How to Trim Movie Clips
You're a watching a movie where two friends are having a conversation. As each actor has her say, the camera cuts to focus on her face. In the theater, the cuts appear seamless, but you're actually looking at two separate takes placed together. The original raw footage consisted of the conversations with a few extra seconds on each end in case the editor needed to create a lengthy transition. But what if the editor doesn't need that space? Trimming the clip allows the editor to choose where footage begins and ends as he needs it.
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Instructions
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Import a movie clip into the editing program.
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Lay the movie clip onto the timeline of the program.
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Select the point on the timeline where you would like to begin or end your movie clip.
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Use the split/razor blade function in the program to split the movie clip on the timeline.
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Delete the portion of the movie clip that you don't need.
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Tips & Warnings
Higher end video editing programs, such as Final Cut Pro, allow you to trim movie clips by selecting a start and end point on your source movie clip before dragging it onto the timeline. This is preferable because you can drag the points to create more or less footage if your original selection was not desirable.
If you use a program that does not have the start/end point function, leave yourself a little more footage than you think you'll need with the split function. Pare down the clip progressively until you have what you need.
If you trim off more than you wanted to, immediately use the undo function to return yourself to where you were before.
Do not close your program until you have made all the trims you need for a single clip. If you accidentally trim off more than you want, you won't be able to undo when you reopen the program, requiring you to start again from scratch.
References
- Photo Credit grandmama with digital camera image by Alexey Klementiev from Fotolia.com
