Editors often look for ways to manage long video files into workable segments called Subclips that can be separately organized, quickly referenced, and edited into the timeline. The original clip the editor extracts subclips from is often referred to as the Master Clip.

Sometimes a Director will instruct an actor to do a specific action or say a few lines of dialogue multiple times before calling “cut”. These multiple takes live on one media file and are called a Series. It is noted as SER for short, which is typically written on the slate to inform the editor that there are multiple takes. This approach can give themselves more options when editing together the final project. During the editing process, the strongest performance that works well for the story is selected.

During production, the Director may ask the actors to reset their positions back to where they were standing when the scene began. An assistant editor will name these moments in the clip Restarts. In some instances, the Director may ask the actors to pick up their performance at a specific line or action in the middle of the scene, instead of going back to the beginning. An assistant editor will name these moments in the clip Pickups because they are partially restarted scenes.

Many times, an Editor will ask the Assistant Editor to create a Subclip of each take, when there are multiple takes on one clip. Subclipping allows the editor to separate long files as if they were individual takes.

Often, onset paperwork such as the Facing Page provided by the Script Supervisor will be used by the Assistant Editor to identify what takes contain series when preparing subclips.