There are a lot of tips in here that most editors (including experienced ones) don't know. We'll cover the basics fast and then get into the stuff that'll actually change how you edit.
Basic Blade Tool
Press B to activate the Blade tool, then click your clip to make a cut. Press A to go back to the Select tool, then delete the unwanted section. ⌘B cuts at the playhead immediately without switching tools. Hold B temporarily to use the blade, then release to snap back to your previous tool. Great for quick one-off cuts without breaking your flow.
Select the clips you want to cut through, then press ⌘B to blade all selected clips at the playhead. For a cut through every layer without selecting anything first, press ⌘⇧B, which blades every clip on the primary and connected storylines simultaneously.
J-Cuts and L-Cuts
These are what separate editors who sound like editors from editors who sound like filmmakers. Select a clip and press ⌃S to expand the audio and video so they can be trimmed independently.
- J-Cut: audio from the next clip starts before the video cuts to it. The viewer hears what's coming before they see it.
- L-Cut: audio from the current clip continues after the video has already cut away. Classic technique for dialogue and documentary.
Press ⌃S again to collapse the clip back to its normal view once you're done trimming.
Fast Trim Shortcuts
These are the ones that make the biggest difference once they become muscle memory. With a clip selected:
| SHORTCUT | WHAT IT DOES |
|---|---|
| ⌥] | Trims the END of selected clip(s) to the playhead and removes the rest |
| ⌥[ | Trims the START of selected clip(s) to the playhead and removes the beginning |
| ⌥/ | Trim to Selection, which trims the clip to a range you've already defined with the Range tool |
You can select multiple clips and hit ⌥] or ⌥[ to trim them all to the playhead at once. Huge for cleaning up b-roll quickly.
Slide and Slip Edits
Press T for the Trim tool. With it active, you can slide through the content inside a clip, changing which part of the source footage plays without changing the clip's position or duration in the timeline. This is called a slip edit.
Hold Option while dragging a clip with the Trim tool to do a slide edit. This shifts the clip's in/out points and simultaneously adjusts the adjacent clips to compensate. The clip moves within its boundaries, and the neighbors stretch or shrink to fill the gap. Same duration, different content.
Hold T to temporarily activate the Trim tool and release to go back to your previous tool, just like holding B for the blade.
Range Delete
Press R for the Range tool, drag to highlight the section you want to remove, then hit Delete to ripple delete it. Everything downstream moves up automatically. Or press ⇧Delete to remove the range but leave a gap clip: nothing moves, you just have silence/black where the deleted section was. Useful when you need to preserve the timing of everything after it.
Set Exact Duration
Select a clip and press ⌃D, then type the exact duration you want (e.g., 500 for 5 seconds, 115 for 1 second 15 frames). To extend by a specific amount, type +110; to shorten, type -210. You can select multiple clips and use ⌃D to set the same duration on all of them at once.
Fast cuts are how you edit. Color is how you make it look like it was shot on a different camera.
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