Three-point editing with the source monitor in Video by Zaweba
Mark in and out points in the Video by Zaweba source monitor, then insert or overwrite with F9 and F10, and use Fit to fill to make a shot match a gap.
Dragging clips onto the timeline works for a short edit. For anything longer, three-point editing is faster and more precise, and Video by Zaweba supports it with a proper source monitor. You choose the part of a clip you want, choose where it goes, and the app works out the rest.
The name comes from the idea that you only need to set three of the four points (source in, source out, timeline in, timeline out) and the editor can fill in the fourth.
Opening the source monitor
Choose View > Source monitor. It plays whichever file is selected in the bin, beside the program monitor that shows your timeline. It has its own playhead, so you can look through a source clip without moving your place in the edit.
The usual playback keys work here too. J, K and L play backwards, stop and play forwards, and you can step a frame at a time.
Marking in and out
In the source monitor, press I to set an in mark and O to set an out mark. Those marks are saved with the media item, so if you come back to the same clip later, your chosen range is still there. That makes it practical to go through all your interviews first, marking the best answer in each, and then build the edit.
Marking is quick enough that it is worth doing for every promising clip, even ones you are not sure about yet. A marked range costs nothing until you use it.
Insert and overwrite
With the source marked, put the timeline playhead where the shot should go. F9 inserts the marked range at the playhead, pushing everything after it along to make room. F10 overwrites, laying the range over whatever is already there without moving anything.
Insert is the edit for building a sequence: each new shot goes in and the rest of the film moves to make space. Overwrite is the edit for replacing: a cutaway over an interview, or swapping a weak shot for a better one of the same length.
Which tracks the edit lands on depends on the track targeting set in the track headers. A track's right click menu chooses where source pictures and sound go, so you can, for example, overwrite picture only and keep the original sound running underneath.
Fit to fill
When you also set in and out marks on the timeline, the timeline range sets the length of the edit. If the source range is a different length, choose Edit > Fit to fill. The app changes the speed of the source so that its range exactly fills the gap.
This is the tool for a shot that is almost right but a second too long or short. A slow pan that has to fill a music phrase, or a cutaway that must cover a precise stretch of dialogue, can be squeezed or stretched to fit without trimming away the part you want. Small changes in speed are rarely noticed; large ones are, so check the result.
A working rhythm
A rhythm that suits interview based films goes like this. Watch each source in the source monitor and mark the useful range. Put the timeline playhead at the end of your sequence and press F9. Repeat. You end up with a rough assembly in the order you want, and you never touched the mouse to drag anything.
Then switch to overwrite for cutaways. Mark a short range in a cutaway clip, set timeline marks over the stretch of interview you want to cover, target the picture track and press F10, or use Fit to fill if the lengths differ.
Mistakes to watch for
The usual slip is forgetting that marks stay on the media item. If a clip had a range marked from an earlier edit, the next insert uses it. Glance at the source monitor before pressing F9.
Another is overwriting on the wrong track because targeting was left from a previous edit. Check the track headers when an edit lands somewhere unexpected; Video by Zaweba records every edit as an undo step, so a quick undo puts it right.
