CHAPTER 11 ESSENTIALS

• Choosing, configuring, and learning how to use a nonlinear editing system that can work for your resources and creative needs will be your first editing task. You want to use the fastest available computer, highest-quality monitor, and the best editing software technology you can access. You must learn how best to use the NLE’s timeline editing interface so that you can use a variety of technical editing techniques to link sequences together on your timeline to build a detailed map of your finished product.
• Your next technical challenge involves the various aspects of organizing a workflow methodology—figuring out how to digitize, store, back up, work with, finalize, and export image data files throughout the editing process, including deciding what kinds of file formats and resolution you will be doing all this work in. As part of this challenge, you must also design organizational methods for how to find and use material during the editing process, particularly when it comes to naming files and organizing them into folders or bins in a way that will maximize efficiency and creativity.
• You will need to engage in some kind of finishing process using your NLE to finalize your movie, bringing your final cut together with the precise color, effects, titles, and sound elements you have created. Once that is done, you need to output the final movie to your chosen mastering media, creating a master from which all future copies of your movie will be generated.