| One more feature in Final Cut Pro can help you refine your edits a separate window called the Trim Edit window. Working in the Trim Edit window is a way to preview edit points and apply either the Ripple tool to trim one or both clips, or the Roll tool to adjust the relationship between the outgoing and incoming clips' edit points. Rippling will, of course, change the sequence length. Working in the Trim Edit Window Before you make trims or adjust any clips, let's look at how the Trim Edit window works. 1. | From the Browser, open the Amanda Trim Edit sequence. This is the rough sequence you used in the previous lesson to practice trimming. But in this sequence, the narration clips have been removed so you can concentrate on the dialogue clips. | 2. | Make sure you have the default Selection tool selected and that linked selection is toggled on. | 3. | To open the Trim Edit window, double-click the edit point between the first two clips in the Timeline: 97A-out of bldg and 97E-man. NOTE Clicking the Timeline will automatically close the Trim Edit window. To reopen an edit point in the Trim Edit window, simply double-click the edit point in the Timeline.
A large window opens that covers the Viewer and Canvas windows. The image area on the left displays the outgoing 97A-out of bldg clip. The image on the right displays the incoming 97E-man clip. NOTE You can reposition the Trim Edit window in the interface by dragging from its title bar. In the outgoing clip's scrubber bar is an Out point, and in the incoming clip's scrubber bar is an In point. These are the two edit points that can be adjusted in the Trim Edit window, either separately with the Ripple tool, or together with the Roll tool. Beneath and between the two image areas are transport controls and trim buttons. The clip name, duration, and timecode location appear above each clip in the window. The sequence location of the edit point appears beneath the window name between the two image areas.
| 4. | Move the pointer into the outgoing clip area on the left.
The pointer changes to the Ripple tool, which will adjust only the Out portion of this edit. | 5. | Click the outgoing clip's image in the Trim Edit window.
In the Timeline, the outgoing clip's Out point is highlighted. In the Trim Edit window, the green bar appears above just this image. | 6. | Move the pointer into the incoming clip on the right, and the pointer changes, but not the edit point selection in the Timeline or the green bar over the image. Click the incoming image to change the edit point selection in the Timeline. The green bar now appears over the incoming clip. NOTE The green bar is a good visual clue as to which side of the edit is currently selected. That is the side that will be changed. | 7. | Move the pointer to the middle area between the two image frames, and a Roll tool appears. Click here, and both edit points are selected in the Timeline, and a green bar appears over both image areas.
Using the Roll tool here will change both clips' edit points by the same amount and will not change the length of the sequence. | 8. | Click the Play Around Edit Loop button, or press the spacebar, to play around the edit point. The edit point plays in the right image area; the left image area is dimmed during the preview.
The preview is looped and will continue until you stop it by clicking the Stop button or pressing the spacebar again. | 9. | To change the length of time the clip plays before the edit point (pre-roll) and after it (post-roll), press Option-Q to open the User Preferences window. Click the Editing tab and change the Preview Pre-roll and Preview Post-roll to 3 seconds, then click OK.
| 10. | In the Trim Edit window, position the pointer over the outgoing clip and press J to move the playhead earlier, toward the dimmed In point. Press L to play forward from this location, or click the outgoing clip's Play button.
Even though you can't change the In point of the outgoing clip in the Trim Edit window, it still appears as a reference. |
Editing in the Trim Edit Window There are different ways you can edit using the Trim Edit window. Some of these methods use the Ripple and Roll tool, and others use the J, K, and L keys to play a clip forward and backward. 1. | In the Trim Edit window, make sure the Dynamic box under the two images is unchecked at this point.
| 2. | Press the spacebar to see the loop of the current edit point. Then press it again to stop the preview. You will trim this edit point so the outgoing clip stops before Amanda goes down the steps, and the incoming clip begins just before the man says, "Thank you, bro." | 3. | To change just the outgoing clip, click the left image area. The green bar appears over just that image. NOTE You can also press the U key to toggle the highlight and selection of each side of the selected edit point in the Timeline. In the Trim Edit window, the green bar changes to reflect the active edit point. | 4. | Use the J key to play the outgoing clip backward to locate the place before Amanda goes down the steps on the sidewalk. Press the K key to stop the playhead at this location, and press O to set a new Out point for this clip. TIP Use the J and L keys to rock the playhead back and forth until you find the best location for the new edit point. In the Trim Edit window, the Out point is updated to the new mark. In the Timeline, the clip is trimmed to this new edit point. | 5. | Click the incoming clip side of the Trim Edit window. Use the L key to play this clip forward to locate where the man says, "Thank you, bro." Press K to stop the playhead just before the man says, "Thank you, bro." As before, the In point in the Trim Edit window is updated to the new mark. In the Timeline, the clip is trimmed to the new edit point. | 6. | Press the spacebar to see a preview of this edit point. | 7. | To make minor adjustments as you preview this edit point, click the trim buttons beneath the transport controls in the Trim Edit window.
If you click a positive trim amount, you will move the edit point forward by that amount. If you click a negative amount, you will move the edit point backward by that amount. You can adjust the outgoing clip, the incoming clip, or both at the same time. NOTE The button with the larger number of frames is the Multi-Frame Trim Size and can be set from 1-99 frames in the Editing tab of the User Preferences window (Option-Q).
| 8. | Double-click the edit point between the first 98A-amanda clip and the 98B-man clip. Press the spacebar to see a preview of this edit. To tighten this edit point, you will trim the tail of the outgoing clip of Amanda to after the man says, "Thank you, sister." You will trim the head of the incoming clip to where the man says, "Nice suit. Armani?" But this time, you will work with the Dynamic check box selected to be able to trim on the fly. | 9. | Under the transport controls, click the Dynamic check box to enable dynamic trimming.
With the Dynamic option active, simply pressing the K key will set the new edit point on the fly. | 10. | Click the outgoing image on the left to make it the active trim side. Press the J key to move the playhead backward between the edit points. Press the L key to play forward. After the man says, "Thank you, sister," press K. A new Out point is created when you press the K key. TIP To stop a clip without setting a new edit point, press the spacebar. | 11. | Now click the incoming clip image on the right. Apply the methods in the preceding steps to tighten this clip so it begins when the man says, "Nice suit. Armani?" | 12. | To adjust the two edit points at the same time, click between the two images in the Trim Edit window, and use the trim buttons to roll both the Out and the In point at the same time. |
Project Practice Continue trimming and adjusting the edit points in the Amanda Trim Edit sequence by opening each edit point into the Trim Edit window and making the necessary adjustments. You can use the following keyboard shortcuts with the Trim Edit window as you practice: Press V to select the edit point closest to the playhead location. Press Cmd-7 to open the selected edit point into the Trim Edit window. When an edit point is selected in the Timeline, and the Trim Edit window is already open, press the up or down arrow keys to open the previous or next edit point into the Trim Edit window. With an edit point selected, press U to toggle between the outgoing clip's Out point, the incoming clip's In point, and both edit points together. As with previous exercises, you can also use the bracket and Shift-bracket keys while in the Trim Edit window to change an edit point.
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