Non-linear video editing systems (NLEs) typically offer multiple ways to view material, with options to display the editing interface across several screens. Figure 2 shows Final Cut Pro (FCP) in action. The main iMac Pro screen at the top left displays panes containing selected material for the next edit, the timeline below with thumbnail images and the clip below the playhead in the timeline displayed above and on a separate monitor. The iPad next to the keyboard is displaying ‘filmstrips’ with thumbnail representations of material available for editing.
Other NLEs, such as DaVinci Resolve, offer even more flexibility, allowing editors to arrange the interface across many screens to suit their needs. Along with the image content, FCP can display metadata such as timecode and clip names, along with technical data such as video scopes to indicate the brightness and colour of the video being edited. This hypermediacy delivers simultaneous streams of information useful to the editor, such as seeing the approach of the next video edit on the timeline before the cut is displayed.
When ‘immediacy’ is required, FCP can be switched to ‘full screen’, so the interface disappears, leaving only the video content playing across the whole monitor. When reviewing an edited sequence in full screen there is still the temptation to pause the playback and return to the editing interface to address any points of interest or concern. The editor can leave the edit suite and watch the programme played out to a television to access the immediacy that will be experienced by the eventual audience.
Non-linear video editing systems (NLEs) typically offer multiple ways to view material, with options to display the editing interface across several screens. The figure above shows Final Cut Pro (FCP) in action. The main iMac Pro screen at the top left displays panes containing selected material for the next edit, the timeline below with thumbnail images and the clip below the playhead in the timeline displayed above and on a separate monitor. The iPad next to the keyboard is displaying ‘filmstrips’ with thumbnail representations of material available for editing. Other NLEs, such as DaVinci Resolve, offer even more flexibility, allowing editors to arrange the interface across many screens to suit their needs. Along with the image content, FCP can display metadata such as timecode and clip names, along with technical data such as video scopes to indicate the brightness and colour of the video being edited. This hypermediacy delivers simultaneous streams of information useful to the editor, such as seeing the approach of the next video edit on the timeline before the cut is displayed. When ‘immediacy’ is required, FCP can be switched to ‘full screen’, so the interface disappears, leaving only the video content playing across the whole monitor. When reviewing an edited sequence in full screen there is still the temptation to pause the playback and return to the editing interface to address any points of interest or concern. The editor can leave the edit suite and watch the programme played out to a television to access the immediacy that will be experienced by the eventual audience.
Live television news broadcasting is an everyday example of example of hypermediacy that viewers may access via several screen-based devices, such as mobile phones, tablets, laptops, computer monitors and televisions, which can be used in a range of settings, from the domestic to workplace and outdoor public spaces. Within the frame of the news programme, the viewer has several ‘features’ vying for attention: for example, the studio-based lead journalist or anchor, live or recorded footage from the location of the story that may include a reporter, interviewees and other filming, a live discussion with guest commentators who may be present in the studio or elsewhere, a window in which the miniaturised sign language interpreter translates what is said for D/deaf people, subtitling for people who are hearing-impaired and others watching on a muted television, various text-based news crawls that slide across the bottom of the screen, and the logo of the television company. National television weather forecasts sometimes present QR codes on-screen that once scanned allow viewer to view more localised meteorological information on a mobile phone.