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# Creating a Cut

When you splice clips together, the location at which one clip changes to another is called a cut. A cut is useful when you want to extract part of an element or end a shot at a given frame.

You can make a cut at any point on the record clip. A cut creates a transition with a head equivalent to the duration of the segment before the cut and a tail equivalent to the duration after the cut. For example, if you make a cut after the 5th frame in a 10-frame clip, the cut has a tail of 5 frames and a head of 5 frames.

In a match frame cut, the outgoing and incoming shots are from the same source and the outgoing and incoming frames are consecutive. Match frame cuts are indicated by an “=” on the cut point.

In Storyboard view, cuts are indicated by yellow lines if they are on the focus layer, and grey lines if they are on the non-focus layer. See Identifying Cuts and Transitions.

(a) Cuts between clips on focus layer

Image courtesy of Quietman

To add a cut on the timeline:

1. Move the positioner over the frame where you want to add a cut. Make sure:
   - The element is explicitly selected (yellow) or implicitly selected (surrounded by a yellow bounding box). If the element is neither yellow nor surrounded by a yellow bounding box, another element, cut, or transition is selected on the timeline and the cut will not occur at the positioner location.
   - The focus point is over the appropriate track.

   (a) Focus point (b) Yellow bounding box indicates implicit selection by positioner

2. Press Delete.

   A match frame cut is added at the specified location.

   TipYou can also add cuts while the clip is playing by pressing Delete. To make it easier to add the cuts, first decrease the playback speed by pressing V and then the down arrow.
3. To add a cut to all tracks at the same frame, press Shift+Delete.

To remove a match frame cut:

1. Select the element on both sides of the match frame edit or select the cut.
2. Press Ctrl+Delete.

   The cut is removed and the two elements are joined together.