Trimming

Trimming is a basic part of the editing process. It allows you to change your mind about where you want a clip to start or stop after you've placed the clip in the Timeline. In this lesson, you will work with different approaches to trimming an edit point.

When you trim an edit point, the In and Out points of the edit can be trimmed to the left or right, making the clip either shorter or longer.

Consider the In point at the head of the clip and the Out point at the tail of the clip:

• Trim the In point to the left and the clip will begin on an earlier frame, making the edited clip longer.

  

• Trim the In point to the right and the clip will begin on a later frame, making the edited clip shorter.

  

• Trim the Out point to the left and the clip will end on an earlier frame, making the clip shorter.

  

• Trim the Out point to the right and the clip will end on a later frame, making the clip longer.

  

In each of the following trimming methods you will work with sound bites again, as you did in the previous lesson. This time, they are sound bites of Jimbo's dad, Jim. You will shave about a minute off of the longer Dad Sound Bites sequence by trimming the clips. Remember, the maximum amount you can trim an edit point in an outer direction (head or tail) depends on how much material is available in the original source clip. Also, when you trim clips whose audio and video are linked together, you are trimming both the audio and video edit points at the same time.