Cut Your First Scene in an Afternoon

The problem

You have twelve clips in a folder and a vague sense that editing is where it becomes a film. It is. It is also where most projects stall, because "editing" sounds like a craft you need to learn first. You do not. You need a timeline, three passes and a stopping rule.

This is a schedule, not a course. Follow it once and you will have a finished scene by dinner.

Before you start (15 min)

• Put every clip in one folder, named by shot: S01_A_wide.mp4, S01_B_closeup.mp4.
• Put your dialogue, ambience, spot effects and music in a sound folder.
• Open Resolve (free) or CapCut. Make a new project at your clip resolution and 24 fps. Import the folders.
• Decide the scene's one job in a sentence: "She realises he is not coming." Write it on a sticky note. Every cut serves that sentence.

Pass 1: Assembly (45 min)

Drop the clips on the timeline in story order. Do not trim anything yet. Do not touch sound. Play it top to bottom once. It will be too long and slightly embarrassing. That is correct. You now have a scene that exists, which is more than you had an hour ago.

Rule: no clip is precious. If a shot does not serve the sticky note, it goes, no matter how good it looked in the generator.

Pass 2: Trim (60 min)

1. Cut late in, early out. Start each clip after the action has already begun. End it before the action fully finishes. Audiences fill in the rest and the scene gains pace.
2. Cut on movement. A head turn, a hand lifting, a step. Cutting in the middle of a motion hides the join.
3. Hold on faces longer than you think. The one exception to trimming hard. Reaction shots earn their length.
4. Watch it three times, cutting one thing each time. Never rewatch without changing something.

Pass 3: Sound (45 min)

Three layers, in this order: ambience across the whole timeline, spot effects on the actions, music last and low. (Sound Is Half the Shot has the details.) Then one gentle dip of the music under any dialogue. Then stop.

The stopping rule (15 min)

Export when the scene does its one job and you can watch it without wincing at any single cut. Not when it is perfect. Perfect is what you do on scene four, after you have learned from scenes one to three. Export a 1080p H.264, name it S01_v01.mp4, and send it to one person.

Worked example timing

14:00 organise · 14:15 assembly · 15:00 trim · 16:00 sound · 16:45 export and send · 17:00 done, one scene, first version, seen by one human.