Editing has a vocabulary of its own, and Lightworks adds a few terms with long heritage. This glossary covers the words used throughout this guide.
Lightworks terms
- Bin - a folder for organising clips, sequences, and other items within a project.
- Collection - a saved grouping of bins and items in the Content Manager.
- Content Manager - the panel for browsing and organising everything in the project.
- Cue - a marker placed on a clip or sequence, optionally with a comment.
- Log - the record of a clip in the project (its name, marks, metadata), as distinct from the media file it references.
- Marked section - the region between the in and out marks on a clip or sequence.
- Project space - a location holding projects; can be local or shared on a network.
- Proxy - a lightweight copy of a clip used for smooth playback; originals are used for export.
- Sequence - an edited programme on a timeline; other applications call this a timeline or edit.
- Subclip - a new clip that references a section of an existing clip.
- Sync clip - picture and sound (or several angles) locked together to play as one item.
- Clip Link - the timeline switch that decides whether a clip travels with the clips it is linked to on other tracks, so picture and its sync sound select and move as one.
- Clip link - the remembered relationship between clips that makes them behave as one. Created automatically when you lay material into a sequence, and set by hand with Link and Unlink. Shown by a chain icon on the clip.
- Link / Unlink - the commands that join the selected clips into one clip link group, or separate them again.
- Track Sync - the switch, with the master track buttons above the track headers, that decides how far sync is maintained on the tracks an edit was not aimed at when material moves.
- Track state - whether a track is enabled for editing. It decides which tracks a keyboard, console or menu edit is aimed at; a mouse click names its own subject.
Editing terms
- Cut - an instant change from one shot to the next; also the act of splitting a clip.
- Dissolve - a transition that blends one shot into the next.
- Split - adding a cut without removing anything, making two clips out of one. The half after the cut becomes a clip in its own right, so it is no longer linked to what the original was linked to.
- Drop Zone - the strip above the video tracks and below the audio tracks; material dropped there lands on new tracks created for it.
- Handle - spare frames beyond a clip's in or out point, needed for trims and transitions.
- In / out points - marks defining where a clip's use begins and ends.
- Insert - an edit that pushes existing material later to make room for the new.
- J-cut / L-cut - split edits where sound leads or lags its picture.
- Replace - an edit that overwrites what's on the timeline without moving anything.
- Ripple - the knock-on movement of later material when an edit changes duration.
- Slip / slide - trims that change which frames a clip shows, or where a clip sits, without changing surrounding cuts.
- Smart trim - the switch that decides whether a one-sided trim ripples the timeline or is absorbed by the black beside it.
- Trim - adjusting an edit point - lengthening or shortening clips at a cut.
Technical terms
- Bitrate - the amount of data per second in an encoded file; the main quality/size trade-off.
- Codec - the method used to encode video or audio (H.264, ProRes, DNx).
- Container / wrapper - the file format holding encoded streams (MP4, MOV, MXF).
- EDL / AAF / XML - interchange formats that describe an edit for other systems.
- Frame rate - frames per second; the project's rate is set at creation.
- Keyframe - a recorded parameter value at a specific frame; the basis of animation.
- LUT - a lookup table that transforms colour, often for camera log footage.
- Timecode - the time-based address of every frame in a clip or sequence.
- VFR - variable frame rate, common in phone recordings; corrected on import to keep sync.
- Waveform - the visual representation of audio loudness over time.