Cutting Clips on the Timeline

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 a segment. 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.

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 white bounding box). If the element is neither yellow nor surrounded by a white 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.
2. Select Cut from the Timeline Task menu.

   A match frame cut is added at the specified location.

   TipYou can also add cuts while the clip is playing by pressing the cut keyboard shortcut.

To remove a match frame cut:

1. Select the cut on the timeline.
2. Right-click and choose Remove Cut.

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