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Best approach to simple editing
I have a 3-minute clip, and I would like to use 5 discrete clips from it, each about 10 seconds.
Which is the better approach:
(1) Put the clip in the timeline and slice it up with the Razor Tool, deleting what’s not needed; or
(2) Trim the whole clip five times, each time leaving the desired 10-second portion?
Please let me know if question is not clear.
Thank you very much.
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3 Replies
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Option 1
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Jeff,
I am running into two problems with that approach:
(1) not enough extra frames for fade-ins and fade-outs to latch into.
(2) I am getting confused and cannot find the right spot!
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Hi Tony,
You need to get yourself some training then. Read the HELP files, watch tutorials online, get a book. This is very basic stuff.
I think what may be confusing you on the transitions is the way they behave. You’ve trimmed the end of the first clip to exactly where you want it to end, and the beginning of the second clip is trimmed to exactly where you want it to start.
Then you add a Dissolve between them and you start seeing footage you had cut out! Does that sound about right?
Think of a dissolve this way – the end of the first clip and beginning of second clip need to OVERLAP one another for the dissolve to take place between them. With the 30 frame dissolve, you’re going to see 15 extra frames playing from end of first clip, and 15 extra frames at the beginning of next clip.
Brief history lesson to help you visualize. Older versions of Premiere used what they call “A-B editing”. You have Video Track A and Video Track B above one another, and sandwiched between them, the Transition track. If you wanted a Dissolve, you’d have the first clip on A and second clip on B. The ends would overlap. The transition effect would then be added in between, where the clips overlapped. For a longer transition, move clips to increase the overlap area.
So what can be confusing with Premiere now is that is uses single-track editing, where clips are not overlapped, so when you add a transition those extra frames need to come from somewhere!
So what you need to do when CUTTING the clips is if you know you want a 30 frame dissolve at the edit point, choose what you want as the final frame of the clip, then trim an additional 15 frames off to allow space for the transition to work. For next clip, choose start frame, then ADD another 15 frames before. Now when they are butted together and you add the transition, no surprises. No “Where did that come from, I though I had trimmed that footage!?”
After the transition is added, it is easy to adjust the ends of either clip – position the mouse (Selection tool) at the cut point and it turns into a bracket. Choose left or right of cut to determine which way bracket faces to show which clip you will be trimming. Now HOLD the CTRL key and bracket will change, and then move mouse left or right to add/remove frames from the end of the clip, thus adjusting the edit point. This will ripple the timeline as you adjust, leaving transition intact and no gaps in timeline.
Try it and it will make sense
Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers
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