Some news outlets have raised questions about time gaps in the Nick Berg murder video, citing an 11-hour gap in the sequence. Complete hogwash. The video is in real time and is shot with 2 video cameras with their internal timestamps set differently. The final video is edited back and forth with shots from both cameras, with one 22-minute gap while the group execution scene is prepared after Berg's initial statement. At times the scene shows the second cameraman in the margins of the video as they switch back and forth. Here is the sequence and the timestamps shown on both cameras:
Begin, camera one, 13:26:24 to 13:26:28
Berg talking, seated in a chair.
Cut to camera two, 2:18:35 to 2:18:43
Berg still talking, still in chair, viewed from another angle but no time gap. Berg's statement takes about 12 seconds.
Skip ahead 22 minutes, camera two, 2:40:30
Now we see the five terrorists standing behind Berg, who is now seated on the floor, with the center man preparing to read a written statement. This scene runs until 2:44:48, taking 4 minutes 18 seconds, and ends with the center man pulling his knife, grabbing Berg by the hair, and the other men grabbing and holding Berg down.
Cut to camera one, 13:45:47
Execution scene continued from other camera angle, no gap in action. At 13:46:30 you can plainly see the other cameraman in the right margin of the frame, and you can see him using his video camera for the remainder of this shot. This scene runs for 46 seconds as the head is sawed off, until 13:46:33.
Gap of 73 seconds, to 13:47:46
Cut to scene of killer lifting up and then holding severed head up to the camera. This scene runs until 13:47:53.
Cut back to camera two, 2:46:18 to 2:46:22
Shows the killer holding the head from another camera angle.
Cut to camera one, 13:48:34
Head is shown resting on the chest of the decapitated body, camera pans to the severed neck for a few seconds, video ends 13:48:49.
There are two short time gaps in the sequence. First there is apparently a 22-minute gap between Berg's statement and the actual execution scene. Second, there is a 73-second gap (camera one) while the killers apparently finish severing the head and get it loose to hold up. Camera two is missing 90 seconds at this point. With the obvious editing back and forth between scenes from two cameras, this gap is probably not significant. Perhaps the terrorists did not want to show the difficulty of severing the spine to get the head loose, which I suspect would be quite hard with a knife.
Total elapsed on camera one (13:26:24 to 13:48:49) 22 minutes 25 seconds.
Total elapsed on camera two (2:18:35 to 2:46:22) 27 minutes 47 seconds.
Camera one was probably not running during the reading of the terrorist statement, and perhaps camera one has a time "counter" as opposed to a "clock" meaning it shows time filmed, not real clock time. If that were the case with camera two, then it is missing 22 minutes of actual footage, not 22 minutes of real time. I think that unlikely. However, the value of the numbers on camera two seem more likely to be clock time than footage time, unless the cameraman simply forgot to reset his counter from prior sessions. Leave this to someone more knowledgeable than me on video cameras.
Great research and patience to determine this, especially in light of the content.