Essential edits
Learn the editing techniques that make for perfect movies
1 Create a new movie Choose File > New Movie. You’ll see themed templates that automatically add graphics, titles and transitions as you add clips to the timeline. This is great for a novice, but if you want freedom to add those manually, select No Theme. 2 ADjust thumbnail SIZE To make your imported footage easier to browse, click the cog in the My Media panel. Drag the Clip Size slider right to enlarge thumbnails. Fit more clips in the panel by dragging the Zoom slider left, or right to show more frames from each. 4 Use the Precision Editor We want this digging dog’s plume of pebbles to fly out at the wide shot’s end and flow into the close-up. Double-click the first’s trim handle to open the Precision Editor, then drag each clip left or right to set end and start points accurately. 5 Make a split edit Move the pointer over a timeline’s clip to find a place to split it. Click to put the playhead there, then right-click the clip and choose Split Clip. You can drag either of the split parts elsewhere in the timeline, or insert footage between them. 7 Add a cutawa y For visual variety, break up a long clip with a cutaway shot. Drag a selection from My Media above an existing clip in the timeline. Drag the cutaway’s bar to alter when it appears. This gives you more freedom than inserting into the timeline. 8 Picture in picture Select the cutaway, click the overlapping rectangles icon above the Viewer, then use the popup below to combine the cutaway and lower layers as a split screen, or a moveable Picture-in-Picture effect with optional drop shadow or border.
3 Add clips to the timeline Move the pointer over clips in My Media to see their content. Drag across one to select a section of it, then click the + to add that to the timeline. To extend a placed clip, drag from its right edge. Add a few clips to start telling your story.
6 Insert a clip A quicker way to split a clip in the timeline and insert media in the middle is to perform an insert edit. Select part of a clip in My Media, then drag it onto a clip in the timeline. Pick Insert from the contextual menu that appears.
9 Retime a clip Video can go from real-time to slow motion playback. Split a clip, then click the second part and choose a speed in Modify > Slow Motion. A tortoise icon appears. Drag the clip’s retiming handle (at its top-right corner) to fine-tune its speed.