Media editing tools provide a number of representations of the current state of a video composition that is being edited. Most common are the timeline representation and the storyboard representation. Timeline representations represent a composition as a sequence of clips, each of the clips having a length corresponding to the temporal duration of the clip. Thus the timeline provides a view of the temporal makeup of a composition. The storyboard representation shows the sequence of items in a composition as a sequence of elements that are displayed in a manner that is unrelated to the temporal duration of the element. For example, each storyboard element may be displayed with a fixed size, or have a size determined by the quantity of descriptive text displayed for the element. The storyboard representation provides a convenient indication of the sequence of story elements or other thematic units within the composition, regardless of their temporal duration.
In existing systems, the user must choose one of the two representations. For example, when working with the storyboard, duration information is not shown. Conversely, when working with the timeline, the overall thematic structure of the composition may not be apparent.