The Temporal Perspective On A Process

Halliday & Matthiessen (1999: 214):

This takes many different guises in different languages, even within the same language; such as

(a) in focus: ongoing, out of focus: terminated;

(b) in focus: significant in itself, out of focus: significant for what follows;

(c) in focus: actualised, out of focus: visualised.

(It is the last of these that is relevant to English.)