What is the difference between linear and nonlinear editing?

Answer 1

Great question! Let's begin by thinking about the word "linear," which means "line-like" or describes something having to do with lines. In math, we know about linear equations, in which there's an x value for every y in a function. In the old days of audio, video, and film editing, we actually cut and pasted the physical tape or film to make an edit. We used big editing machines that allowed us to scrub over the tape (or film negative) to find the spot where we wanted to cut. We'd mark that spot on the tape (or film) with a grease pencil and then cut it using a razor blade. We used a special tape to "paste" the loose ends together again, or to add new stuff. This is how it worked in the old analog days of editing. In fact, the word "bin" refers to the big container we would use to store all the tape or film "out takes." We could also take a strip of tape and tape the two ends together to make a "loop." All the edits were done physically on the imagined straight line of the medium, whether it was tape or film. In the late 1980s, digital technology was born, and with it came the ability to do all the cutting and pasting of a film or tape on a computer. Editing was suddenly much easier to do, and audio and visual media became much more flexible. We were suddenly freed from the constraints of the "line" of the physical tape or film, and could move things in or out of that line with ease. Digital editing (which most people take for granted now) is what we mean by "non linear" editing. In the old days, making a cut somewhere on a tape would be a kind of permanent thing. It was "destructive" since the original tape would never be the same after editing. Non-linear editing is typically "non-destructive," meaning that the original sources (whether they are analog, like tape or film, or digital), are kept safe and in their original condition throughout the editing process. Hope that helps!