VCR Vidding - How Was It Done?
I have posted three related handouts about VCR vidding. These handouts were written in the late 1990s and early 2000s and assume a general knowledge of VCRs, many of which fans no longer have access to. Note that VCR vidding instructions were often specific to the make and model of the VCR depending on what type of editing features it had.
Here is an excerpt from one handout written by Stacy Doyle (she passed away last year and I am posting these handouts with the permission of her partner).
“How To Do Music Videos” by Stacy Doyle
What you need:
1) two VCR’s
2) a tape deck or cd
3) RCA connecter cables (gold tipped would be nice-not required tho)
4) Source video tapes (you can make a music video with only a few tapes)
[All the visuals in “I’m The Only One” were from “I Love You Rosie Malone”]
5) Source audio tape/cd - the song you want
6) Stopwatch (you can use a digital watch w/seconds, but it’s harder)
7) Binder (or “lined”) paper
8) VHS tape - HiFi or preimum grade
“luxuries to do music videos” in order of importance…
VCR with a flying erase head [you lose the red/blue streaks]
VCR with “video dub” or “audio dub” (or both) [video -allows you to record
the visuals on the same tape as the audio track - easier playback to make
sure the words and the visuals fit. audio -allows you to put the audio on
the tape that the visuals have been recorded. Either of them allow you to
use the original visuals as the master tape. Every generation of video tape
from the original recording brings the visual and audio quality down.. closer
to the original the better]
VCR with good “pause” strobe or solorization (not on VCR w/flying erase head)
[allows you to use special effects to liven up a video.. or a good pause
allows you to end a video on a specific frame - a smile, a look or whatever]
Ok… now you have the music.
1) Write down all the words to the song on binder paper, skipping two lines
on the page for every line of the song.
2) Time out the song with the stopwatch how many seconds is each line (i’ve
been told that I don’t have to do this, but I always have).
3) Write the visuals you want to use on the line under the song line…
indicate which tape it’s on (helpful when you use something like ‘standing in
Dobey’s office as the cue)
4) Cue up the first three or four scenes (assuming they are on different
tapes)
5) Start at the beginning and put your first two or three visuals down and
go back and play the music with the visuals (turn the sound off on the tv and
listen to the music thru headphones… Make sure the visuals line up the way
you want them too.. You will find that there is a ‘lag time’ from the point
you unpause the VCR to the time it starts to record the imput. Every machine
has it - you just have to figure out how long it is and release the pause
button accordingly…
6) Repeat the process as long as it takes to put all the scenes together.
Before I start a video, I have listened to the music for (probably) about
3 hours - trying to figure out the visuals, memorizing the tempo, listening
to the words and generally working out how I want the finished video to look.
My first video took 17 hours to do. I did “I’m The Only One” over a two day
peroid and it took less than 4 hours… I am a perfectionist and I want what
I want.
