- Reference 4.1 Understanding a Project
- Exercise 4.1.1 Creating a Project
- Reference 4.2 Defining the Primary Storyline
- Exercise 4.2.1 Appending the Primary Storyline
- Exercise 4.2.2 Rearranging Clips in the Primary Storyline
- Reference 4.3 Modifying Clips in the Primary Storyline
- Exercise 4.3.1 Performing Insert Edits
- Exercise 4.3.2 Rippling the Primary Storyline
- Reference 4.4 Timing the Primary Storyline
- Exercise 4.4.1 Inserting a Gap Clip
- Exercise 4.4.2 Blading and Deleting
- Exercise 4.4.3 Joining a Through Edit
- Exercise 4.4.4 Refining Some Sound Bite Edits
- Reference 4.5 Editing Above the Primary Storyline
- Exercise 4.5.1 Adding and Trimming Connected B-roll
- Exercise 4.5.2 Understanding Connected Clip Sync and Trimming Behaviors
- Reference 4.6 Creating a Connected Storyline
- Exercise 4.6.1 Converting Connected Clips into a Connected Storyline
- Exercise 4.6.2 Appending Clips to a Connected Storyline
- Reference 4.7 Editing Below the Primary Storyline
- Exercise 4.7.1 Connecting a Music Clip
- Reference 4.8 Finessing the Rough Cut
- Exercise 4.8.1 Adjusting the Edits
- Exercise 4.8.2 Adjusting Clip Volume Levels
- Exercise 4.8.3 Connecting Two Additional B-Roll Clips
- Exercise 4.8.4 Refining Edits Using Cross Dissolves and Fade Handles
- Reference 4.9 Sharing Your Progress
- Exercise 4.9.1 Sharing an iOS-Compatible File
- Lesson Review
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Exercise 4.3.2 Rippling the Primary Storyline
When you pulled your select sound bites in Lesson 3, you included some extraneous material. (The reason you left some extra material in your favorites will become apparent during this exercise.) However, everyday editing is all about trimming down to create a more concise story, or padding the story to extend its length. You will now learn how to use ripple trimming to remove that extra content, and also how to reinsert content when you trim off too much.
Locate the skimmer toward the end of MVI_1055, the second clip in the project. Play the end of this clip to review what Mitch says.
Some extra content, where Mitch says, “Uh, so,” needs to be trimmed, leaving a new end point after Mitch says, “Whole new look.”
Before you perform this bit of clip trimming, zoom in on the edit so that you may operate the tools with greater precision.
With your skimmer or playhead cued around the end of MVI_1055, press Command-= (equals sign) to zoom into the Timeline.
As you zoom, the thumbnails and waveforms expand to reveal where the trim should occur. The “uhh, so” phrase is displayed as the peaks of waveforms at the end of the clip. You’ll remove those hesitations. In addition, Mitch takes a breath after ending the preceding sentence with the word “look.” Examining the audio waveforms, you can see a drop in the waveforms after he enunciates the “k” in “look.” You’ll cue the playhead after the “k,” and then use the ripple trim function to remove the breath and “uhh, so” material.
Identify the new end point by cueing the playhead after Mitch says the “k” in “look” and before Mitch breathes and says, “uhh, so” at the end of MVI_1055.
To set the playhead precisely, you can press the J K L keys and the Left Arrow and Right Arrow keys. Locating the playhead at the desired trim point allows you to use snapping to make an exact trim. You’ll perform this ripple trim with the default Select tool. This tool automatically changes function based on its location in the Timeline.
In the Tools pop-up menu in the Timeline, verify that the Select tool is chosen, or press A.
In the Timeline, place the mouse pointer over the end point of the clip.
Without clicking, slowly move the mouse pointer back and forth across the edit point between the two clips’ edit points.
Notice how the pointer icon changes as the mouse pointer moves from one side of the edit to the other. The changing icon indicates that the Select tool automatically becomes the ripple trim tool.
The ripple trim icon has a small filmstrip that always points toward the clip you will trim. Because you want to change the end point of MVI_1055, the filmstrip must point left toward the clip.
With the ripple trim’s filmstrip pointing toward the left, drag the end of the clip until it snaps to the playhead.
Review the edit you completed by playing this portion of the Timeline.
You easily changed the end point of the clip, thereby removing the extraneous content. The ripple trim also moved all the following clips earlier in the Timeline to fill in for the removed content. Now you’ll trim off the start of the same clip.
To quickly scroll left in the project and jump to the start point of MVI_1055, press the Up Arrow key once, or twice if necessary. Also, you may want to zoom out a little in your Timeline view by pressing Command-– (minus).
Pressing the Up Arrow key cues the playhead to the previous edit point in the project. Conversely, pressing the Down Arrow key cues the playhead to the next edit.
Play the start of MVI_1055 to identify the new start point before Mitch says, “And really the passion.”
You will cue the playhead between Mitch saying, “of film” and “And really.” Ideally, you will find a frame for an edit that has the interview subject appearing with eyes open and mouth closed or nearly closed. In this clip, you’ll find just such a frame as Mitch finishes the word “film.”
With the playhead parked at the new start point’s location, 00:00:05:01, place the Select tool over the clip’s current start point.
This time, the filmstrip of the ripple trim pointer will point to the right toward MVI_1055.
Drag the start point of MVI_1055 and snap it to the playhead.
When ripple trimming a start point, you may notice that the clip to the left appears to move. However, the clip did not move because it still starts at 0:00. As you trimmed content from the beginning of MVI_1055, the clip’s duration shortened, the following clips rippled left in time, and the Timeline timecode shifted accordingly.
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4.3.2-A Using the Keyboard to Ripple Trim an End Point
Sometimes the mouse or trackpad does not offer sufficiently fine control to perform a trim without setting an extreme view or altering your System Preferences. Fortunately, you can use keyboard shortcuts for greater precision.
Press Command-– (minus sign) once or twice to zoom out in the Timeline view. Locate the end point of the second, shorter MVI_1043 clip. Cue the playhead to timecode 00:00:45:16 before Mitch utters an extraneous “so.”
Because you have heard this interview already, you know that Mitch runs words and sentences together, thereby making this edit more difficult. Let’s turn to keyboard shortcuts to help trim this clip.
With the filmstrip icon pointing toward the left, select the end point of the second MVI_1043 clip.
With the end point selected, you can use keyboard shortcuts to trim the clip one frame at a time. Note the timecode of the playhead’s location. As you perform this trim edit, the playhead jumps to the point you’re trimming rather than staying anchored as it did while dragging the edit point. That means you will trim the point with the keyboard while monitoring the timecode displayed beneath the Viewer to accurately trim this edit.
Press the , (comma) key multiple times to ripple trim, removing content frame by frame, until the timecode displays 00:00:45:16.
If necessary, press the
(period) key multiple times to insert content frame by frame.Skim to just before the edit point, and then play back the project to check your results.
Did you remove the word “so” and not trim off the end of “experiencing”? Depending on your earlier selection of this sound bite, you may have to remove about 10 frames of material. This trim edit will take a few tries to perfect.
More Keyboard, Less MouseUsing the following keyboard shortcuts will have you reaching for the mouse less often:
Pressing the Up Arrow or Down Arrow keys jumps the playhead to the edit point for trimming.
Pressing the [ (Left Bracket) key selects the end point of the clip to the left; pressing the ] (Right Bracket) key selects the start point of the clip to the right.
Pressing the , (comma) key nudges the selection left by 1 frame; pressing the
(period) key nudges the selection right by 1 frame.Pressing Shift-? (question mark) cues the playhead two seconds back and then plays to the edit and two seconds beyond.
Proceed through the project, removing extraneous clip content. You’ll need to remove breaths at the start or end of clips in addition to any instances of “so” or “uhh.” When you’re finished, the project should resemble the following table:
Lifted Vignette Edit in Progress
Clip
Project timecode
Start dialogue
End dialogue
MVI_1042
00:00:00:00
Flying is
a little kid
MVI_1055
00:00:03:00
And really the
whole new look
MVI_1043
00:00:20:08
One thing that
what we’re shooting
MVI_1043
00:00:37:15
As I’m technically
what we’re experiencing
MVI_1044
00:00:44:13
You know it’s
opener for me
MVI_1045
00:00:50:23
Every time we may be
see or capture
MVI_1046
00:01:00:14
At the end of the day
adventure I went on
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Checkpoint 4.3.2
Refer to Appendix C for details on reviewing a Checkpoint.
