Publishers of technology books, eBooks, and videos for creative people

Home > Articles > Digital Audio, Video > Final Cut Pro

This chapter is from the book

Reference 4.4 Timing the Primary Storyline

Every edit in a project is based upon the primary storyline. Up to this point, the concern has been to place the select sound bites into the project and organize them to reflect the story structure. Now that the structure has been established, the task switches to adjusting the timing and pacing. The sound bites should not be a hailstorm of thoughts spewed at the viewer, but should flow like everyday conversation.

The first technique to pacing the sound bites involves a gap clip, which is an empty clip container in the Timeline. Gap clips may be applied as placeholders until additional material arrives, such as more B-roll content, clips from a hard-to-schedule interview, or a late shipment of second unit content. Gap clips are also used as the spaces, pauses, and breaths that enhance your story flow.

04_04_00_001.jpg

The second technique to pacing the sound bites involves removing segments of a clip or entire clips. The Blade tool segments a clip to remove one or more clip ranges from the project. Each time you blade a clip, you create a through edit.

04_04_00_002.jpg

A through edit marks the clip into segments without breaking the clip into two physical clips. If you blade that clip a second time, you mark it into three segments with two through edits. You can rejoin these segments if you inadvertently blade the wrong frame. The repair is called a join through edit.

When you are ready to delete a segment, you can do so in one of two ways. Simply pressing the Delete key performs a ripple delete. The selected clip segment is removed, and the subsequent clips slide left to occupy the Timeline position of the deleted segment.

04_04_00_003.jpg

Blade to segment unwanted content

04_04_00_004.jpg

Select segment for removal

04_04_00_005.jpg

Press Delete to ripple delete.

The second delete method is a replace with gap. This deletion, performed by pressing Shift-Delete, removes the selected segment and leaves a gap that occupies its former position in the Timeline. As a result, the following clips do not ripple, but remain in place.

04_04_00_006.jpg

Blade to segment unwanted content.

04_04_00_007.jpg

Select segment for removal.

04_04_00_008.jpg

Press Shift-Delete to replace segment with a gap clip.

Exercise 4.4.1 Inserting a Gap Clip

Currently, your project sound bites are sequenced very tightly. This breathless stream of consciousness does not lend itself to clear storytelling. Let's separate some of these clips so the storytelling relaxes a bit.

  1. Park the playhead between MVI_1042 and MVI_1055.

    04_04_01_001.jpg

    Placing a gap clip here allows Mitch to take a breath. Don't worry about the visual break. The B-roll clips you will add later can fill in those pauses.

  2. To insert a gap clip, choose Edit > Insert Generator > Gap, or press Option-W.

    04_04_01_002.jpg

    A three-second clip is inserted between the two clips at the playhead location. Those three seconds may be a little too long for this edit. As with any other clip, you may ripple trim a gap clip to adjust its duration.

  3. Place the mouse pointer over the end point of the gap clip. Ensure that the ripple trim's filmstrip is pointing left, and then drag the end point to the left.

    04_04_01_003.jpg

    As you drag, the clip's new duration and the delta (the amount you have changed the clip's duration while dragging) appears above the edit.

  4. Trim the gap clip to a new duration of one second, thereby removing two seconds from its length.

    04_04_01_004.jpg
  5. Skim to just before the gap clip, and play back to review the edit.

    That's not bad. It allows just a moment for your audience to understand the who, what, and where of Mitch's comments. Let's repeat that for the next edit.

  6. Advance the playhead to the next edit by pressing the Down Arrow key.

    The playhead jumps to the edit between MVI_1055 and MVI_1043.

    Mitch is offering more details in MVI_1043, so placing a longer gap before this clip may help transition the audience into this sound bite.

  7. With the playhead cued, press Option-W to insert a three-second gap clip.

    04_04_01_006.jpg
  8. Review the edit.

    Now that you have silence between the two sound bites, you may discover the "breath" at the end of MVI_1055. As you proceed with your edit, you will probably notice more of these fine details.

  9. If necessary, adjust the end or start points surrounding the gap clips to tidy up the trimmed clips.

    You are listening for extra syllables or breaths to remove. For example, you would trim the end point of MVI_1055 to the left a few frames to remove the breath.

    These gap clips won't necessarily remain at the durations you just set. They may flex as you continue to build the story...or tear out parts of it.

Exercise 4.4.2 Blading and Deleting

The Blade tool allows you to quickly break a clip into smaller sections to be moved elsewhere or completely removed from your story. In the first instance of MVI_1043, some pauses in Mitch's interview can be removed to tighten the edit.

  1. Play the project, and locate the point at which Mitch says, "And film at the same time, (breath) uhhm," in the first MVI_1043. This occurs about four seconds into the clip.

  2. Cue the playhead after the breath and before the "uhhm."

    You will blade the clip here to divide it into two segments. You will then blade the clip again after the "uhhm" to separate this sound from the good content that occurs before and after it.

  3. From the Tools pop-up menu, choose the Blade tool, or press B.

    04_04_02_002.jpg
  4. With snapping turned on, move the Blade tool over the MVI_1043 clip and toward the playhead until it snaps to the playhead.

    04_04_02_003.jpg
  5. With the Blade tool snapped to the playhead, click to segment the clip at this edit point.

    04_04_02_004.jpg

    You can choose the Blade tool while still using the Select tool. Let's switch to the Select tool to blade on the other side of the "uhhm."

  6. Press A to choose the Select tool.

    Remember, A stands for arrow. Because the Select tool is already located next to the edit you just made, the ripple trim icon may appear.

    04_04_02_005.jpg
  7. Press the Right Arrow key—and the Left Arrow key, if necessary—to advance the playhead to after the "uhhm" and just as Mitch is starting the word "you're." Instead of choosing the Blade tool, let's use its keyboard shortcut.

    04_04_02_006.jpg
  8. Without moving the mouse, press Command-B to blade the clip at the playhead.

    04_04_02_007.jpg

    The single clip is now three segments. You need to remove the middle segment.

    Remember, there are two types of clip deletion. Let's use both to see the difference between them.

  9. Select the middle clip segment, and press Shift-Delete.

    The clip segment is replaced with a gap clip. Called a "replace with gap" edit, this edit type is also known as a lift.

  10. Press Command-Z to undo the previous edit.

  11. Reselect the "uhhm" clip segment, if necessary, and press Delete.

    The segment is removed, and the following clips slide to the left to replace it.

  12. Play the edit and listen to the results.

    The current second clip might sound like the first word is cut off a bit, what is commonly referred to as an upcut. In addition to that concern, does the breath at the end of the first clip distract and call attention to the edit? Or, does the breath naturally flow into the next clip?

  13. Using the ripple trim techniques you've learned, clean up the edit to smooth the audio transitions between these two new neighbors.

    You may first want to remove the breath at the end of the first, or ending clip. You may also need to insert or remove frames to the start point of the second clip, the starting clip. Refer to Using the Keyboard to Ripple Trim an End Point in this lesson to review ripple trimming.

    Visually, this edit is a jump cut. A jump cut occurs when similar but nonsynchronized content appears to jump in space and time at an edit point. The B-roll you will add in the next section will hide this error.

Exercise 4.4.3 Joining a Through Edit

In the previous exercise, you used the Blade tool to divide a clip into segments. The resulting through edits may be easily repaired if you made them in error or change your mind about splitting up a clip.

  1. In your project, locate MVI_1044.
  2. In the Tools pop-up menu, choose the Blade tool, or press B.
  3. Skim toward the end of the clip just after Mitch says, "New," and then pauses.

    The audio waveform displays a definite pause, represented as a "valley" in the waveform.

  4. Click in this waveform valley to blade the clip and create a through edit.

  5. The through edit point appears as a dashed line. Because we really did not want to split this clip, you are going to rejoin the through edit.
  6. Press A to choose the Select tool.
  7. With the Select tool, click the through edit point (dashed line) to select it.

    04_04_03_003.jpg

    Only one side of the through edit will be selected with the Select tool active. That's OK.

  8. Press Delete.

    The through edit point is removed and the two segments are rejoined into one clip.

Exercise 4.4.4 Refining Some Sound Bite Edits

Before progressing to the next layers of B-roll and music, let's polish the "technically flying in awe" section of the project by adjusting the sound bites' contents and pacing.

Currently, the second instance of MVI_1043 ends with the word "shooting," which does not flow smoothly into the next clip. This occurs at roughly the 40-second mark in the Timeline.

04_04_04_001.jpg

Earlier, you trimmed off Mitch saying, "so." You could use that here to blend into the next sound bite.

  1. Place the skimmer so that the ripple trim appears with the filmstrip pointing left at the end of the second instance of MVI_1043.

    04_04_04_002.jpg
  2. Ripple trim the end point of the second instance of MVI_1043 to the right to insert roughly 11 frames of content.

    04_04_04_003.jpg
  3. Review the edit

    That created a nice story flow.

    The end of the third instance of MVI_1043 will be a little tougher to get a "clean" ending; that is, a natural-sounding ending when you are actually cutting the sound bite off mid-sentence. The clip's current end point is at "experiencing," which doesn't sound right. Let's trim that end point to a little earlier in the sentence.

  4. Ripple trim the end point to the left roughly one second.

    The clip should now end after Mitch says, "filming," and most likely has an extra syllable or two that need to be removed.

  5. With the end point still selected, press the comma (,) and period (.) keys to nudge trim frame by frame, refining the edit point.

    This trim edit may take a few moments to get the right frame for the end point. That frame is going to be right on the "g" of "filming."

    As for MVI_1044 and MVI_1045, these two get the axe. They just don't fit with this short version of the story.

  6. Select both clips, and press Shift-Delete to replace both clips with a gap clip.

  7. Trim the gap clip to a duration of three seconds.

    04_04_04_010.jpg

    Trimming creates room for a natural sound break and music swell before Mitch segues into the next sound bite.

    With these edits in place, you have built the sound bite foundation for your project. Take a moment to review your story.

    04_04_04_011.jpg

    Click to view larger image

    Lifted Vignette's sound bite-driven primary storyline

Peachpit Promotional Mailings & Special Offers

I would like to receive exclusive offers and hear about products from Peachpit and its family of brands. I can unsubscribe at any time.

Overview


Pearson Education, Inc., 221 River Street, Hoboken, New Jersey 07030, (Pearson) presents this site to provide information about Peachpit products and services that can be purchased through this site.

This privacy notice provides an overview of our commitment to privacy and describes how we collect, protect, use and share personal information collected through this site. Please note that other Pearson websites and online products and services have their own separate privacy policies.

Collection and Use of Information


To conduct business and deliver products and services, Pearson collects and uses personal information in several ways in connection with this site, including:

Questions and Inquiries

For inquiries and questions, we collect the inquiry or question, together with name, contact details (email address, phone number and mailing address) and any other additional information voluntarily submitted to us through a Contact Us form or an email. We use this information to address the inquiry and respond to the question.

Online Store

For orders and purchases placed through our online store on this site, we collect order details, name, institution name and address (if applicable), email address, phone number, shipping and billing addresses, credit/debit card information, shipping options and any instructions. We use this information to complete transactions, fulfill orders, communicate with individuals placing orders or visiting the online store, and for related purposes.

Surveys

Pearson may offer opportunities to provide feedback or participate in surveys, including surveys evaluating Pearson products, services or sites. Participation is voluntary. Pearson collects information requested in the survey questions and uses the information to evaluate, support, maintain and improve products, services or sites; develop new products and services; conduct educational research; and for other purposes specified in the survey.

Contests and Drawings

Occasionally, we may sponsor a contest or drawing. Participation is optional. Pearson collects name, contact information and other information specified on the entry form for the contest or drawing to conduct the contest or drawing. Pearson may collect additional personal information from the winners of a contest or drawing in order to award the prize and for tax reporting purposes, as required by law.

Newsletters

If you have elected to receive email newsletters or promotional mailings and special offers but want to unsubscribe, simply email ask@peachpit.com.

Service Announcements

On rare occasions it is necessary to send out a strictly service related announcement. For instance, if our service is temporarily suspended for maintenance we might send users an email. Generally, users may not opt-out of these communications, though they can deactivate their account information. However, these communications are not promotional in nature.

Customer Service

We communicate with users on a regular basis to provide requested services and in regard to issues relating to their account we reply via email or phone in accordance with the users' wishes when a user submits their information through our Contact Us form.

Other Collection and Use of Information


Application and System Logs

Pearson automatically collects log data to help ensure the delivery, availability and security of this site. Log data may include technical information about how a user or visitor connected to this site, such as browser type, type of computer/device, operating system, internet service provider and IP address. We use this information for support purposes and to monitor the health of the site, identify problems, improve service, detect unauthorized access and fraudulent activity, prevent and respond to security incidents and appropriately scale computing resources.

Web Analytics

Pearson may use third party web trend analytical services, including Google Analytics, to collect visitor information, such as IP addresses, browser types, referring pages, pages visited and time spent on a particular site. While these analytical services collect and report information on an anonymous basis, they may use cookies to gather web trend information. The information gathered may enable Pearson (but not the third party web trend services) to link information with application and system log data. Pearson uses this information for system administration and to identify problems, improve service, detect unauthorized access and fraudulent activity, prevent and respond to security incidents, appropriately scale computing resources and otherwise support and deliver this site and its services.

Cookies and Related Technologies

This site uses cookies and similar technologies to personalize content, measure traffic patterns, control security, track use and access of information on this site, and provide interest-based messages and advertising. Users can manage and block the use of cookies through their browser. Disabling or blocking certain cookies may limit the functionality of this site.

Do Not Track

This site currently does not respond to Do Not Track signals.

Security


Pearson uses appropriate physical, administrative and technical security measures to protect personal information from unauthorized access, use and disclosure.

Children


This site is not directed to children under the age of 13.

Marketing


Pearson may send or direct marketing communications to users, provided that

  • Pearson will not use personal information collected or processed as a K-12 school service provider for the purpose of directed or targeted advertising.
  • Such marketing is consistent with applicable law and Pearson's legal obligations.
  • Pearson will not knowingly direct or send marketing communications to an individual who has expressed a preference not to receive marketing.
  • Where required by applicable law, express or implied consent to marketing exists and has not been withdrawn.

Pearson may provide personal information to a third party service provider on a restricted basis to provide marketing solely on behalf of Pearson or an affiliate or customer for whom Pearson is a service provider. Marketing preferences may be changed at any time.

Correcting/Updating Personal Information


If a user's personally identifiable information changes (such as your postal address or email address), we provide a way to correct or update that user's personal data provided to us. This can be done on the Account page. If a user no longer desires our service and desires to delete his or her account, please contact us at customer-service@informit.com and we will process the deletion of a user's account.

Choice/Opt-out


Users can always make an informed choice as to whether they should proceed with certain services offered by Adobe Press. If you choose to remove yourself from our mailing list(s) simply visit the following page and uncheck any communication you no longer want to receive: www.peachpit.com/u.aspx.

Sale of Personal Information


Pearson does not rent or sell personal information in exchange for any payment of money.

While Pearson does not sell personal information, as defined in Nevada law, Nevada residents may email a request for no sale of their personal information to NevadaDesignatedRequest@pearson.com.

Supplemental Privacy Statement for California Residents


California residents should read our Supplemental privacy statement for California residents in conjunction with this Privacy Notice. The Supplemental privacy statement for California residents explains Pearson's commitment to comply with California law and applies to personal information of California residents collected in connection with this site and the Services.

Sharing and Disclosure


Pearson may disclose personal information, as follows:

  • As required by law.
  • With the consent of the individual (or their parent, if the individual is a minor)
  • In response to a subpoena, court order or legal process, to the extent permitted or required by law
  • To protect the security and safety of individuals, data, assets and systems, consistent with applicable law
  • In connection the sale, joint venture or other transfer of some or all of its company or assets, subject to the provisions of this Privacy Notice
  • To investigate or address actual or suspected fraud or other illegal activities
  • To exercise its legal rights, including enforcement of the Terms of Use for this site or another contract
  • To affiliated Pearson companies and other companies and organizations who perform work for Pearson and are obligated to protect the privacy of personal information consistent with this Privacy Notice
  • To a school, organization, company or government agency, where Pearson collects or processes the personal information in a school setting or on behalf of such organization, company or government agency.

Links


This web site contains links to other sites. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of each and every web site that collects Personal Information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by this web site.

Requests and Contact


Please contact us about this Privacy Notice or if you have any requests or questions relating to the privacy of your personal information.

Changes to this Privacy Notice


We may revise this Privacy Notice through an updated posting. We will identify the effective date of the revision in the posting. Often, updates are made to provide greater clarity or to comply with changes in regulatory requirements. If the updates involve material changes to the collection, protection, use or disclosure of Personal Information, Pearson will provide notice of the change through a conspicuous notice on this site or other appropriate way. Continued use of the site after the effective date of a posted revision evidences acceptance. Please contact us if you have questions or concerns about the Privacy Notice or any objection to any revisions.

Last Update: November 17, 2020