Today, we’re going to learn about handles. No idea what I’m talking about? Well you’ve probably actually learned it the hard way. Trust me, read on.
Ever have this happen to you? You shot the perfect scene of your kid riding a bike for the first time. Including his little sister making fun of him in the background.
Don’t worry, he landed on the grass. No brain damage was incurred in the writing of this blog.
Let’s say you decide to edit a movie of his big accomplishment. You import the clip into your movie editing software, add some fades at the beginning and end, and upload it to YouTube.
Now let’s say you shot the same scene, but he was so quick getting going, that you turned the camera on right as he began pedaling on his own.
Notice how the very first frame of the movie begins with him just pedaling away from Dad?
You get the video onto your computer, add a couple of transitions, and lose the very beginning of the scene.
Ah, now you know why you need handles. Now that you added the fades, you lose the effect of him pedaling away.
What? Handles are that little bit of video at the beginning and end of each scene that your software program uses to create transitions.
Your software will use approximately a half second at the start and end of each clip for each transition.
If you turned on the camera right as he starts pedaling and then tried to apply a cross-dissolve or fade to the clip, you’ll have a little problem. Your program will start the dissolve or fade from the first frame, so you won’t see the footage until about a half-second later, thus missing him first pedaling.
If you have a cushion of about a second before the start of your scene, and at the end, your program will use that footage as the handle. So, when the clip fully fades in, you will see him pedaling.
Handles also come into play with how you use your tapes. When using a new tape, you want to have the camera record for just a few seconds before recording your desired footage. As you near the end of the tape, record for a couple of seconds at the end of your last scene before stopping the tape.
This will ensure you have handles at the start and end of your tapes, as well as between scenes. Some video editing software needs a couple of seconds to read the metadata off videotapes (mini-DV, HDV, super8, VHS-C) prior to actually capturing the video.
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