What is the Time Code in Video Editing?

Video Transcript

Hey, Welcome back. This is Glen Cornish with Expert Village. How to make a professional looking video. There's something I want to back up and talk about that we haven't talked about. It's a little bit of a scientific side of digital video. You may have noticed that when you're recording there are these numbers in your viewfinder that are running by and you may notice some of them on the tape deck, if your fortunate to have one, and you may also run into those numbers, you will as a matter of fact, run into those numbers in your video package. In this case you'll see them on I Movie. These numbers are called time code. They basically have a digital stamp of each frame of where they are in relation to time. Basically they are set up with zeros, zeros, zeros, and zeros. Basically, hours, minutes, seconds, and frames. Yes, we edit by the frames and there's thirty frames per second. So now, when those numbers go by, you'll have a better understanding of exactly where you are. This works great for programs such as Premiere and Final Cut Pro where you can sit, look at the time code and literally type in those numbers into a database. Plug your deck in, and then that database will capture those areas only on your tape that you need. Time code is very beneficial. Unfortunately in a program like I Movie, we can't type in individual time code numbers for it to capture. You need to be aware of those numbers when they're on the screen. Especially in those programs that use time coded, like Abbot and Final Cut and Premiere, it'll really benefit you very much to understand time code.

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