Using the Trim tool, part 1 — trimming and rippling

A rough cut should be exactly that—rough around the edges. Don't spend all your time trying to perfectly select clip ranges before you pop them into your timeline. Just get it close so that you can get a general idea of your film down in the timeline and then begin the fine-tuning process with the Trim tool.

The Trim tool is actually four tools in one—Ripple, Roll, Slip, and Slide. In the next three recipes, we'll tackle how to use each and show how they can help to perfect your rough cuts into a tightly edited final cut.

The first tool, Ripple, is used to alter the start or end point of a clip in your timeline. For example, perhaps you have an interview clip where the speaker finishes his/her sentence, but you accidentally kept the clip going too long and the speaker blinks or looks at the camera awkwardly (as so many untrained interview subjects tend to do). You need to cut out a few frames at the very end of that clip. Or perhaps you have...