Timeline

The horizontal track where time itself is edited. Left is before, right is after; the whole grammar of the cut lives here.

The timeline is time laid flat where hands can reach it: a sequence of decisions about order, duration and simultaneity, readable at a glance. Left is already; right is not yet; the stack above is everything happening at once. It is the cut's entire grammar, spatialised.

Reading timelines is diagnostic: a healthy one shows rhythm in its very silhouette, long holds, tight flurries, room to breathe. A choppy silhouette usually means a choppy film. When a cut is not working, we zoom the timeline out and look at its shape before rewatching a single frame; the pattern often confesses first.