A video editing system comprising a computer system having a mass storage and a display, a video source, such as a video cassette recorder (VCR), camera, or optical disc player, and a video processor/controller linking the computer to the video source. The computer system functions under the direction of standard operating software and video editing software which provide the user with an interface for controlling both playback and clip editing of video information from the video source. Upon initialization of the editing system, the user is presented with at least a video window for displaying the video information, a control window for regulating playback of the video information, and a clip list window having a number of rows of edit windows organized under begin, end, and clip columns. The user controls playback of video from the video source within the video window through manipulation of standard playback direction and speed indicators. To mark a video frame in the video window as either a begin or end point of a video clip, the user clicks on the desired video frame with a mouse associated with the editing system. A small digitized version of the requested video frame is then created and attached to the cursor. This small digitized frame (SDF) can then be moved in tandem with the cursor from the video window to an edit window and released. Begin and end points of clips are created by releasing an SDF within an edit window under the appropriate column. Releasing an SDF within an edit window under the clip column causes that SDF to be entered as both the begin and end point of the clip. Numerous rows of edit windows can be created in a similar manner. When the begin and end edit windows in the same row are filled with different SDFs, the video frames between those respective points are digitized and automatically inserted into the clip column for that row in an animated form. SDFs can likewise be directly manipulated to modify the content or sequence of edit windows or to change the video frame being played within the video window.