Using cuts and other transitions

In the Understanding the pros and cons of automatic editing section of Chapter 2, we learned that clips don’t exist in a vacuum: they interact and interrelate in the timeline, and that’s what gives them meaning. Now that we have more scope to change how clips interact in Movie mode, it’s worth looking at this idea again.

One clip can interact with another by being overlaid (on top of a clip) or placed next to a clip. When clips are next to each other in the Movie mode timeline, there will be a visual indication of the transition between them:

Figure 3.16 – A cut transition between clips

The simplest transition is a cut (the transition in Figure 3.16). A cut is as simple as one clip ending and another starting. It’s immediate and there’s no animation—it’s the same transition you created by splitting clips in QuickTime Player. The iMovie app represents a cut transition...