Which task is not performed directly on the timeline?

• A. Trimming and cutting
• B. Panning across frames
• C. Adding transitions
• D. Exporting the final master

Answer: (D)

Editing on the timeline involves shaping the footage you’ve placed there: you trim and cut clips to adjust their length, you create movement within a shot (such as panning) by adjusting position or adding motion keyframes, and you place transitions between clips to smooth the cut. These tasks are all about manipulating the sequence as it exists in the project’s timeline.

Exporting the final master, on the other hand, is a separate step that happens after editing is finished. It takes the assembled timeline, applies the chosen delivery settings (format, resolution, bitrate, audio options), and renders or encodes the project into a final file. This is not an editing operation on the timeline itself; it’s the output stage that produces the finished video. So the task that isn’t performed directly on the timeline is exporting the final master.