Video Editing Foundations: The Cut

Hi Storytellers! Happy Filmmaking Thursday!

I was surprised to find out that many women entrepreneurs couldn’t find a tutorial that taught them the basics of video editing. I thought for sure there must have been some out there. But since I saw so many people asking for it, I thought I’d create it myself. Today we are starting out with the most basic element of video editing: The Cut.

So let’s jump in. For this we are going to be using Camtasia.

The first thing you always want to do is make sure your files are organized on your computer. Watch this blog post to get that straightened out http://www.danariverafilms.com/organizevideofiles

Once your files are ready to go, you’ll want to open up Camtasia. Drag and drop your video files into the program’s browser and you’re ready to start.

The cut is the most important tool in editing. A cut usually has a beginning and an end. Let’s say you want to cut out a mistake you made. You’ll need to cut it off from the original file at the beginning and end of that mistake. The first thing you need to do is bring the clip down to the timeline.

Next, you need to locate the mistake you want to cut out and drag the playhead to that time in the timeline. You always want to play the clip starting at your selection to make sure you are getting to the beginning of the part you want to cut. You can use the arrow keys on your keyboard to fast forward or rewind with increased accuracy.

OK, so now you are at the beginning of the part you want to cut out. You can go to edit, and then split selection at playhead. You’ll see in the timeline that there is now a split in your clip. You can also use the keyboard shortcut “command T”, on a MAC, to accomplish this. Now you’ll have to go to the end of what you want to cut out and hit “command T” to cut at that position as well.

At this point, you can simply select the clip you cut and delete it. You can also trim the clip by dragging the second half of your split clip from the first cut you made to the end of what it is that you need to cut out. Now all you have to do is move the two edited parts of the video next to each other and play it through!

And that’s how you create a cut! Remember that a cut has a beginning and end and you need to know both positions to make a great cut.

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