The essential point about off-line editing is that the master material is transferred to a lower quality, and often more flexible format while the creative decisions are made about its order. In the past this was a non-broadcast videotape format but nowadays is it is invariably a non-linear editing system using a computer. This has the advantage of:
- not wearing out the master material;
- reducing the cost of ‘thinking’ time by not tying up expensive on-line equipment;
- allowing the process to be more flexible with non-linear editing systems.
Off-line video editing originally supposed that the master material was in the form of timecoded rolls of videotape which would eventually be edited almost automatically in the on-line edit using an Edit Decision List (EDL) derived from the off-line.
Now, with the application of timecode to film shooting, it is possible to transfer film rushes to videotape and perform an offline non-linear edit of this video. When the creative decisions have been made, it is then possible, by means of computer programmes, to produce a negative cutting list from which the negative cutter cuts the film negative in the conventional way without the film editor having used the conventional film editing process at all.
Because there are no rolls of film or videotape cassettes in nonlinear off-line editing, it is absolutely essential on any type of production that the PA’s shooting log, i.e. shot lists, continuity sheets etc., is totally accurate.
If, at the end of the day, you find you haven’t written down the camera roll, put ‘don’t know’ rather than guess. Inaccurate information can, in extreme cases, mean that the editor is unable to access a particular shot from the computer, even though it has been recorded into the machine. Unlike assistant film editors, computers never say ‘I can’t find exactly what you asked for, try this’.
If a film or television programme follows the off-line editing route, the end result of the off-line edit is a finished product which is creatively satisfactory but technically inferior. The on-line edit is the process of mechanically re-editing the programme with high quality pictures to match the creative decisions made in the offline.