Cut, clip, and trim your videos at record speed

When composing a narrative, the value of arranging and rearranging raw footage can’t be overstated. It’s a fundamental step in creating content of all types, including short films, music videos, slideshows, documentaries, informational presentations, and more.
Combining separate videos and arranging clips in the precise way you want turns editing into a creative task. Instead of adhering strictly to the chronology of the raw footage, the editor is able to tell the story the way they envision it. Some examples of this process include:

• Creating a sports recruiting video, which involves assembling shots of your best athletic moments from a variety of games, scrimmages, and practices
• Building a news broadcast, which involves putting together footage from the scene or event with background interviews, live reporting, and expert commentary
• Producing a music video for an upbeat song, which involves adding a rapid succession of images matching the style, energy, and underlying beat
• Designing an advertisement by splicing together various clips to tell a story and combining these with images of the company logo, product specifics, and more

Putting a video together also allows you to remove uninteresting footage and leave a highlight reel of the most exciting moments for the viewer to enjoy. If you’re creating a travel vlog, for example, you’ll want to include shots of significant landmarks, memorable cuisine, and precious interactions with the locals—not the moments in between where you set up the shots, discuss logistics, or worse still, struggle to navigate to your hotel using scribbled directions on the back of a paper napkin.
So, are you wondering how to put videos together with this in mind? Let’s say you have two clips to combine. The basic principle is to make a cut where you want the first clip to end and another cut where you want the second clip to begin. Then, drag the video and audio tracks of the two clips next to each other. They should be just touching with no overlap or extra space in between.
Whether you’re just starting out or already an editing connoisseur, you’ll find it easy to assemble your next project using Runway, thanks to our intuitive video editing software. Cut, trim, and drag quickly with our powerful AI-based editing suite and return to your in-browser project anytime.

While some video clips remain paired with their original audio tracks in the final version, it’s also common to combine various images with separately recorded audio. There are many examples of when you might need to do this:

• You are creating a music video where the various images and video clips are set to the song, with all original audio removed
• You layer an informational voiceover for an instructional video over a set of images showing the process
• You use a cutaway shot in your short film, depicting a flashback or image separate from the scene, for storytelling purposes
• You create a montage, setting a series of videos to emblematic music, to show the passage of time

If you’re wondering how to put clips together with different audio, the first step is to cut your footage in Runway and assemble a sequence of video clips. It’s helpful to put your clips in the desired order before adding any effects so you won’t have to undo all the work you’ve done.
Once you have created a sequence you’re satisfied with, find the spots with original audio that you would like to remove. Simply delete those audio tracks and add in new audio with our multitrack audio feature. Some examples of how to do this include:

• Removing the original audio completely for the entire sequence and adding in a music track from beginning to end
• Removing an audio track for a single clip and extending the audio track of a neighboring clip to fill the silence
• Removing an audio track for a single clip and adding in a track containing a sound effect, background music, or voice over you’ve recorded separately

When you’re learning how to add videos together, you’ll quickly realize there are a variety of options to assemble multiple videos. These types of cuts are used to create different effects. If you’re unsure how to combine your clips, try the following cutting techniques:

• The standard cut: The most basic and fundamental option, the standard cut, is perfect for assembling your rough cut, or first draft, of your sequence. To create a standard cut, simply slice the video clip and audio track where you want it to end, then place the next clip at this endpoint. Repeat the same process for multiple clips until you get the order right. Because it’s simple to execute, it speeds up the editing process. This can be helpful when you’re experimenting and don’t yet need the precision or seamless transitions of a final version.
• Match cut: Use this cut to create a seamless transition from one single video to another. A match cut is made by splicing together two shots of the same event, filmed at different angles. The final video conveys a single event that is covered from different angles. It is commonly used in cinema to create an illusion of continuity. Looking to create your own match cut? Center it on a distinct action—for example, an item exchanging hands. The first step is to film this action from various angles. Then, use our editing timeline to find the exact moment in both clips where one person lets go of the item, and the other person takes it. Cut there and combine the clips. A well-executed match cut creates an invisible transition, applicable in various forms of storytelling.
• Jump cut: This is a discontinuous type of editing where the cut creates the effect of the person or object on screen jumping from one place to another. Jump cuts can be jarring in narrative work because of how they draw the viewer’s attention to the cut itself, but they can also be used for effects such as humor, horror, and stylistic choice.
• J-cuts and L-cuts: Similar to the match cut, these types of cuts are also used to create seamless transitions. Let’s say you have a dialogue between two characters, and the camera switches from one person to the other repeatedly. In this case, it can be jarring to experience both the video and audio switching from clip to clip at the exact same time. Instead, editors will prolong the audio of the first clip past the change in image (known as an L-cut) to create a more seamless experience. The alternative is a J-cut, where the audio of the next clip enters before the image changes. Interested in adding these more complex cuts to your sequence? Decide on the rough order of the clips first so you can minimize moving your footage around after making the J- and L-cuts.

Ready to start on a new project? With our lightning-fast editing capabilities, you can switch from cut to cut in no time and try out new storytelling techniques in a flash. In addition to our editing tools, our online video editing software can also edit different video file formats, such as mp4 files, Avi, MOV, etc.