Video editing is the process of editing segments of a motion video production footage, special effects and sound recordings in the post-production process.
Editing of films and television shows, video advertisements etc., involves trimming segments, re-sequencing clips, and adding transitions and other special effects.
Types of Editing
There are different types of editing in the industry today and the linear and non-linear form the basis of any video editing.
Linear Video Editing
Linear video editing is a process of selecting, arranging and modifying images and sound in a pre-determined, ordered sequence – from start to finish. Linear editing is most commonly used when working with videotape. Unlike film, a videotape cannot be physically cut into pieces to be spliced together to create a new order. Instead, the editor must dub or record each desired video clip onto a master tape.
The advantages of linear editing is its simplicity and lower cost. On the other hand, it has disadvantages as well. Firstly, it is not possible to insert or delete scenes from the master tape without re-copying all the subsequent scenes from the video. As each piece of video clip must be laid down in real time, one is not able to go back to make a change without re-editing everything after the change.
Secondly, because of the overdubbing that has to take place if one wants to replace a current clip with a new one, the two clips must be of the exact same length. If the new clip is too short, the tail end of the old clip will still appear on the master tape. If it’s too long, then it’ll roll into the next scene.
Non-Linear Editing
The nonlinear video editing method is a way of random access editing, which means instant access to the content at any point of time for any required modification. So instead of going in a set order, one is able to work on any segment of the project at any time, in any order. In this method, the original source files are not lost or modified during editing. This is done through an edit decision list (EDL), which records the decisions of the editor and can also be interchanged with other editing tools.
As such, many variations of the original source files can exist, allowing for very flexible editing. It is also easy to change cuts and undo previous decisions simply by editing the EDL, without having to have the actual film data duplicated. Loss of video quality is also avoided due to not having to repeatedly re-encode the data when different effects are applied.
Automated QC
Interra Systems' QC solution, BATON, supports QC for both - linear and non-linear workflows and it can QC any type of media content. An editor needs to check for any imperfection after the editing process has been completed. To ensure that the changes qualify the QC criteria, BATON can bifurcate the content into playout and quarantine files. Then based on these results, quarantine files can be sent to the editor to make any further changes.
Some of the checks BATON can perform are black frames detection, cadence change detection, frame corruption, field order change and so on. BATON can also be integrated in most of the automated workflows enabling the user to access any media content and send it to the desired destination.