Glossary of Terms Used in the Creative Industry
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
The following lists commonly and less commonly used terms in the video, audio, graphics, photographic, and publishing industries at large.
| 03:02 | A technique to convert film footage to video footage and back again. |
| 16-bit | A standard bit depth for digital audio recording and playback. |
| 16x9 | The standard display aspect ratio of a high-definition television set. |
| 32-bit | A four-channel image with each channel 8-bits deep. Typically, a CGI image with red, green, blue, and alpha channels. |
| 4x3 | The standard display aspect ratio of a home television set. |
| 3-Point editing | A time-saving editing technique used in Final Cut Pro. To set up an edit in Final Cut Pro, you don't need to specify In and Out points for your clip in the Viewer. Also refers to the separate audio and video tracks on tape. Final Cut Pro allows up to 99 video and 99 audio tracks to be used in a single sequence. |
| 8-bit | For video, a bit depth at which color is sampled. 8-bit color is common with and other standard-definition digital formats. Some high-definition acquisition formats can also record in 8-bit, but usually record in 10-bit. |
| Action safe | The area inside a border that is five percent smaller than the overall size of the video frame. Most of the time, anything in your video that's outside of this border will not be displayed on a video screen. |
| Add Edit | Working like the Razor Blade tool, adds an edit point to all clips in the Timeline at the current position of the playhead. |
| AIFF (Audio Interchange File Format) | Apple's native uncompressed audio file format created for the Macintosh computer, commonly used for the storage and transmission of digitally sampled sound. |
| Alpha channel | In color images, the fourth channel after the red, green, and blue channels. In black-and-white images, the second channel after the luminance channel. An image channel in addition to the R, and B color channels that is used to store transparency information for compositing. In Final Cut Pro, black represents 100 percent transparent, and white represents 100 percent opaque. |
| Ambience | A type of sound that includes background room noise, traffic noise, and atmospheric sound effects. |
| Analog | A signal that consists of a continuously varying voltage level, measured on a waveform monitor, which represents video and audio information. Analog signals must be converted to digital signals (digitized or captured) for use in Final Cut Pro. VHS and Beta SP are both analog tape formats. |
| Anamorphic | An image shot in a widescreen format and then squeezed into 4x3 frame size. |
| Anchor point | In the Motion tab, the point that is used to center changes to a clip when using motion effects. A clip's anchor point does not have to be at its center. |
| Animation | The process of changing any number of variables such as color, audio levels, or other effects over time using keyframes. |
| Aspect ratio | The ratio of the width of an image to its height on any viewing screen. |
| Attributes | All of the unique settings that have been applied to either audio or video clips. |
| Audio Meters window | A graphic display of the audio level (loudness) of a clip or sequence. Used to set incoming and outgoing audio levels and to check for audio distortion and signal strength. |
| Audio mixing | The process of adjusting the volume levels of all audio clips in an edited sequence, including the production audio, music, sound effects, voice-overs, and additional background ambience, to turn all of these sounds into a harmonious whole. |
| Audio Panel | A tool used to read in AIFF or WAV files, mix them together, extract animation curves based on the audio frequency, and manipulate the timing of the sound. |
| Audio sample rate | The rate or frequency at which a sound is sampled to digitize it. 48 kHz is the standard sampling rate for digital audio; CD audio is sampled at 44.1 kHz. |
| Audio waveform | Is a graphical representation of the amplitude (loudness) of a sound over a period of time. |
| AVI | A PC-compatible standard for digital video no longer officially supported by Microsoft but still frequently used. |
| Axis | An imaginary straight line (horizontal, vertical, 3D diagonal) along which an object can move or rotate in space. |
| Backtiming | Using In and Out points in the Viewer and only an Out point in the Timeline, the two Out points will align, and the rest of the clip will appear before or to the left of this point. |
| Bars and tone | A series of vertical bars of specific colors and an audio tone that are used to calibrate the audio and video signals coming from a videotape or camera to ensure consistent appearance and sound on different TV monitors. |
| Batch capture | Capturing multiple clips and or sequences with a single command. |
| Batch export | The ability to export multiple clips and or sequences with a single command by being able to stack them up in a queue. It is particularly useful when exporting will take a lot of time. |
| Bezier handle | The "control handles" attached to a Bezier curve that allow you to change the shape of the curve. |
| Bin | A file folder in the Browser window used to keep media clips grouped and organized. |
| Black level | The measurement of the black portion of the video signal. This level is represented by 7.5 IRE in the United States; Japan (NTSC) and PAL measurements are represented by 0 IRE. |
| Blue screen | Images are shot in front of an evenly lit, bright, pure blue background. The compositing process then replaces all the blue in the picture with another image. |
| Broadcast safe | A color correction filter that provides a fast method of dealing with clips that have luminance and chrominance levels exceeding the broadcast limits for video. It allows for the adjusting of the luminance and chrominance of clips at the same time. |
| Browser window | An interface window that is a central storage area where you organize and access all of the source material used in your project. |
| Cache | A special high-speed memory area that the computer uses to store information that it can retrieve much faster than from main memory. |
| Calibrate | The process of adjusting a feature for accuracy. |
| Canvas window | The window in which you can view your edited sequence. |
| Capture | The process of bringing media into the computer. |
| Cathode Ray Tube | The most common type of computer monitor, consisting of tube with a source of electrons (a cathode) at one end, and a flattened end coated with phosphors that glow when excited by the electrons. |
| Center point | Defines a clip's location in the coordinate space. |
| Chroma | The color information contained in a video signal consisting of hue (the color itself) and saturation (intensity). |
| Chromakey | Electronically matting or inserting an image from one camera into the picture produced by another. The subject to be inserted is shot against a solid color background, and signals from the two sources are then merged. |
| Clip | Media files that may consist of video, audio, graphics, or any similar content that can be imported into Final Cut Pro. |
| Clipping | Distortion occurring during the playback or recording of digital audio due to an overly loud level. |
| Close-up | Framing a subject so that it fills the frame. Usually used for dramatic storytelling. |
| CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, black) | The four colors used in color printing. |
| Color balance | Refers to the overall mix of red, green, and blue for the highlights (brightest), midtones, and shadow (darkest) areas in a clip. |
| Color correction | Any process that alters the perceived color of an image. A process in which the color of clips used in an edited program is evened out so that all shots in a given scene match. |
| Color depth | The possible range of colors that can be used in a movie or image. In computer graphics, there are usually four choices: grayscale, 8-bit, 16-bit, and 24-bit. Higher color depths provide a wider range of colors but also require more disk space for a given image size. |
| Color matching | Matching the color of one shot to another. |
| Color matte | A clip containing solid color created as a generated item in the effects. |
| Color Picker | A tool that allows you to sample colors from the Viewer and transfer the color settings to applicable parameters. |
| Color Rendering Dictionary | In Postscript color management, the CRD is the equivalent of the destination profile, and either resides in the RIP or is sent to it at print time. |
| Color Rendering Index | A measure of how well colors are rendered by different lighting conditions as compared to a standard light source. CRI values range from 1 to 100, whereby 100 means that all colors that match under the standard would also match under the measured lighting conditions. |
| Color Space Array | In Postscript color management, the CSA is the equivalent of an ICC source profile that is downloaded to a Postscript RIP together with the documents it describes. |
| Colorcast | A sharp change in color between areas in an image sometimes produced when using adjustments. |
| Component video | A type of analog video signal where the luminance and chrominance signals are recorded separately, thereby providing better video quality. The signal can be recorded in an analog form (Y, R-Y, B-Y) as in a Beta SP or in a digital form (Y, Cr, Cb) as in a Digital Betacam. |
| Composite video | A type of analog video signal that combines all chroma and luma information into a single waveform running through a single pair of wires. This can result in analog "artifacts" affecting the quality of the video signal. |
| Compositing | The process of combining two or more video or electronic images into a single frame. This term can also describe the process of creating various video effects. |
| Compression | The process by which video, graphics, and audio files are reduced in size. |
| Compression marker | A marker placed in a Final Cut movie that will flag DVD Studio Pro to stop so an I-frame can be changed. |
| Compression method | File format and options used to reduce the size of a saved image file. Virtually all files use some form of compression to reduce file size. Some compression methods are lossless and do not degrade apparent image quality; others are lossy and can more substantially reduce the file size but also degrade the image quality. Compression can be set either at the time the file is saved or when the image is being optimized. |
| Computer to Plate | A technology known to printers. It involves the laser exposure of a printing plate, without the use of a film intermediate. This can be done on-press and off-press, and may involve a plate processor or not. |
| Concatenation | The process of mathematically combining multiple color corrections into one. |
| Contrast | The difference between the lightest and darkest values in an image. High-contrast images have a large range of values from the darkest shadow to the lightest highlight. Low-contrast images have a more narrow range of values, resulting in a "flatter" look. |
| Converter box | Equipment that changes an analog signal into a digital signal. |
| Curve Editor | A tool that allows you to create, see, and modify keyframes as well as animation curves and audio waveforms. |
| CtP | Computer to Plate (see above). |
| Dissolve | A transition between two video clips where the first one fades down at the same time the second one fades up. |
| Dither | A method used in graphics to place two or more colors close together to create the illusion of a single color. |
| Dodging | A technique used in the darkroom to lighten areas of an image by limiting the exposure in that area. Photoshop simulates this technique, using the Dodge tool, by increasing the brightness of pixels. The opposite of dodging is burning. |
| Dots per inch (dpi) or per centimeter (dpc). | A measure of the resolution of a particular image based on the number of dots in a given linear inch or centimeter of the printed image. The higher the number of dots, the higher the resolution and the sharper the image will be when printed. However, the higher the resolution, the larger the image's file size. |
| Drop frame timecode | NTSC timecode that skips ahead in time by two frame numbers each minute, except for minutes ending in "0", so that the end total agrees with the actual elapsed clock time. Although numbers are skipped, actual video frames are not skipped. |
| Drop shadow | An effect that creates an artificial shadow behind an image or text. |
| Droplet | An action that is saved as a file independent of Photo shop. Images can be dragged and dropped onto a droplet to have the actions automatically performed to it. |
| Dub | Making a copy of an analog tape to the same type of format. |
| Duration | The length of a clip or a sequence from its In to its Out point, or the length of time that it takes that piece of video to play. |
| Dustbusting | The process of painting dirt off of an image. |
| DV (digital video) |
A digital standard created by a consortium of camcorder vendors, which uses Motion JPEG video at a 720 x 480 resolution at 29.97 frames per second, stored at a bit rate of 29.97 frames per second at a compression of 4:1:1. This format does not provide capabilities or an audio track for the cue channel. A format used in Final Cut Pro for the capturing of media usually through a connection built directly into the DV camera. |
| DVC Pro | Panasonic's native (digital video) component format that records an 8-bit, 5:1 compressed component video signal using 4:1:1 color sampling (PAL uses 4:2:0). |
| DVCAM | A standard-definition digital videotape recorder format that records an 8-bit, 5:1 compressed component video signal with 4:1:1 color sampling. Recorded using 1/4 inch tape. Supports two tracks of audio with 16-bit, 48 kHz audio sampling, or four tracks of audio with 12-bit, 48 kHz audio sampling. |
| Emulsion | The photosensitive side of a piece of film or photographic paper. When printing to film or photographic paper, Photoshop needs to know whether this side is up or down. |
| Fade | An effect in which the picture gradually transitions to black. |
| Feather | The gradual opacity transition from the edge to the interior of an image eliminating hard edges and color casts. |
| Field Dominance | The choice of whether field one or field two will be displayed on the monitor first. The default should be Lower (even) for DV and Targa captures. |
| File Browser | An interactive browser to track files or to navigate through the network to load or write scripts, images, lookup files, and expressions. |
| Filter | A function that takes an image and transforms it in some manner, such as a blur filter. |
| Frequency | The number of times a sound or signal vibrates each second, measured in cycles per second, or hertz. Audio recordings are made up of a vast collection of waveforms, using many different frequencies of sound. Each frequency in a recording is associated with an audio pitch. The frequencies of an audio recording can be changed to disguise a voice or to clean up an unwanted noise. |
| Gain | In video, the level of white in a video picture; in audio, the loudness of an audio signal. |
| Gamma | A curve that describes how the middle tones of an image appear. Gamma is a nonlinear function often confused with "brightness" or "contrast". Changing the value of the gamma affects middle tones while leaving the whites and blacks of the image unaltered. Gamma adjustment is often used to compensate for differences between Macintosh and Windows video cards and displays. |
| Garbage matte | A matte that removes unwanted objects from an image. |
| Grayscale | An image that records the brightness of pixels using only 8 bits in which any pixel can be one of 256 shades of gray. |
| In point | The edit point that determines the first frame of a clip to be edited into a sequence. |
| Insert edit | To insert a clip into an existing sequence into the Timeline, which automatically moves the other clips (or remaining frames of a clip) to the right to make room for it. An Insert edit does not replace existing material. |
| Interlace | The manner in which a television picture is composed, scanning alternate lines of two different video fields to create one frame every of a second in NTSC. |
| Interlaced video | A video scanning method that first scans the odd picture lines (field 1) and then scans the even picture lines (field 2), which merges them together into one single frame of video. Used in definition video. |
| IRE | A unit of measurement for luminance in an analog signal established by the Institute of Radio Engineeers (IRE). |
| Jog | To move forwards or backwards through your video one frame at a time. |
| JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) | A popular image file format that lets you create highly compressed graphics files. The amount of compression used can be varied. Less compression results in a higher quality image. |
| Jump cut | A cut in which an abrupt change occurs between two shots, with no continuity from one to the other. |
| Keyframe |
A value set at various frames of an animation. Keyframes transition from one to another over time. A control that denotes a change in value in a parameter, which when set can calculate one value to another resulting in a dynamic change to that parameter. |
| Keying | The process of creating a mask (key) to eliminate some specific background area in order to composite foreground elements against a different background. |
| Layer | An isolated collection of image content, that can be edited separately from other content in the image. Layers are controlled using the Layers palette. |
| Leading | The spacing between two lines of text in a paragraph. |
| Letterbox | When video is displayed to fit within a standard 4 x 3 monitor, putting black at the top and bottom of the picture. |
| Levels | A measurement of the color or brightness values (0 to 255) in an image generally displayed in a histogram. The levels in an image can be adjusted in the Levels dialog. |
| Lift edit | An edit function that leaves a gap when material is lifted from the Timeline. |
| Linear editing | A video editing style in which a program is edited together by copying shots from the original source tapes to a master tape, one by one. Because the assembly is linear, any changes made to an earlier point of the tape result in the rest of the edited tape being reassembled from that point forward. |
| Lines per inch (LPI) or per centimeter (LPC) | A measurement of the resolution when printing using halftones. |
| Linked clip | A clip that is connected to one or more other clips, so that when it is selected the associated clips are selected as well. Clips are linked together to keep them in sync with one another. |
| Linked selection | An option in the Final Cut Pro Timeline that, when enabled, maintains connections between linked clips. When linked selection is turned off, linked items behave as if they are not linked. |
| Locked track | A track whose contents cannot be moved or changed. |
| Mark in Sync Placing | A marker that labels the audio from another source as being in sync with a selected video clip. This disables the normal out-of-sync warnings. |
| Mask. |
An image or clip used to define areas of transparency in another clip. Similar to an alpha channel. An element used to isolate parts of a layer preventing it from being edited. Quick masks and type masks are used to create selections, while layer masks and vector masks can be used to hide parts of a layer. |
| Master clip | The fall length of the clip as it has been originally captured, from which affiliate clips, subclips, and so on are created. |
| Master shot | A single, long shot of some dramatic action from which shorter cuts such as close-ups and medium shots are taken in order to fill out the story. |
| Mastering mode | A mode in the Edit to Tape window that lets you output additional elements such as color bars and tone, a slate, and a countdown when you output your program to tape. |
| Matte | An effect that uses information in one layer of video to affect another layer. Mattes are useful when you want to use one clip to selectively hide or reveal part of another; for example, to reveal parts of a video layer by a round spotlight shape. Matte filters can be used by themselves to mask out areas of a clip, or to create alpha channel information for a clip in order to make a transparent border around the clip that can be composited against other layers. |
| Matte color | The color used to turn the semi-transparent pixels at the edges of an image fully opaque. This is needed when saving an image that cannot preserve semitransparent colors, such as GIF and PNG-8, so that the edges will integrate with the background color. |
| Motion tracking | A technique that involves selecting a particular region of an image and analyzing its motion over time. |
| Multi-pass compositing | The process of separating scenes into multiple layers, allowing flexibility in the manipulation and adjustment of the various layers. |
| Non-interlaced video | The standard representation of images on a computer, also referred to as progressive scan. The monitor displays the image by drawing each line, continuously one after the other, from top to bottom. |
| Non-linear editing (NLE) | A video editing process that uses computer hard disks to randomly access the media. It allows the editor to reorganize the clips very quickly or make changes to sections without having to recreate the entire program. |
| Non-square pixel | A pixel whose height is different than its width. A NTSC pixel is taller than it is wide, and a PAL pixel is wider than it is tall. |
| NTSC (North American Television Standards Committee) system. | A video standard used in North America and South America and a few Asian countries. |
| Over the shoulder (OTS) | A shot composed with the back of the head and shoulders of a person in the extreme foreground to provide a framing for the shot. |
| Overwrite edit | An edit where the clip being edited into a sequence replaces an existing clip. The duration of the sequence remains unchanged. |
| PAL (Phase Alternating Line) system. | A video standard used in Western Europe (including the U.K.), Australia, and most of the world. |
| Parade Scope | A modified Waveform Monitor that breaks out the red, green, and blue components of the image, showing them as three separate waveforms. Useful for comparing the relative levels of reds, greens, and blues between two clips, especially in a graphics situation. |
| Path. | A vector object used to mathematically define a line or a shape. Paths are created using anchor points and curves to set their shape. |
| Peak | Short, loud bursts of sound that last a fraction of a second and can be viewed on a digital audiometer that displays the absolute volume of an audio signal as it plays. |
| Penumbra | The soft edge of a shadow. |
| Phase | An attribute of color perception, also known as hue. |
| Phosphor |
A substance that absorbs energy and gives off photons, usually of a very specific wavelength. The photons are not the result of heat energy (in other words, this is not blackbody radiation), but rather of specific properties of the atoms in the substance. A fundamental packet of electromagnetic energy traveling through space. In some ways photons behave like particles and in other ways photons behave like waves. |
| Photoreceptors. | Light-sensitive nerve cells in the retina. (Sometimes called simply receptors.) The two main types of photoreceptors are rods and cones, so called because of their shape. Rods are responsible for low-light vision, and cones for daytime vision. There are three types of cones, each sensitive to a different part of the visible spectrum. |
| PICT | The native still-image file format for Macintosh developed by Apple Computer. PICT files can contain both vector images and bitmap images, as well as text and an alpha channel. |
| Pigment | An insoluble colorant. Pigment-based inks deliver greater stability ove time, even when exposed to light (including other elements) than dye-based inks. Used in press inks, toners, and outdoor printing. |
| Pixel | Short for "picture element", one dot in a video or still image. |
| Pixel aspect ratio | The width-to-height ratio for the pixels that compose an image. Pixels on computer screens and in high-definition video signals are square (1:1 ratio). Pixels in standard-definition video signals are non-square. |
| Pixels per inch (ppi) or pixels per centimeter (ppc). | A measurement of resolution on computer monitors or scanned images based on the number of pixels in a linear inch or centimeter of the image. |
| Plug-in | An add-on mini-application or filter that adds functionality to Photoshop. |
| Polarization. | Filtering light in such a way that only light waves of a particul orientation pass. Polarization is a key part of how LCD monitors work. Many measurement instruments also incorporate polarizing filters to reduce glare issues with glossy targets. |
| Post-production | The phase of film, video and audio editing that begins after all the footage is shot. |
| Post-roll | The amount of time that a tape machines continues to roll after the Out point of an edit, typically between two to five seconds. |
| PPI | Pixels Per Inch. This is usually used when referring to the resolution of a digital image. Contrast with dpi. |
| Premultiplication | Images have their RGB channels multiplied by their alpha channels. |
| Pre-roll | A specified amount of time, usually five seconds, given to tape machines so they can synchronize themselves to the editing computer before previewing or performing an edit. |
| Primaries | Shorthand for color primaries. A set of colors that, used together in controlled amounts, can reproduce all other colors. |
| Primatte | A technology used to extract a single color background from an image and create a transparency matte that allows the user to put the extracted foreground onto a different background. |
| Print to Video | A command in Final Cut Pro that lets you render your sequence and output it to videotape. |
| Process color printing | The four-color printing process using CMYK inks. |
| Process color | The combination of three or more primaries, in various amounts to simulate the reproduction of full color. In printing, often as a shorthand for four-color process-printing using inks. |
| Proof colors | A control that allows you to preview the image simulating a variety of reproduction processes without having to convert the image to that color work space. |
| Proxy | Lower-resolution copy that you substitute for your resolution images. |
| Proxy ratio | Determines the size relationship of the proxy to the base file. |
| Quick mask. | A type of mask used to create and edit selections tools. |
| QuickTime | Apple's cross-platform multimedia technology. Widely used for editing, compositing, CD-ROM, Web, video, and more. |
| Radiosity | The use of intensive computer calculations to simulate light bouncing off multiple objects, losing energy and changing color as part of the light absorption of a reflective surface. Scenes featuring radiosity take an extremely long time to render. |
| RAID (Random Array of Independent Disks) | A method of providing nonlinear editors with many gigabytes of high-performance data storage by formatting a group of hard disks to act as a single drive volume. |
| Range check | Options that enable zebra striping to immediately warn you of areas of a clip's image that may stray outside of the broadcast legal range. |
| Refraction | The process of light "bending" as it travels through objects with densities different from air, such as glass or water. |
| Render | The conversion of an image into a fully formed, 3D image. |
| Render | To process video and audio with any applied effects, such as transitions or filters. Effects that aren't real time must be rendered in order to play them back properly. Once rendered, your sequence can be played in real time. |
| Render file | The file produced by rendering a clip to disk. |
| Render pass | A single image rendered from a 3D scene, containing only part of the scene's properties. A Z-buffer channel included with an image is sometimes referred to as a depth pass. |
| Replace edit | Allows you to replace an existing shot in a sequence with a different shot of the same length. |
| Resolution | The measurement of the number of units that occupy a given linear area of an image. Resolution is often measured as a ratio between the number of pixels, dots, or lines per inch or centimeter in the image. |
| Reverse shot | A typical example of a reverse shot is a cut to the second person in a conversation; for example, an interviewer asking the next question after the interviewee has finished speaking. |
| RGB | An abbreviation for red, green, and blue, which are the three primary colors that make up a color image. |
| RGB channel | The combination of the red, green, and blue channels of an image. |
| RIP (raster image processor). | Software or device used by a computer, a Postscript printer, or an image setter that rasterizes vector data for output. |
| Ripple edit | An edit in which the start and end times of a range of clips on a track is adjusted when the duration of one of the clips is altered. |
| Roll edit | An edit that affects two clips that share an edit point. The Out point of the outgoing clip and the In point of the incoming clip both change, but the overall duration of the sequence stays the same. |
| Rollover state | A particular action in a rollover. Rollover state is often referred to as simply a state, but should not be confused with a History state. |
| Rollover | A web-page behavior used to change a graphic's appearance when the page visitor interacts with the graphic using the mouse pointer. Each rollover has a corresponding image state. |
| Rotation | To rotate a clip around its anchor point without changing its shape. |
| Rotoscoping | A frame-by-frame, hand-painting technique to create imagery over time. |
| Rotoshaping | A frame-by frame, shape-drawing technique to create animated shapes over time. |
| Rubberbanding | A method of editing the control points of a motion channel where the connecting line between the cursor and the last control point is continuously redrawn even while the cursor is moved. Acts like a rubber band stretched between the cursor and the last control point. |
| Sampling | The process during which analog audio is converted into digital information. The sampling rate of an audio stream specifies how many samples are captured. Higher sample rates yield higher-quality audio. |
| Saturation |
The purity of color. As saturation is decreased, the color moves towards pastel then towards a white. A color's intensity as measured by the difference in the color values used to create the color. Colors with low saturation, or chroma, have close color values rendering the color gray. |
| Screen angles | The angles at which screens used to create a halftone image are placed when printing. |
| Screen frequency | The density of dots in a screen used to create halftone images, most often measured in lines per inch (lpi) or per centimeter (lpc). |
| Scrub | To move through a clip or sequence with the aid of the playhead. Scrubbing is used to find a particular point or frame or to hear the audio. |
| SECAM (Sequential Couleur Avec Memoire) | The French television standard for playback. Similar to PAL, the playback rate is 25 fps and the frame size is 720 x 546. |
| Sequence | An edited assembly of video, audio, or graphics clips. In Final Cut Pro, sequences can be up to four hours long and contain as many clips as you need to tell your story. A sequence can contain your entire edited program or be limited to a single scene. |
| Sequence clip | A clip that has been edited into a sequence. |
| Selection tool | The default arrow-shaped pointer, which allows you to select items in the interface. For example, you use it to select a clip or edit point. |
| Shuttle | To drag the slider on the shuttle control to the right to fast-forward and to the left to rewind. Playback speed varies depending on the distance of the slider from the center of the control. |
| Shuttle control | The slider control located at the bottom of the Viewer and the Canvas in Final Cut Pro. This control is useful for continuous playback at different speeds, in fast and slow motion. It also shifts the pitch of audio as it plays at varying speeds. |
| Slate | A small board shot at the beginning of a scene, which identifies the scene with basic production information such as the take, date, and scene. The slate may also contain a chip chart to aid in color correcting the scene. A clapper provides an audiovisual cue for synchronization of dual system recordings. |
| Slide edit | An edit in which an entire clip is moved, along with the edit points on its left and right. The duration of the clip being moved stays the same, but the clips to the left and to the right of it change in length to accommodate the new positioning of the clip. The overall duration of the sequence and of these three clips remains the same. |
| Slip edit | An edit in which the location of both In and Out points of a clip are changed at the same time, without changing the location or duration of marked media. This is referred to as slipping because you slip a pair of In and Out points inside the available footage. |
| SMPTE (Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers) | The organization responsible for establishing various broadcast video standards like the SMPTE standard for video playback. |
| Solo | An audio monitoring feature in which one audio track from a group may be isolated for listening without having to remove it from the group. |
| SOT |
Acronym for sound on tape. A short excerpt taken from an interview clip. |
| Split clip | A clip that's been edited to contain only its video track or its audio track. |
| Split edit | An edit in which the video track or the audio track of a synchronized clip ends up being longer than the other; for example, the sound is longer than the video at the head of the clip, so it is heard before the video appears. Also referred to as an L-cut. |
| Spread | An audio control that allows you to adjust the amount of of separation of stereo channels. |
| Spot color | Solid ink colors used in a print job. Spot colors can be used in addition to black or process colors to preserve a "pure" color that will appear more vibrant than if it was created using process inks. Each spot color requires its own channel in the Channels palette and plate for printing but is color mode independent. |
| Square pixel | A pixel that has the same height as width. Computer monitors have square pixels, but NTSC and PAL video do not. |
| Static region | An area in a sequence in the Final Cut Pro Timeline that you lock so that it is visible even when you scroll to see other tracks. It can contain audio tracks, video tracks, or both. When you create a static region, you get three regions in the Timeline: a top, scrollable region for the other video tracks; a middle static region; and a bottom scrollable region for the other audio tracks. You can't scroll up or down in the static region, but you can use it to accommodate more or fewer tracks. |
| Stereo audio | Sound that is separated into two channels, one carrying the sounds for the right ear and one for the left ear. Stereo pairs are linked and are always edited together. Audio level changes are automatically made to both channels at the same time. A pair of audio items may have their stereo pairing enabled or disabled at any time. |
| Storyboard | A series of pictures that summarizes the content, action, and flow of a proposed project. |
| Straight cut | An edit in which both the video and audio tracks are cut together to the Timeline. |
| Streaming | The delivery of media over an intranet or over the Internet. |
| Super black | Black that is darker than the levels allowed by the CCIR 601 engineering standard for video. The CCIR 601 standard for black is 7.5 IRE in the United States, and 0 IRE for PAL and for NTSC in Japan. |
| Superimpose edit | An edit in which an incoming clip is placed into a track adjacent to a clip that's already in the at the position of the playhead. If no In or Out points are set in the and Canvas, the previously edited clip's In and Out points are used to define the duration of the incoming clip. Superimposed edits are used to overlay titles and text onto video, as well as to create other compositing effects. |
| Superwhite | A value or degree of white that is brighter than the accepted normal value of 100 IRE allowed by the CCIR 601. |
| Sweetening | The process of creating a high-quality sound mix by polishing sound levels, re-recording bad sections of dialogue, and recording and adding narration, music, and sound effects. |
| Sync | The relationship between the image of a sound being made in a video clip (for example, a person talking) and the corresponding sound in an audio clip. |
| Tail | The end frames of a clip. |
| Thumbnail | A small, "thumbnail-sized" version of an image. |
| Transition | A visual effect that is applied between two edits, such as a dissolve, wipe, or iris. |
| Transition Editor | A specialized editor that appears in the Final Cut Pro Viewer when you double-click a transition used to make detailed changes to a transition's timing and effects parameters. |
| Transparency | Areas in a layer that contain no pixels, allowing pixels from layers underneath to show through. If there is no background layer and there are no pixels in the image on any layers in a given area, the transparency pattern will show through. |
| Trap | A technique used when preparing images for process color printing that helps reduce the number of unwanted gaps that sometimes appear when printing using halftone screens by adding overlapping areas of color. |
| Type mask | A type of mask used to create and edit selections using type tools. |
| Vector mask | A vector-based mask created using paths applied to a specific layer. |
| Web-safe colors | The 216 colors (based on an color palette) that the Macintosh and Windows operating systems share in common in their color palette. Web browsers on older computers display only a maximum of 256 colors, and the 216 browsers-safe colors always display on these machines with little or no change from machine to machine. |
| White balance | To make adjustments to a video signal being recorded in order to reproduce white as true white. |
| White level | An analog video signal's amplitude for the lightest white, represented by IRE units. |
| White point | The level at which pixels in an image are white. Tones in the image are adjusted from that point so that there is a smooth transition with minimal colorcasts. You can adjust the black point, gray point, and white point in both the Levels and Curves dialogs of Photoshop. |
| Wide screen mask filter | To add black bars across the top and bottom of a 4 x 3 image that crops it to a 16 x 9 format. |
| Widescreen | A format for shooting and projecting a movie in theaters in which the original footage doesn't get cut off because of the 4:3 aspect ratio. With the advent of high-definition video, widescreen video is coming into more popular use. |
| XML (Extensible Metadata Platform) | The format used for file information embedded in an image file by Photoshop. XMP is an open standard based on XML. |
| YUV | The 3 channel PAL video signal with one luminance (Y) and two chrominance color difference signals (UV). It is often misapplied to refer to NTSC video, which is YIQ. |
