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Video Production Glossary
Non-linear editing
for film and television & video production is a modern editing method which
involves being able to access any frame in a video clip. This method is
similar in concept to the "cut and paste" technique used in film editing
from the beginning. It can also be viewed as the audio/video equivalent of
word-processing. However, when working with film, it is a destructive
process, as the actual film negative must be cut. Non-linear,
non-destructive methods began to appear with the introduction of digital
video technology.
Video and audio data are first captured to hard disks or other digital
storage devices. The data is either recorded directly to the storage device
or is imported from another source. Once imported they can be edited on a
computer using any of a wide range of software. For a comprehensive list of
available software, see List of video editing software, whereas Comparison
of video editing software gives more detail of features and functionality.
In non-linear editing, the original source files are not lost or modified
during editing. Professional editing software records the decisions of the
editor in an edit decision list (EDL) which can be interchanged with other
editing tools. Many generations and variations of the original source files
can exist without needing to store many different copies, allowing for very
flexible editing. It also makes it easy to change cuts and undo previous
decisions simply by editing the edit decision list (without having to have
the actual film data duplicated). Loss of quality is also avoided due to not
having to repeatedly re-encode the data when different effects are applied.
Compared to the linear method of tape-to-tape editing, non-linear editing
offers the flexibility of film editing, with random access and easy project
organization. With the edit decision lists, the editor can work on
low-resolution copies of the video. This makes it possible to edit both
standard-definition broadcast quality and high definition broadcast quality
very quickly on normal PCs which do not have the power to do the full
processing of the huge full-quality high-resolution data in real-time.
The costs of editing systems have dropped such that non-linear editing tools
are now within the reach of home users. Some editing software can now be
accessed free as web applications, some, like Cinelerra (focused on the
professional market), can be downloaded free of charge, and some, like
Microsoft's Windows Movie Maker or Apple Computer's iMovie, come included
with the appropriate operating system.
A computer for non-linear editing of video will usually have a video capture
card to capture analog video and/or a FireWire connection to capture digital
video from a DV camera, with its video editing software. Modern web based
editing systems can take video directly from a camera phone over a GPRS or
3G mobile connection.
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