Edit to the Maxx - The Art of the Digital Cut - Part 12

by Steve Mullen
Published on Nov 10, 2006 12:00 PM



  

  

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Part 11 - Timeline and the Ripple Effect  
   
If you read most books on Avid editing you will find they devote little time to trimming clips in the Source monitor. They assume you will simply toss untrimmed clips in the correct order into the timeline—and then begin to edit. Is this technique wrong?
It is not, but it is I believe, based upon the assumption that the editor has logged the clips on the tape—or has detailed notes from an assistant. During the logging process, the contents of what will become clips have been viewed. Moreover, because historically storage has been very expensive (my first 2GB disk cost $4000), only “useful” material was digitized from tape to a clip.
Today, with DV and HDV folks simply capture a whole tape. An hour requires only 13GB; a fraction of what is available on an iPod. Then they use Scene Detect to automatically fill a Bin with clips. Therefore, when they start editing they may have never seen their source material. Moreover, Scene Detect may yield clips with little or no acceptable shots and clips may have multiple shots. Thus, today trimming clips in the Source monitor is an important part of the editing process.
Nevertheless, it is often a huge waste of time to fine trim clips before they are placed into a Sequence. That’s because the beginning and end of a clip depends on its context which is the end of the previous clip and the beginning of the next clip. In short, one should trim the junction of two clips. Not doing so can make your video will look like a PowerPoint presentation.
Let’s consider an example. A man leaves a woman sitting in a room by slamming the door. In the next shot we see him slam the door and walk down the hall. If we place the cut-point a second or two after the door slams, we emphasize the woman who’s “been left behind.” The next shot must begin after the door slam. (How long is a judgment that must be made by seeing and hearing the two shots played back. You cannot simply use a stopwatch.)
If, however, we cut on the door slam—and it is good editing practice to cut on event, especially an audible event—our focus shifts to the man and “why he left.” Here again, we need to see and hear the cut. We might, for example, want more of the door slam to appear in the second shot.
Edge Trimming
If you have used almost any other NLE, you know you can simply click on a clip’s end-point and drag it earlier (out-point) or later (in-point). If you try this with Free DV, you will drag the entire clip.
If you want to edge trim, you must first place Xpress into Trim Mode. However, once you enter Trim mode, you have access to far better ways of trimming.
For this Lesson, we will assume you have one of these types of Sequences: video with sync audio in V1 and A1; video-only in V1; or audio-only in A1 or A2 or A1 and A2. (See Lesson 7 where you created “even” numbered clips.) In most cases, you will have video with sync audio in V1 and A1.
Timeline Trimming—Part 1
Click on the yellow button at the bottom of the Timeline to place it into Extract/Splice-in mode.
Slide the Blue Position Indicator fully to the right.
Whenever you find a cut-point that needs to be trimmed, you can immediately do so. Then you can move on to the next cut-point. In this way, you can rapidly trim the “backbone” of your Sequence.
Dynamic Trim using Dual Trim Windows
Left-to-right lasso a cut-point in the Timeline. The beginning of a lasso-drag must start outside all Timeline tracks in the dark gray area:
·      Drag from above to select video (V2 or V1) or synced video/audio clips in V1 and A1.
·      Drag from below to select audio clips in A2 and/or A1
Free DV will automatically enter Trim mode with the cut-point selected by pink bars placed on both sides of the cut-point. When in Trim mode, the dual monitor windows switch from displaying a Source and Record monitor to displaying the last frame of the out-going clip (left) and the first frame of the in-coming clip (right).
As shown below, I have lassoed cut-points in Tracks V1 and A1.
 
Automatically Tracks V1 and A1 are selected. Automatically Tracks V2 and A2 are deselected.
 
[If you want to make a quick trim, skip to #6 below.]
Click the Play Loop button in the Trim window to play through the cut-point. Although you may have selected only a video track, you will still hear audio. Likewise, if you are editing audio you’ll be able to see the video you are not editing.
Helpful Hint: The amount of media before and after the cut-point is defined to be 2-seconds on either side. You can change the values by clicking on the Project’s Settings tab. Next, double-click the Trim item. Under Playloop set: Preroll and Postroll.
You will see and/or hear the last part of the out-going clip (called the A-side) followed by the first part of the in-coming clip (called the B-side). Take some time to get a good sense of the transition.
1.      First, consider that there will be times when you need only move an edit point earlier or later. This “dual-roller” mode is the default. Neither horizontal green bar will be lit. If you need to return to this mode, simply click on the vertical line between the A-side and B-side monitors.
·      Place your right fingers on the [ CTRL + Z ] or keys
·      Place a left finger on the i or o key
·      As the clip plays, press the i or o key at the point you want the cut-point to be located. If you do not like the edit, press [ CTRL + Z ] or keys to remove the edit.
·      spacebar stops looping
·      The Timeline’s duration will not change. Skip to #4.
2.      Alternately, decide if the A-side needs to be trimmed. If it does not, go to #3. If so, click in the left trim window. A horizontal green bar will light-up showing the out-going clip will be trimmed. In the Timeline, the end of the out-going clip will get a single pink bar. This is “single-roller” mode.
·      Place your right fingers on the [ CTRL + Z ] or keys
·      Place a left finger on the o key
·      As the clip plays, press the o key at the point you want the out-going clip to end. If you find you do not like the edit, press [ CTRL + Z ] or        keys to remove the edit.
·      If you find you need to make a large adjustment, skip to #5
·      spacebar stops looping
·      The Timeline’s duration will change. Go to #3.
3.      Next, decide if the B-side needs to be trimmed. If it does not, go to #4. If it does, click in the right trim window. A horizontal green bar will light-up showing the in-coming clip will be trimmed. In the Timeline, the start of the in-coming clip will get a single pink bar. This is a “single-roller” mode.
·      Place your right fingers on the [ CTRL + Z ] or keys
·      Place a left finger on the i key
·      As the clip plays press the i key at the point you want the in-coming clip to start. If you find you do not like the edit, press [ CTRL + Z ] or keys to remove the edit.
·      If you find you need to make a large adjustment, skip to #5
·      spacebar stops looping
·      The Timeline’s duration will change. Go to #4.
4.      Because it takes you about half a second to react, you’ll likely find the edit-point about 20 frames too late. You can quickly fix this error by pressing m twice. Skip to #7.
5.      With the loop playing, you can use the keyboard to nudge a cut until it is exactly right. (Do not use the arrow keys.) The Timeline’s duration will change:
·      To hear audio, press caps lock
·      Nudge the cut earlier by 10-frames by pressing the m key
·      Nudge the cut earlier by 1-frame by pressing the , key
·      Nudge the cut later by 1-frame by pressing the . key
·      Nudge the cut later by 10-frames by pressing / key
·      Skip to #7
6.      Click the << and < and > and >> buttons in the Trim window to make incremental trims. (If the loop is playing, it will stop playing.) The Timeline’s duration will change:
·      To hear audio as you trim, press caps lock
·      < and > buttons move a trim-point by 1 frame
·      << and >> buttons move a trim-point by 10 frames
·      Go to #7
7.      If you do not like the result, you can simply re-trim either or both the A- and B-side.
Move on to the next cut-point by pressing the Go To Next Edit button.
You can go back and edit a cut-point by pressing the Go To Previous Edit button.
To exit from Trim mode, press ESC or click the Toolbar Trim Mode button. 
In the next Lesson, we’ll learn how to apply “effects” to video clips.

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Steve Mullen owns Digital Video Consulting located in Las Vegas. DVC has been supporting videographers for over a decade with seminars, consulting, training, and tutorials. A Contributing Editor for Video Systems for many years, he has also written for A/V Video, Camcorder, DV, Etown, millimeter, The Perfect Vision, Video Pro, and Video Review. Steve taught at Rutgers University and the University of the Arts, and most recently has published two eBooks: the Sony HDV Production Guide and the JVC ProHD Production Guide.