Offline and Online Workflow

What this is about

The split exists because storytelling and image quality need different machines. In offline an editor tries hundreds of versions on small files, where every change is cheap and nobody cares about resolution. Once the cut is agreed, the online stage relinks to the camera originals, rebuilds effects at full size, brings in titles and hands the result to grading and sound. The handover between the two happens through an exported list, not by copying a project, which is why clean naming and reliable timecode decide how painful the day turns out.

A term only helps when everyone on set means the same thing by it — so what follows is how it is used, not a dictionary definition.

What runs differently here

In planning terms, that means:

• Offline is about story decisions, online is about image quality — do not mix the two stages
• The handover runs through an exported list plus the original media, not a copied project file
• Every rename or moved folder between the stages costs time at exactly the wrong moment

With TillyGen

With approval rounds tracked in TillyGen, it is unambiguous which version was signed off — and therefore which cut goes into the online stage.

Change one constraint and the consequences travel through the whole plan: affected shots are flagged, the call sheet is regenerated, and nobody keeps working from yesterday's version.