Master the language of the edit. This hub covers essential post-production terminology, from fundamental cuts and transitions to timeline management and workflow optimization techniques used by professional editors.
The 180-degree rule keeps the camera on one side of an imaginary line between two subjects, so they stay in place across cuts.
3:2 pulldown is a process that shows 24 fps film on 29.97 fps NTSC video by repeating film frames in a 3:2 pattern.
4K resolution is a video resolution with roughly 4,000 pixels of detail across the frame's width, most commonly 3840 x 2160 pixels (UHD).
An AI audio enhancer is a tool that uses machine learning to clean up sound, removing noise, improving voice clarity, or repairing damaged audio.
AI captions are subtitles or closed captions generated automatically from a video's audio using machine-learning speech recognition, with no manual transcription.
AI rotoscoping uses machine learning to automatically isolate subjects from their backgrounds in video, creating masks frame by frame instead of drawing by hand.
AI transcription uses machine-learning models to automatically turn spoken audio into written text, usually with timecodes so it syncs to video.
AI video editing uses machine-learning tools to automate parts of the editing process, from transcription and rough cuts to colour grading and effects.
An alpha channel is an extra transparency layer in a video or image file that stores how solid or see-through each pixel is.
An assemble edit adds a clip to the end of the timeline, building a sequence by appending each new clip after the last one.
Audio headroom is the safety margin between your loudest peaks and the maximum level (0 dBFS), the breathing room that keeps audio from clipping.
Audio mixing is the work of combining and balancing separate audio tracks, dialogue, music, sound effects, and ambient sound, into one final mix.
CGI, or computer-generated imagery, is visual content created entirely on a computer, often added to live-action footage to show things that couldn't be filmed.
Claymation is stop-motion animation where clay figures are photographed one frame at a time, nudged a little between each frame to seem to move.
Conforming is the step that reconnects an edited timeline, often built from light copies or proxies, to the original high-resolution files for finishing.
Cross-cutting, also called parallel editing, jumps back and forth between two or more separate scenes to show them happening at the same time.
Dailies are the raw, unedited footage from each day of shooting, reviewed by the production team to see what works and what needs reshooting.
A dolly shot moves the camera physically toward or away from the subject, usually on a wheeled dolly or a track, not by zooming.
Double exposure blends two separate images into one, either by exposing the same piece of film twice or by combining layers in software.
Dubbing is replacing the spoken words in a video with a new recording, often in a different language or by a different voice.
A Dutch angle, also called a Dutch tilt, is a shot where the camera is tilted on purpose to suggest tension, disorientation, or unease.
Dynamic range is the gap between the darkest and brightest parts a camera can capture in one shot, measured in stops of light.
Filler words are the little sounds and phrases ("um," "uh," "like," "you know") that pad out speech to fill pauses without adding meaning.
Film grain is the speckled texture in analog film, caused by silver halide crystals, often added to digital video for a cinematic feel.
A fine cut is the polished version of the rough cut, with structure locked and details like pacing, transitions, and music refined toward final.
A hard cut is an instant transition from one shot to the next with no fade, dissolve, or effect in between. Editing's default.
A histogram is a graph showing how brightness is distributed in your image, from pure black on the left to white on the right.
A hook is the opening of a video, usually the first 3-5 seconds, built to grab attention and make viewers keep watching.
A lavalier microphone, or lav mic, is a small mic that clips to a speaker's clothing, usually near the chest, to capture clear dialogue.
Letterboxing is the black bars that appear above and below a video when its aspect ratio doesn't match the screen it's playing on.
Lip sync is the alignment between a speaker's mouth movements on screen and the sound of their voice, so the picture and audio match.
Long-form video is video that runs 5 minutes or longer, with room for real storytelling, teaching, and depth that short-form formats cannot fit.
A lower third is a graphic at the bottom of the frame, used to show a speaker's name, title, location, or other context.
A match cut is an edit between two scenes that share a visual element like shape, motion, or sound, creating a smooth transition.
A medium shot frames a subject from about the waist up, the everyday standard for dialogue and conversation in commercial and narrative video.
Mise-en-scène (French for "placing on stage") refers to everything that appears within a film frame: set, costume, lighting, props, blocking, and composition.
Motion graphics are graphic design that moves: text, icons, shapes, and logos animated to add information, structure, and visual interest to video.
A pan shot rotates the camera horizontally on its axis, sweeping the view from side to side while the camera stays in place.
Picture lock is the point where the visual edit is finalised and frozen, so sound design, colour grading, and VFX can proceed.
Post-production is everything that happens to video after filming, including editing, sound design, colour grading, visual effects, motion graphics, and final delivery.
Pre-production is the planning stage of a video project, everything that happens before filming begins, including scripting, casting, location scouting, scheduling, and budgeting.
ProRes is a family of video codecs made by Apple, built for editing rather than delivery, producing large files that play back smoothly.
Screen recording captures whatever is on a computer or phone screen as a video file, often with system audio and a voice-over.
A sizzle reel is a short, fast-paced highlight video packing the best moments of a portfolio, project, or campaign to show skill or pitch.
A smash cut is an abrupt edit that jumps from one scene to a sharply contrasting one, often for comedic or dramatic effect.
A sound bite is a short, memorable quote pulled from a longer recording, used in news, commercials, social media, and editorial work.
Sound design is the work of building a video's audio world, the sound effects, ambient sound, foley, and atmosphere beyond just dialogue and music.
Splicing means joining two video clips at a cut point. It once meant physically cutting and taping film, and now happens in editing software.
Subtitles show dialogue for viewers who can hear; captions show all the audio, including sound effects, for deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers.
Text-based editing lets you cut video by editing its transcript instead of the clips, so deleting a sentence removes the matching video.
Time-lapse is video that squeezes hours, days, or years of real time into seconds, by capturing one frame at slow intervals and replaying faster.
A timeline is the main workspace in video editing software where you arrange clips, audio, effects, and graphics in time order.
A title crawl is on-screen text that scrolls steadily up the screen, used for opening story text, end credits, and news tickers.
Transcoding is converting video from one codec or container to another, done for smoother editing, better compatibility, or delivery to a specific platform.
Video compression is the process of shrinking video file size by storing only the essential image data and discarding redundant information.
A video container is the file format that wraps video, audio, subtitles, and metadata into one file, with extensions like MP4, MOV, or MKV.
Video standards conversion adapts video from one broadcast standard to another, like PAL, NTSC, or SECAM, which use different frame rates and resolutions.
Voiceover (VO) is narration recorded separately and laid over a video, where you hear the speaker but don't see them on screen.
Watch time is the total time viewers actually spend watching a video, a key metric that platforms use to judge and recommend content.
A watermark is a logo, text, or identifying mark laid over a video to brand the content or discourage unauthorized reuse.
Audio modulation effects like flanger, chorus, and phaser shape sound by cycling a setting over time, creating moving, shimmering, often musical results.
Video scopes are measurement tools that show an image's real brightness, color, saturation, and contrast as data, used for accurate color grading and editing.
A close-up shot frames the subject tightly, filling the frame with a face or small detail and leaving little of the setting visible.
A pixel, short for "picture element," is the smallest unit of a digital image. Every photo and video frame is a grid of squares.
The program monitor shows your edited timeline as you build it, displaying the current cut with all edits, effects, and audio mixed together.
A proxy file is a smaller, lower-resolution copy of your footage that keeps editing smooth, switching back to the full-resolution original at export.
A rough cut is the first complete version of an edited video, with the structure in place but pacing and finishing details still unrefined.
A teaser is a short promotional video, usually 15-60 seconds, that builds anticipation for a film, product, event, or campaign without giving anything away.
A tilt shot rotates the camera up or down on its axis without moving its position, often used for reveals or following vertical action.
A tripod is a three-legged camera stand that holds the camera steady, lets you make smooth pans and tilts, and keeps shots consistent.
A video layer is a stacked video track in an editing timeline, holding footage, graphics, or effects that combine with the layers below.
A viral video is content that spreads rapidly as people share it and platform algorithms boost it, reaching far larger audiences than expected.
A YouTube end screen is the final 5 to 20 seconds of a video, built to keep viewers engaged with subscribe buttons and videos.
AAC (Advanced Audio Coding) is the standard audio codec in most modern video and the successor to MP3, giving efficient compression with good quality.
An aerial shot is footage captured from above by a drone, helicopter, plane, or other platform, giving a view impossible from the ground.
An extreme close-up (ECU) is the tightest shot in video, where one small detail like an eye, mouth, or object fills the frame.
An insert edit adds a new clip into a timeline at a chosen spot, pushing existing clips later without overwriting anything.
An insert shot is a tight close-up of one detail in a larger scene, used to pull the viewer's eye to something important.
Audio equalization (EQ) adjusts the balance of frequencies in a sound by boosting or cutting specific frequency ranges, shaping its tone.
Audio mastering is the final polishing pass on a finished mix, balancing loudness and tone so it sounds consistent on any playback system.
Compositing is the craft of layering multiple visual elements, like footage, graphics, and effects, into a single image so they look like one shot.
Continuity is when scene details stay consistent across cuts, so costume, props, position, lighting, and action match from one shot to the next.
Generative fill for video uses AI to add, remove, or change objects in existing footage by generating new pixels that match the surrounding scene.
Non-linear editing (NLE) is a digital workflow where you can change any timeline section in any order, without re-recording or affecting other parts.
Three-point lighting is the standard video lighting setup that uses three lights, a key, fill, and back light, to produce dimensional, professional-looking footage.
A wide shot, also called a long shot, frames the subject inside their full surroundings, with plenty of space around them.
A wide-angle lens has a shorter focal length than a standard lens, so it takes in a wider field of view than normal.
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