Hey guys, Dylan here. By the end of this video you’ll know the ins and outs of
making different types of cuts and edits in... Dylan! Dylan! Brad! What’s up man?
Just doing a video right now telling peeps about all the different ways they can make
cuts in Final Cut. Do you want to help out and continue this mildly cheesy intro?”.
Yes definitely! Hey guys my name is Brad, my channel is Brad and Donna where you can find
tons of useful editing tutorials….You may already know the common way to make a cut in your clip
by hitting the shortcut key B to activate the blade tool and clicking to make a cut,
or using the shortcut Cmd + B to immediately make a cut. What you might not know is that by pressing
and holding down B, you can make your cut and when you let go, Final Cut Pro switches back to
the previous tool you were using. Also, if you have a few layers stacked on top of each other,
you can use the shortcut Cmd + Shift + B to cut all of the clips at the playhead.
Another essential type of cut is the J- or L-cut, and if you’re not familiar with them,
it’s basically when your audio and video cut at different points. For a J-cut, the audio comes in
earlier than the video and for an L-cut, the audio plays out after the video cuts to the next clip.
To make a J- or L-cut, simply select the clip or clips you want to edit and hit Ctrl + S to
expand your audio and video. Now you can trim the video and audio independently from each other.
Using the audio from one clip underneath the shot before or after, helps to create a smooth
flow between shots. In this example, we have an aerial shot of an amusement park which you
can hear in the distance... and then we cut to this shot of the rollercoaster...
By bringing that sound of the roller coaster in during the first shot,
it flows nicely into the next and the edit feels more immersive...
Probably my favorite way to make cuts is by using option and either right or left bracket. Press
option and one of the brackets to quickly cut and trim clips down to where your playhead is. So for
example if I want my shot to end right here, meaning I don’t want anything else after this
point, I’ll press Option and the right bracket and it automatically cuts at that point and deletes
everything to the right. If I want my clip to start at this point, not all the way over here,
I’ll press option and left bracket, and it quickly makes the adjustment for me.
The nice thing is, if you have a whole section of b-roll and a-roll footage as well as sound
effects that you need to have end or begin at a certain point, You can just click and drag
to select all of that media and then hit that option right or left bracket to cut and trim.
Another way to edit to your footage is by using the Trim tool. Just press T and you’ll
be able to use that to create a slide edit. All this does is allow you to scroll through
your clip to find an earlier or later part of the clip without changing the position
of the clip in the timeline or the duration. So here, I thought I wanted this shot to play
when the dog is getting close to the camera, but now I’ve decided I want to show the dog
just coming into frame. So I’ll press T and slide to that part of the clip.
And just like Brad mentioned with the Blade Tool, if we hold down T, make our adjustment,
and then let go, our tool will immediately go back to the previous tool we were using.
Like Dylan said, the slide edit is super useful and another awesome way to use this tool to edit
your footage is with a slip edit. Hit T to select your trim tool again, but this time,
hold down Alt (or Option) and you’ll notice how this icon changes. While holding down Alt,
you can drag a clip that is in the middle of two other clips.
This won’t change the in or out points of the middle clip and it won’t create a gap,
but the duration of the shots to the left and right of this clip will change.
Here’s another helpful tip for you. Let’s say I know I don’t want this section in the middle of
the clip. My usual go to method is to press R which brings up your range tool. Drag out
that area you don’t want, and then hit delete. And like we learned, if you want to keep the
timing of your clips the same, you could press Shift and delete and a gap clip
will be created. Then you can insert any clip you want into the primary storyline by either
dragging a clip to the Gap clip and choosing ‘replace from start’ or ‘replace from end’
or you could drag the clip over your footage. Trim it down so it’s the length of that gap
clip and then press option command and down arrow. Now it’ll fit snug into the primary storyline.
The last tip we have for you is a handy way to change the duration of a clip without using the
trim tool to extend or shorten a clip, and you can use it to set an exact duration too.
Select a clip and hit Ctrl + D, then type in the duration you want in seconds and frames,
like 5 seconds and 0 0 frames and hit return.
Now that shot is exactly 5 seconds long. You can also extend the shot by using the shortcut
Ctrl + D again and this time hit the plus key first and then let’s add 1 second and 10 frames.
You can shorten a clip by using the minus key and I’ll shorten this by 2 seconds and 10 frames.
You can change the duration in the same way for multiple clips. Just select them all, hit Ctrl + D
and let’s make all of these images 1 second long and boom, the duration changes for all of them.
Let us know in the comments if any of these tips were new to you, we’re curious to know.
If you appreciate the work we put into this hit that thumbs up button like it
owes you money and seriously, if you haven’t checked out Brad’s channel and subscribed,
I’d highly suggest doing so. Not only are his videos informative and entertaining,
but my man gives away free stuff like Santa Claus. I’ll put a link in the description and
in the comments so you can easily click on it. Thanks for coming on the channel Brad!
Thanks Dylan for having me! It’s always a pleasure bro! If you guys haven’t already
subscribed to Dylan’s channel, what are you doing? But seriously… go subscribe now.
See you guys in the next one! Have a great day.