lose track of what she was doing as she would add some effect, with maybe some other graphic effect going on in the background. Out of this chaos all the elements would finally be playing together for a few seconds on one of the monitors as the results were recorded to the master tape, then she'd be off again winding tapes all over the place and losing me completely. As you can see from the photo below, it was 2:20pm when this editing was finally complete. This seemed to be cutting it pretty fine to me, and I wondered when they would edit on the new voiceovers and taping would be complete.
Sure enough, a few minutes later Tess ejected the tape and we marched down to the next port of call, another tiny room (or was it the same one as before ;) where the voiceovers were finally edited into the master tape.
Finished at last! Even time for a quick posed photo. But where are we going now...?
I couldn't think what else they had to do to the tape before transmission, and around this kind of time I was beginning to wonder what they would do if the tape broke...
I asked Tess if the editing of the tape was always completed so close to transmission. The response I got was that this was a fairly normal day, and no one was panicking. If that's the case, I'd hate to be here when they're really cutting it fine... |
The first stop was a small room - almost a cubicle - with
a heavy soundproofed door. Aster was already in there and was just completing her
lines when we arrived. The recording of the voiceovers didn't take very long. Pilar was
told when the tape was running and could start whenever she was ready.
The next stop was the video editing suite. Normally Pilar wouldn't be
here, as all her worked has been done, but we took the opportunity to see the rest of show
being put together. Tess was there overseeing the editing of all the elements of the what
is the opening segment of the show. There is a large desk and a huge bank of TV
monitors here, and just outside the room is a large rack of equipment with some smaller
monitors and the actual tape machines. Tess occasionally ran out and swapped the
tapes in these machines (I don't know how she knew which was which ;), and the operator of
the editing equipment put the elements together
The
operator would then drop in some taped footage of one the interviews as a taster of what
was to come, synchronised with the presenter's words.
We went into another, larger, room. The tape was inserted into a machine
and it quickly became clear what the final stage in the taping was. On a desk were
two huge padded cases choc full of CDs. There were a few in there that I recognised (and
even owned), but it was clear that their purpose was to provide a large cross section of
background music for whatever the occasion demanded.
The selections for this week's show must already have been decide, for no
sooner had the master tape been inserted than the operator began to wind the tape and cue
the music with the kind of speed and precision as that of the video editor. Every link and
every interview had music to match, and it was edited into the master tape in one take
each time, and just a little before 3:00pm the tape was finally ready to be aired!
