Cut or Trim Videos Like a Pro

• In the start dialog in Movie Studio Platinum, create a new project.

If you wish to import high-resolution footage (e.g., UHD or 4k), activate the "Open film settings" option and click on "Create project". Then, activate the "Create proxy files automatically" option in the "Film settings" dialog. This will allow even large amounts of data from high-resolution videos to be played back and edited without issue.

• Drag & drop the video from the Media Pool into the top track.
• Press the spacebar to play back the video.

During playback a red playback marker will move across the project window to display the current position.

• The playback marker can be moved to any position by clicking the timeline above the track section. This lets you navigate through your video.
• To stop the video, simply press the space bar a second time.

The mouse mode "Split and trim" offers a very practical improvement.

• Right-click the mouse mode icon and select the mouse mode "Split and trim".
• Move your mouse over the video object and you'll be able to see the corresponding position in the preview monitor.

This will help you determine where best to place a cut. Once you have found a position where you would like to split and trim the video:

• Click and hold the mouse button and drag the mouse pointer horizontally.

This will move the position of the cut, either to the left or the right, to shorten the end of the first object or the beginning of the second object, respectively.

Once you have made all the cuts desired, switch to the aforementioned mouse mode to close the gaps in the timeline.

In some cases, the video track should be cut independently of the audio track, so that the audio recording continues under the video material, or conversely so that another audio track is played before the corresponding video appears. This editing technique is a "split edit" known as a "J-L cut". To make one of these cuts, make the audio track visible.

• Right-click on the video and select "Video/Audio on separate tracks".

This will separate the video: The object with the video track is on the upper track (1) and the audio track is on the lower track (2).

When cutting video and audio tracks separately, you can add a waveform display for visual orientation of the media on the audio track:

• Right-click on the object below on track 2 and choose the "Create waveform display" option from the context menu.

The video and audio tracks are automatically grouped, so that neither can accidentally be moved. You can ungroup them using the toolbar at any time to allow the video track to be cut independently of the sound. If you do this, however, there is a risk that the video and sound will no longer be synchronized.

In this situation, a so-called "J-L cut" is intended. The group is temporarily disrupted in order to cut the picture and sound separately.

• Hold down the Alt key and move the mouse pointer to the beginning or end of the object group.

Now you can trim video and audio individually.

• If you hold down the Shift key together with the Alt key, you can fix the horizontal position of the object on the track.

This protects the objects against accidental movement. For example, you can move the audio track to a lower track to set a crossfade with the audio track above it.

Now, we have come to a special function for video editing. Occasionally, the duration of the cut videos and audio objects are perfectly matched, but nonetheless the first frame of the next object isn't quite right, for example. The "Move object content" mouse mode allows you to retain the framework of objects, but you can still change the content within the cut objects afterwards.

• Right-click the mouse mode icon and select the mouse mode "Move object content".
• Place the playback marker to the position of the cut so that you can see this frame in the preview monitor.
• Click on the back object and shift the content in the object by holding down the mouse button until the desired initial frame appears in the preview monitor.

The object's position in the timeline will not be changed.

Last, we'd like to demonstrate the opposite case: If you'd like to insert additional video material in an existing video. For this, you have several options.

• The easiest way to do this is to Drag & Drop the new video footage from the Media Pool to an empty position in the project, trim it to the desired length, create a matching gap in the existing video and insert the additional video footage into this space.

This process can be done faster however.

• Right-click on the Insert button in the toolbar.

This will open the Insert menu. Several special functions are available for inserting new media at the position of the playback marker. "Ripple" means that when inserting material, the material in the track is split at the position of the playback marker and moved backwards.

• Place the playback marker at the position where the new scene should be added.
• Move the mouse over the Media Pool file you wish to insert
• In the pop-up window that appears, click the Insert arrow.

This will add the new footage at the position of the playback marker. When using the two Ripple modes, the existing video will be moved back. In the other modes, you can manually replace or overwrite the existing material.

If you trim videos, sometimes unintended gaps can occur. Additionally, there is a useful tool that you can use at the end of the editing process.

• Right-click on a gap in the project window to open the context menu.
• Selection the function "Find and close gaps".

Then you can be sure that all objects will be placed adjacent to each other and there are no unintended gaps in your movie.

To finish, you can export the project with the split video:

• To export a video file, go to "File" > "Export movie" and select an export format in the sub-menu, for example "Video as MPEG4".
• To render the video directly to your smartphone, upload it to a social media platform or burn it onto a disc via the Options in the upper right-hand corner of the program. Here, you will see a separate interface for burning discs as well as the dialog "Finish movie".