Your Desktop Editing Suite

All nonlinear editing systems use a graphical interface that to some degree refers to their predecessors: film- and tape-based editing tools. Yet as these traditional tools yield to newer technologies, the metaphors lose much of their meaning. These days, many editors have never seen a film splicer or a traditional video-editing suite. Nevertheless, it may help you to understand what Premiere Pro CS3 does if you realize what it’s designed to replace.

Before programs like Premiere Pro CS3, offline editing was synonymous with inexpensive, but very limited, editing equipment. In a typical offline suite, you’d create a simple cuts-only edit (no dissolves or other transitions) using low-quality copies of the camera originals called window dubs. In a window dub, timecode numbers were recorded over the picture (not actual timecode, but a “picture” of the timecode). When editing was complete, you could painstakingly transcribe the timecode numbers at the beginning and end of each shot to create the edit-decision list.