Edit to the Maxx - The Art of the Digital Cut - Part 7

by Steve Mullen
Published on Aug 16, 2006 3:00 PM



Edit to the Maxx is a semi-monthly introductory course in video editing, aimed at beginners. We use a free, downloadable software program. This column appears every other Wednesday.
Trimming Clips
When you were executing the steps learned in Lesson 4, you may have felt a concern about how much strain you were putting on your tape and the camcorder’s tape transport while you were “shuttling” around marking in- and out-points. While I’ve never been that worried, the technique you learned in Lesson 5 should eliminate this concern.
 
By using Scene Detect, you will automatically have a Bin filled with subclips. You will have neither put strain on your camcorder nor will you have had to create subclips manually as explained in Lesson 6. There is no reason why you cannot start editing by simply dropping each of these subclips, in the desired order, into a Sequence.
 
However, most of us feel we gain a better understanding of our material by trimming each of the subclips. As we discussed in Lesson 6, although this process does take time, it is time well spent. As we trim subclips we begin to formulate the way our story can flow based upon what shots we actually have and how they look and sound.
 
Trimming Strategies
Most folks trim video intuitively. Years of television and movies have subconsciously told you when the camera should cut away to a different angle, or a new scene. However, there are actually several different strategies that can be used. Moreover, which one you use will have consequences later when you are editing. Moreover, each NLE supports different strategies. Later in this series when we work with HDV, one of the editors we will use is Apple’s iMovie HD. Because I started editing with Premiere, I have always found iMovie to be counter-intuitive, as it offers two editing strategies. It’s worth a brief mention here because we’re here to learn not just the mechanics of editing, but how an editor thinks.
 
Negative Trimming – Apple’s programmers must have felt beginners would not understand the concept of “marking” an in-point and an out-point. To avoid introducing the concept of placing marks in a clip, they fell back on the familiar practice of highlighting. Therefore, with iMovie, you drag the left cursor from the beginning of a clip through all the stuff you do not want. (The right cursor remains at the beginning of the clip.) This creates a highlight to the end of the bad stuff. Now you press delete and away the bad goes to the cutting-room floor. (Which is really iMovie’s Trashcan.)
 
Next, you move the right cursor to the beginning of the bad that follows the good stuff. Now you move the left cursor to the end of the clip. When you press delete you are left with only the material you want. So to avoid introducing the simple, yet fundamental editing concept of marking, Apple’s “great” idea was to have you do twice the work.
 
Positive Trimming – As far as I know, every other NLE uses a far more efficient technique. You simply mark the start and end of the good stuff. Thankfully, iMovie does offer this function, although they still avoid introducing the in-point and out-point concepts. You can move the left cursor to the beginning of the good and the right cursor to the end. This creates a highlighted segment that you can then “crop” from the clip.
 
You should be aware that most NLEs, including FreeDV, allow you to drag the in- and out-points once they have been placed. However, some like Avid’s FreeDV and Liquid require you hold down a special key, [Alt] or , in order to do so.
 
No matter how you trim, you still face the issue of what to trim. There are two fundamental strategies: Rough trimming and Fine trimming.
 
Rough trim clips in the Source monitor. There are two tactics you can use:
  • Leave the in-point at the beginning of the clip. Play the clip simply to see and hear it. Leave the out-point at the end of the clip. However, some NLEs do not automatically set marks, so you will need to place them. With FreeDV, you use the Source Mark Clip button.
  • Set the in-point at the beginning of any potentially useable video or audio. Remember it is possible to use good audio before good video. Likewise, it is possible to use good video before good audio. Thus, set the out-point at the end of any potentially useable audio or video. You will later fine trim clips in the Timeline using Avid’s Trim mode.
Fine trim clips in the Source monitor assuming that there will be a “cut” transition from the previous clip to this clip and a cut transition from this clip to the next clip. A cut means no special effect will join two clips. I strongly recommend using cut transitions. We will introduce special effect transitions in a later Lesson:
  • Trim the in-point to be the first frame of the clip that you want seen.
  • Trim the out-point to be the last frame of the clip that you want seen.
Fine trim clips in the Source monitor assuming a special effect transition will be used the beginning of this clip:
  • Trim the in-point to be the frame that will seen in the middle of the transition.
  • The first frame of the transition will be before the in-point. How far before depends on the duration you specify for the transition. If you use a 1 second transition (30 frames), then the first frame will be 15-frames before the in-point. It’s your responsibility when you use a transition and specify its duration; to be sure all the frames before the in-point are useable. If there are not enough frames, when you specify the transition you will get an error message.
Fine trim clips in the Source monitor, assuming a special effect transition will be used at the end of this clip:
  • Trim the out-point to be the frame that will seen in the middle of the transition.
  • The last frame of the transition will be after the Out-point. If you use a 60 frame transition, then the last frame will be 30-frames after the out-point. It’s your responsibility when you use a transition and specify its duration; to be sure all the frames after the in-point are useable. You need to be sure there isn’t video of Bill picking his nose in the, for example, one second of video following the out-point. If you’re not careful, when you play through the transition you will find a nasty surprise.
Trimming Tactics
After opening FreeDV, the window arrangement should look like the image below. If you do not see a column of picons, issue the Bin > Fill Window command.
 
Single-click the Bin, the Project window that holds the subclips from you last shooting assignment. In my case, it is the Thaipusam Bin in the Project window.
 
Double-click the first, *******.Sub.01, subclip. For me that is the Thaipusam Bin.01.Sub.01 clip. The clip will open in the Source (left) monitor.
 
There are multiple ways to look at the source material in a clip or subclip. The fastest is to drag the Time Cursor right or left to quickly see what the clip contains.
Avid’s keyboard-driven j k l Shuttle control is another fast way to look at a clip’s contents:
 
j           Reverse   (each press increases speed)
k          Stop
l           Forward   (each press increases speed)
 
To Jog (step frame-by-frame) to a specific frame, use the left- and right-arrow keys. Alternately, click the Step Backward (<) and Step Forward buttons (>).
 
Engage the caps lock and you will be able to hear (scrub) audio when using the left- and right-arrow keys or the Step Backward and Step Forward buttons.
 
Rough trim the odd numbered subclips and fine trim the even numbered subclips. Using the controls described above, locate the beginning of the first subclip.
 
  • Click the Source Mark Clip button
  • Locate the end of the first shot.
  • Click Source Mark Out button
If you see that the shot has no value, select it in its Bin and issue Edit > Delete command. The dialog box shown below will appear. Click the OK button. 
  • Repeat this process for the remaining subclips in the Bin. Simply double-click the each clip to load it into the Source monitor. The trimmed clip will automatically remember the in- and out-points you set.
In the next Lesson we’ll learn how to work with a Bin. I know you are anxious to begin “real” editing, but one of the reasons so many use Avid’s NLEs is for the power of the Bin.

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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.