Your First Edit — Cutting Clips
The core idea in professional editing is three-point editing: mark where a clip starts and ends, then drop it onto the timeline.
Three-point editing step by step
- Double-click a clip in a bin — it opens in the Source monitor.
- Press I to set the In point (where the clip starts).
- Press O to set the Out point (where it ends).
- Press , (comma) to insert the clip, or . (period) to overwrite it, onto the timeline.
Insert pushes everything after the playhead forward to make room. Overwrite replaces what’s already there. Use insert when you want to preserve the rest; overwrite when you’re replacing a shot.
Lifting and extracting
- ; (semicolon) — lift: remove a range, leaving a gap.
- ’ (apostrophe) — extract: remove a range and close the gap.
Adding an edit (a cut)
To split a clip on the timeline, put the playhead where you want the cut and press ⌘K (Ctrl+K on Windows). Add the edit to all tracks or just one.
Ripple delete
Select a clip and choose ripple delete to remove it and close the gap in one step. The “close gap” command does the same for an existing gap.
Undo
FilmCraft has unlimited undo with a History panel, so experiment freely — nothing you do is permanent.
Try it yourself
Mark In and Out on a clip, insert it onto V1, then insert a second clip after it. Cut one of them with ⌘K and delete the unwanted piece with ripple delete.
Course on media.sacaa.org — free for any visitor, no login required. Work through lessons in order.