Film Editing

Outsiders broadly call any change between shots a 'transition,' but insiders use 'dissolve' to describe a specific gradual blending technique often used to show the passage of time.

Non-experts might say 'simple fade' for scene transitions, but insiders use 'fade to black' to describe the gradual dimming of picture to black, often signifying an ending or break.

Outsiders refer to moving quickly through footage as 'fast forwarding,' but editors use 'J-cut' to describe an editing technique where audio from the next scene precedes the video cut.

While outsiders think of a 'cutting room' as the place where editing happens, insiders call the initial stage 'offline editing,' where lower quality footage is edited before final finishing.

People often call it a 'movie cut' when referring to a version of the film, but editors distinguish the 'rough cut' as the first assembled edit before fine-tuning.

Casual viewers call a portion of the film a 'scene,' but editors distinguish a 'sequence' as a series of scenes linked by a single idea or location.

While outsiders say 'cut' to mean any change of shot, insiders use 'splice' to specifically describe the physical or digital joining of two film strips or clips.

Casual viewers just say the music is added over footage; editors use 'temp track' for temporary music used to guide the scene's pacing before the final score is composed.

Casual observers say 'special effects' for any post-production imagery, but insiders use 'visual effects' or 'VFX' to specify digitally created imagery added during editing.

Outsiders might say 'movie computer' or 'editing computer,' whereas insiders refer specifically to software like Avid, Adobe Premiere, or Final Cut Pro as 'Non-Linear Editors' due to their random access editing capabilities.