The film editor, at this stage, will need to build a rough cut from the individual takes or shots.
The rough cut will enable the film editor to decide which shots are the best. It is not uncommon for the director to be heavily involved in this process to ensure that most appropriate shots are selected. To get all the shots to smoothly flow together, trimming is done during this stage. Trimming shortens the scenes just by a few seconds by reducing the number of frames in the shot.
Once the director and producer have both approved the fine cut, the editor creates a negative cut list, or an edit decision list, from the “locked” picture.
As the picture is now locked it is now the responsibility of the postproduction Sound Editor to build the sound track and synchronize the voice recordings.
The film is finally ready to be previewed by selected members of the target audience. Feedback is essential and may indicate that further shooting or editing is required.
With two distinct ways of putting a film together, linear and Non-Linear, it really depends on the type of film, locations, and the order in which scenes have been shot.
When all the parts of the film are in order and do not need to be moved or rearranged, this is commonly known as linear editing. Non-linear editing is not using the film in the recorded/taped order. Scenes are consistently moved, removed, and rearranged.