For this lesson, I'm using the project file 05_01 Trim clips on the timeline.prproj. And you'll find that project file with the media associated with this lesson. Just double-click on the file to open it in Premiere Pro CC. Once you have the basic structure of your edit right, you'll want to look more carefully at the precise timing of the cuts. Perfecting the timing is part of the art of video editing. Changing the part of the clip you've added to a Sequence is called Trimming. Let's try this. I've got a Sequence open in this project. And this is a pretty reasonable edit with music, voice-over, and multiple visuals, but we want to adjust the timing. Take a look at this clip. I'm going to zoom in a little bit on the Timeline with the Navigator here. And we can see we've got this Kids rolling a tire.mp4 shot. And let's say I want to make the clip shorter; I want to remove part of the clip. Probably the quickest way to do this is to click and drag on the end of the clip you want to change. You'll notice as the cursor gets close to the edge of the clip you get a red arrow indicating that you can trim. In one step I'm going to click and drag. And as I do you'll notice the Program monitor updates to show the last frame of the clip I'm adjusting. You can see it's changing as I drag with the mouse. On the right-hand side of the Program monitor I'm seeing the first frame of the clip after this one. This helps me to decide on the content I want to use. I'm going to release the mouse and the trim has been made. You’ll notice that I've left a gap. I'll just move the Play head back so you can see that clip again. This is a perfectly good way to work, but it does leave a gap on the Timeline, which kind of makes it a two-stage process. You need to deal with the gap unless of course you put it there on purpose to add another clip. I should note that by clicking and dragging in a single step it's a little bit faster to trim. If I single-click and release the mouse I get a trim handle. And when I drag to adjust the last frame of the clip and release the trim handle is still there. I can click on the background of the Timeline to remove that trim handle. Those trim handles are useful for more advanced trimming workflows, but we don't really need them right now. Now I'm going to go over to the Tools panel and I'm going to choose this Ripple Edit Tool. I'm going to undo with Ctrl + Z here on Windows or Command + Z on Mac OS a couple of times to restore the clip. Let's try this again. Now I get a yellow arrow. And as I click and drag everything moves along the Timeline. I'm just going to undo that so you can see again. Notice that all of the clips after this one are moving, and this little piece of audio down on the right is too, but not the piece of audio that's just under the end of the clip. Here we go. I'll just drag this over. There. This is called a Ripple Trim. I'll just undo again. And now under the Ripple Edit Tool in the Tools panel you'll see we have a couple of other options. I'm going to choose the Rolling Edit Tool. And again we get a different cursor. And this type of trim is going to adjust both clips at once. So, as I drag you'll notice in the Program monitor both the left and right sides are being adjusted. In fact, the Rolling Edit will extend one clip and shorten the other by exactly the same amount. And this means your Sequence won't get longer or shorter. I'll just release the mouse. And you can see the trim has been made. I'm going to click and drag again here so you can see, there's a limit to how far I can move this trim. You see as I'm dragging left the handles get left behind. And that's because there's no more media left in that forest shot. I'm going to go back to the Selection tool. I'm going to line up my Play head and I'm going to use another shortcut. On your keyboard you'll notice the Q and W keys at the top left can be used to trim as well. So, I'm pressing W. And everything from the Play head to the end of the clip has been removed. I'll just move the Play head out of the way so you can see. I've also though removed a piece of the music. I will undo: Ctrl + Z or Command + Z on Mac OS, so you can see that again. I'm going to click a little bit further back. And again I'm going to press W. And you can see if I move the Play head out of the way, I've removed a piece of the voice-over and a piece of the music. So, these Q and W keys: and the Q key removes the beginning of the clip; the W key removes the end of the clip. They're really useful, but they remove content from every track, which is not perfect if you've got multiple layers of audio in this way. But we can fix that. I'm going to undo again. And now I'm going to lock those audio tracks. Over on the left in the track header we've got a number of Lock icons, one for each track. And I'm just going to turn these on for these three tracks that aren't used for the sync audio, the audio associated with my clips. Now no changes can be made to these tracks. You'll notice if I click and drag anywhere here, I can't even touch the clips that are on the tracks. And let's try that again. I'm now going to press the W key. And you can see the audio is left alone. Again I'll undo. Now I'm going to press the Q key. It's going to remove the beginning of the clip. And again nothing happens to those other tracks. I'll just undo again. It's a good idea to make sure you unlock tracks that you've locked temporarily, before you continue working on your edit just to make sure that things work as you expect them to. There are other ways to trim, but many professional editors exclusively adjust the timing of their edits this way.

 

For this lesson, I'm using the project file 05_02 Trim clips in the Program monitor.prproj. And you'll find that project file with the media associated with this lesson. Double-click on it to open it in Premiere Pro CC. If you want to get really precise with your trimming you can use the Trim mode in the Program monitor. Now let's take a look. If I single-click on the end of a clip, when I have this red arrow cursor I get a Trim handle, but if I double-click the Program monitor changes mode. This is the Trim mode. And in this mode you can click directly into the picture to trim your clips. What's nice about this is that you have a large area to click on. And you can see I've got a red arrow anywhere in this image. I can drag, release the mouse - and I've trimmed. The right-hand side of the screen has gone dark now, because of course I left a gap. I'm going to click and drag to the right. And you'll notice I haven't let go of the mouse yet. At the bottom of the Program monitor it says: Trim blocked on Video 1. That's because there's a clip in the way. When I release the mouse you can see we actually filled the gap. And we can't trim any further, because this forest shot is in the way. I'll just go back in by double- clicking on the end of this clip. And you'll notice I can drag on the right side of the Program monitor as well. I actually think I trimmed the entire clip out of existence there. There's just a gap on the Timeline. So I'm going to undo with Ctrl+Z or Command+Z to bring it back. If I click on the middle between the two images in the Program monitor, well, you can see that familiar cursor. As I drag I'm adjusting both clips. Notice as well if I now click on the left side of the Program monitor, I've got a yellow arrow, not a red arrow. The yellow trim cursor indicates that it's going to be a Ripple Trim. I'll just click and drag. And you can see everything moves on the Timeline. Let's try this with a longer clip. I'll double-click to go into the Trim mode. And up in the Program monitor I'll choose the Rolling Trim. And now I've got that yellow arrow on the left. You can see a dramatic change on the Timeline. Everything moves to fill the gap. I'll just undo that again. You can switch trim modes in the Program monitor by holding the Ctrl key on Windows or the Command key on Mac OS while you click in the picture. There. Just under these images in the Program monitor we've got some precise adjustment controls. So, here I can trim one frame at a time or five. I can also add frames. You can exit the Trim mode by clicking anywhere in the background of the Timeline. Here I'm clicking on a blank track. Editors develop a preference over time for one way of editing or another. And all approaches are valid. Sometimes you'll trim on the Timeline, and sometimes you'll use the Program monitor. As long as you get the results you want you're fine. And you can always undo if you need to. So feel free to experiment.

For this lesson, I'm using the project file 05_03 Sync locks and track locks.prproj. You'll find this project file with the media associated with this lesson. Just double-click the file to open it in Premiere Pro CC. While developing a Sequence it's easy to click on something and make a change, and then realize later you'd wanted it left as it was. Premiere Pro CC includes two ways to keep things as they should be on the Timeline. And they become more and more useful as your Sequence becomes more complex. In this Sequence we've got a few tracks with some visuals. There are some video clips; there's even some titles. We've also got a couple of tracks with music and voice-over. If I trim this first clip, this Great forest.mp4 shot, using the Ripple Edit tool all of the clips after it are going to move. Not the music clip, because it begins before the edit that I'm changing. I'm just going to undo this. I can lock the tracks that I want to protect when I trim by clicking on these Lock icons, but then I've got a problem, because if I drag to adjust the timing of this edit I'm leaving behind these voice-over clips that I do want to move with my shots. So I'll just undo. I need these voice-over clips to move with my visuals, but I'm happy for the timing of the music to change. So, I'm going to unlock the Audio 3 track. And now when I trim these voice-over clips move as well. The reason why the voice-over clips are moving at the same time as my video clips is because of an additional feature called Sync Locks. Here's the Toggle Sync Lock button for the Audio 3 track. I'm just going to undo. Everything moves back. And I'm going to turn off the Sync Lock for Audio 3. And now when I drag to adjust the timing of this edit, the voice-over clip stay where they are. You'll notice that the audio for the one or two clips in the Sequence attached to a video clip will always move, because it's a linked audio clip. Here this Temple from the ground linked.mp4 clip will always move with its audio, unless of course link selection is turned off in the Timeline.