LIDE Learning Center, Inc.

Isabel, Leyte

Notes in Computer 10
SY: 2022 – 2023

NAME: Note: Editing techniques are numerous and complicated. For

our purpose, we will stick to the most basic, the match cut.
SECTION:
TOPIC: DIGITAL TOOLS There are two basic ways of match cutting:
• Subject Movement - For example, you show a boy
What are digital tools?
opening the door from the inside of a room. The
Digital tools are programs, websites, or online resources to next logical shot will be to show him going out of
the door.
make tasks easier to complete.
• Dialogue - For example, two friends are having
Examples: conservation. The flow of editing will be based on
• Google Drive: You can upload spreadsheets, their dialogues. The first shot shows the boy smiling
presentations, and documents or create them at the girl, asking “How are you?” The next logical
from scratch using Google’s software. shot shows the girl saying “I am fine.”
• Google forms: an easy tool for designing quick Match cuts are made to facilitate continuity. Continuity, or the
surveys and quizzes;
logical chain of actions or events, is the element that is sought
• Shotcut: an open-source, free video editing tool
after in editing narrative films. By achieving continuity, you are
that includes a wide range of formats.
one step closer to telling your story well.
The Editing Process
A. Editing – is the process of selecting, cutting, and arranging Preparing Our Assets
the shots. The sequences are put together according to Before you start editing, collect your video footage, and other
what you had written in your script. After all the video materials. Put all your project asses – image, video, and audio
materials have been laid out, music and sound effects are file – in the project folder.
added to make the final film. There are many stages in the
Getting Oriented: The Shotcut UI and Panels
editing process. Three will be discussed: assembly, rough
cut, and final cut. I. Kinds of Shotcut Controls:
B. Assembly – is the stage where you select the best shots A. Open
and leave out the unnecessary ones. You will take note of B. Save
god shots and arrange these according to your script. C. Undo
C. Rough cut – is the sequence of shots that you trimmed D. Redo
down to a shorter length than the assembly. This is the A. Open File
stage where you analyze if your video, according to how This control opens a standard dialogue allowing you to browse
you have edited it so far, is telling the story that you want and choose a file to open. What happens next depends on
it to tell. what kind of file you open. As with most media editors,
D. The final cut is the complete edited version of the video. Shotcut will save a Project in progress in its proprietary Project
format, in this case, a .mlt;
Editing Techniques
In editing, we try to smoothen out the story. The joining of two B. Save
shots without any transition between them is called a cut. (Cut: As with many editing and authoring tools, saving in Shotcut is
Shot A to Shot B) not the same as exporting (at the far right of the Toolbar and
the end of this overview below). Saving here means saving
A. Match Cutting – is the joining of two shots that occur at your currently-open Shotcut project, in its entirety, with
the same time and place. Shots are connected by whatever assets are currently included and whatever panels
matching one action or subject to another. are open. You will be prompted for a location and project
B. Jump Cut – refers to two mismatched shots. For example, name. The resulting .mlt file can only be opened in Shotcut
if in one shot you have a man standing then you again, not in other software.
immediately cut to the man sitting down. It would appear
that the man had moved forward in time. Jump cuts are C. Undo
As with most editors, Undo simply undoes the last thing (or
often used in comedies.
things) you have done, other than opening, closing, or
C. Montage – is a series of shots that squeezes a span of
exporting a file itself.
time. This is different from the jump shot because
montages do not necessarily show the same subject. For D. Redo
example, you can show a shot of a man looking to the Again, the standard editor control lets you redo an action
right, followed by a cut to a shot of his POV and then a cut you've just undone, either by accident or after some
to the reaction shot. reconsideration.
II. Kinds of Shotcut buttons/panels: cut segment shifts to the left, leaving no gap in the timeline,
A. Peak meter while the cut segment itself is copied to the clipboard
B. Properties
C. Recent Copy -- copies the currently-selected track or track
D. Playlist segment to the clipboard, but without deleting it
E. History from its current position (analogous to the difference
F. Filters between Cut and Copy in word processors)
G. Timeline
A. Peak Meter Paste -- inserts the copied material on the clipboard
This button opens the Peak Meter which indicates the current at the cursor point, also called the "playhead,” in the
signal (volume) levels of whatever audio is playing, whether in currently-selected track (if there is more than one
the main Source panel or the selected track or tracks in the track present), and shifts any following track segments to the
Timeline. right

B. Properties Append -- Appends the currently-selected Playlist

This Toolbar button opens the Properties panel, which allows item, or copied track segment, to the end of the
for the inspection, and in some cases the alteration, of a wide current track if there is already existing content in
range of properties pertaining to the selected asset. Recent that track.

This toolbar button opens the Recent Panel, simply a clickable Ripple-delete -- Deletes the currently-selected track
list of all the files (standard format files and Shotcut project or track segment without copying it to the clipboard
files) you have recently opened and edited in Shotcut. and shifts any further segment(s) of this track to the
left.
C. Playlist
One of these panels in Shotcut, along with the Timeline, Lift --- cuts (i.e., removes and copies to clipboard) the
Playlist is essentially the clickable list of all assets that have currently-selected track segment without shifting the
been added to the project for manipulation, position of any other segments in this track.

D. History Overwrite -- pastes the copied material at the point

The History Panel gives you direct access to that stack. In the of the cursor in the currently-selected track,
current session, I have simply added certain items to the overwriting any material currently in that location
Playlist, but any Filters added to a Playlist item or edits made and, like Lift, preserving the overall position of the track about
in a track in the timeline would be listed here as well. other tracks.

E. Filters Split at Playhead -- creates a single cut or split at the

Essentially, Filters represent an extensive collection of effects current point of the cursor (which will also be the
that we can apply to items we've selected in the Playlist, Playhead location). The first split divides a track into
Favorites, Audio, Video & Time collections. two segments;

F. Timeline Toggle Snapping -- turns 'snapping' on/off. Snapping

Arguably the single most important panel in the Shotcut UI. automatically creates a tight join between two-track
You will likely spend the most working time; the Timeline panel segments manually sliding together.
is placed near the end of the Toolbar button sequence because
that is its logical place in the workflow of editing or crafting a Scrub while dragging -- allows you to derogate the
video. play-head across audio & video content in a track
and hear/see that content precisely where you are
G. Export dragging.
Export is the final control button on the Main Toolbar and the
final logical step in the Shotcut workflow. If we want (as we Ripple Trim and Drop – N/A
certainly will) to render our edited creation in a general-
purpose video format playable on other devices, we will need Zoom Timeline Out -- horizontally zooms out the
to Export at this point. Timeline (with all of its tracks), allowing you to see
more granular detail, particularly in the audio wave-
Timeline button controls form or during cross-fades or other visual effects.

Menu -- Displays a menu of additional actions, Zoom Timeline In -- horizontally zooms the Timeline
including adding video and audio tracks and adjusting in, allowing you to see more significant segments (or
their visual presentation. In the Shotcut Timeline, the entirety) of a long Timeline;
video tracks can also contain audio and display the
audio wave-form, but audio tracks can only contain audio References:
wave-forms. http://write.flossmanuals.net/introduction-to-video-
editing-with-shotcut/getting-oriented-the-shotcut-ui-
Cut -- cuts the currently-selected video or audio track
and-panels/
(or track segment) and 'ripple-deletes' it, meaning
that any additional track segment to the right of the