Chapter 26 — Exercises

Editing is a doing skill even more than shooting is, because the timeline gives you infinite tries at no cost. These exercises are built around that gift: most of them ask you to cut something and then cut it again differently, because the fastest way to learn what a cut does is to change one and watch the meaning move. Use any editor — DaVinci Resolve is the book's free reference, but a phone app is enough for every exercise here.

Exercises are graded by effort and depth:

• ⭐ Warm-up — a few minutes; locks in a concept.
• ⭐⭐ Core — the real practice; do as many as you can.
• ⭐⭐⭐ Stretch — deeper or more ambitious; where the biggest gains are.

Model solutions and critiques for the starred and odd-numbered exercises are collected in Answers to Selected Exercises at the back of the book. Try each one before you read its answer — a cut you got wrong teaches more than an answer you only read.

A. Seeing the cut (Eye & Ear Training)

No camera needed — just your attention and the Frame Log.

1. ⭐ Count the cuts. Pick any 60-second stretch of a video you like — a trailer, a vlog, a scene. Count the cuts. Then estimate the average shot length (60 divided by the number of cuts). Write it down. You are learning to feel pace as a number. (Answer discusses typical ranges.)

2. ⭐ Fast and slow. Find one video that feels energetic and one that feels calm. For each, note the average shot length. In one sentence, connect the cut rate to the feeling. (Answer provided.)

3. ⭐⭐ Catch a cut you noticed. Most cuts are invisible; occasionally one pulls you out. Watch anything for ten minutes and catch one cut you actually noticed as a cut. Write down what made it visible (a jump, a mismatch, a jarring transition, a bad-timed join). Noticing visible cuts trains you to avoid making them. (Answer provided.)

4. ⭐⭐ Spot the hold. Find a moment in a film or show where the editor held a shot noticeably longer than the surrounding cuts. What was being held (a face, a silence, a decision)? Why did the length make it land? Add it to your Frame Log.

5. ⭐⭐⭐ Dissolve hunt. Watch a documentary or a drama and catch two dissolves. For each, write what it meant — time passing, a connection, a memory. Then find one place a lesser editor might have used a dissolve but a cut was chosen instead, and say why the cut was right.

B. Reading edits (Read the Sequence)

6. ⭐ Name the fields. Re-read FIGURE 26.8 ("The reaction, held"). Without looking, list what THE CUT field said the editor did not do, and why that refusal was the whole point.

7. ⭐⭐ Diagnose the assembly. Look at FIGURE 26.6 (the Café first cut, Described Sequence). Which single shot could you drop entirely and lose the least? Which shot, if you dropped it, would break the scene? Defend both choices in a sentence each. (Answer provided.)

8. ⭐⭐ Re-order for a new meaning. Take the eight shots in FIGURE 26.6 and propose a re-ordering that makes the scene about the café itself rather than the person. Which shots move, and what does the new order say? (Answer provided.)

9. ⭐⭐⭐ Write a Described Sequence. Watch a 30–60 second scene you admire and write a full Described Sequence table (# / shot / duration / audio / cut to next), then a short paragraph on how its pacing shapes the feeling. This is the exact skill Chapters 28–30 assume. (Model answer provided.)

C. Making cuts (Cut This)

The heart of the chapter. Every one of these is a real edit. Do them.

10. ⭐ The clean top-and-tail. Take any single clip of someone talking. Trim the head to the first real word and the tail to the last real word — kill every "um, okay, so" at the front and every "…yeah" at the end. Watch before and after. Write one sentence on how much more professional the trimmed version feels. (Answer provided.)

11. ⭐⭐ Assemble a sequence from coverage. Use the coverage you shot back in Chapter 20 (or shoot four quick shots now: a wide, a medium, a close-up, a detail of any simple action). Assemble them into a 15–20 second sequence in story order. Do not add effects. Confirm it plays end to end. This is your first assembly. (Guidance provided.)

12. ⭐⭐ Cut it, then cut it 20% shorter. Take the sequence from Exercise 11. Without removing any shots, trim every shot until the whole thing is roughly 20% shorter. Watch both. Which has more energy? Did you lose any information? (Answer provided.)

13. ⭐⭐ Hide the jump. Film one 20-second locked-off shot of yourself talking. Now cut the boring middle out so the two halves butt together — see the jump cut. Then fix it three ways: (a) cut to a different angle you shoot as a pickup, (b) lay a cutaway over the join, (c) place the cut on a natural pause. Which fix is cleanest for your footage? (Answer provided.)

14. ⭐⭐ Two paces, one clip. Take any 30 seconds of B-roll-style footage (a walk, a place, an activity). Cut it once slow (long holds, few cuts) and once fast (short shots, many cuts). Same footage, two edits. Show both to someone and ask which feels more "exciting." (Answer discusses what to expect.)

15. ⭐⭐ The hold that matters. Assemble a short moment that builds to one important beat (a reaction, a reveal, a decision). Cut everything before it tight, then hold the important beat noticeably longer than feels comfortable. Does the length make it land? (Answer provided.)

16. ⭐⭐⭐ Dissolve with a reason. Shoot (or find) two shots of the same place at two different times — morning and evening, empty and full, before and after. Assemble them with (a) a hard cut and (b) a one-second dissolve. Write which reading each gives and which you'd keep. Then confirm you had handles (extra frames) to make the dissolve — if not, note what you'd shoot differently next time. (Answer provided.)

17. ⭐⭐⭐ The transition diet. Find any old edit of yours (or make a deliberately over-decorated one) that uses fancy transitions. Strip every transition back to a plain cut except where one genuinely means "time passed." Watch before and after. Report how many transitions survived — usually almost none. (Answer provided.)

18. ⭐⭐ Cut on a change. Take a clip with a clear movement in it (someone standing up, turning, reaching). Make one cut that lands on the movement and one that lands in the stillness just before it. Which cut feels more motivated? (Answer provided.)

D. Fixing edits (Fix the Shot / Fix the Edit)

19. ⭐ Fix the dead air. A described first cut: every shot is held two seconds too long, the piece drags, and viewers drop off at 0:20. Name the single most likely problem and the one-move fix. (Answer provided.)

20. ⭐⭐ Fix the abrupt cut. A described edit: the editor complains that a particular cut "feels harsh" and has smeared a dissolve over it, which now feels worse. Diagnose the real problem and prescribe the professional fix. (Answer provided.)

21. ⭐⭐ Fix the hostage video. A described situation: an interview was shot in one long unbroken take, no coverage, no cutaways. In the edit there is a fluffed sentence in the middle you must remove — but cutting it makes the subject jump. List every option you have in the edit, and then name the shooting habit (Chapters 7, 20) that would have prevented the whole problem. (Answer provided.)

22. ⭐⭐ Fix the frame-rate stutter. A described symptom: imported footage plays back with a subtle judder and motion looks "off," though the clips looked fine on the camera. What timeline setting is almost certainly wrong, and how do you fix it? (Answer provided.)

23. ⭐⭐⭐ Fix the pace curve. A described 3-minute edit: it opens strong, sags badly in the middle third, and ends fine. Without any new footage, describe three specific pacing moves to rescue the middle. (Answer provided.)

E. Setting up and deciding (Settings Drill)

24. ⭐ Build the right timeline. You shot at 4K / UHD 3840×2160, 24 fps. Write the three timeline settings you'd choose and why (§26.1). What happens if you get the frame rate wrong? (Answer provided.)

25. ⭐⭐ Match the pace to the brief. For each, state whether you'd cut fast or slow and give one sentence why: (a) a 15-second energy-drink social ad; (b) a 2-minute meditation-app promo; (c) a wedding highlight; (d) a tense sports montage. (Model answers provided.)

26. ⭐⭐ Transition decision drill. For each join, choose cut / dissolve / fade-to-black and justify: (a) between two angles of the same conversation; (b) from "the shop in the 1990s" to "the shop today"; (c) the very end of the whole video; (d) between the hook and the first section of a vlog. (Answer provided.)

F. Recreate and vary (Recreate It / Five Ways)

27. ⭐⭐ Recreate the Kuleshov effect. Film three shots: a neutral face, any object with emotional potential (a photo, a meal, a locked door), and the same neutral face again. Cut them in two orders. Show both to a friend and ask what the person is "feeling." Their differing answers prove the cut made the meaning (callback to FIGURE 1.3 — do not skip this even though Chapter 1 named it). (Answer provided.)

28. ⭐⭐⭐ Recreate an accelerating cut. Pick any building action (climbing stairs, filling a glass, a countdown). Cut it so the shots get shorter and shorter toward the climax, then release on one longer hold. Does the acceleration create tension? This is the engine behind the most famous edited scenes in film. (Answer provided.)

29. ⭐⭐⭐ Five Ways: five paces for one moment. Take one 20-second moment of footage and make five distinct edits of it, changing only pace and shot choice: (a) calm/slow, (b) urgent/fast, (c) building/accelerating, (d) one-shot-held (almost no cuts), (e) frantic (too fast on purpose). Watch all five. Which serves the moment, and why is "too fast" a real failure and not just a style? (Answer discusses.)

G. The projects (Cut This — portfolio)

30. ⭐⭐ Assemble your talking-head (Production Checkpoint). Do the chapter's Production Checkpoint: assemble Project 1 into a clean, deliberately-paced 60-second first cut, cutting between your coverage sizes so nothing jumps. No color, no music yet. (Model walkthrough provided.)

31. ⭐⭐⭐ Assemble the Café Scene. Using your café coverage (Chapters 7, 8, 9, 20) and sound (Chapter 15), build the Café first cut as laid out in FIGURES 26.6–26.7. Lay room tone on A2 under the whole thing so sound never drops at a cut. Hold the reaction. Save the project file — Chapters 28, 29, 31, 32, and 33 all return to it. (Guidance provided.)

32. ⭐⭐ The report card. After assembling either project, write down every hole the assembly revealed — a missing cutaway, a shot you needed, a flub with no alternate take. This list is the most valuable thing you'll produce this chapter: it's your personal "shoot for the edit" lesson, in your own footage. (Answer discusses how to use it.)

H. Interleaved (mixing prior chapters)

33. ⭐⭐ Coverage → cut (Ch.7 + Ch.26). Explain, in a short paragraph, why the 180-degree line you learned in Chapter 7 is really an editing rule, not a shooting rule — i.e., what specifically breaks in the cut when the line is crossed. (Answer provided.)

34. ⭐⭐ B-roll → assembly (Ch.20 + Ch.26). Take an interview clip (or any talking clip) with one jump-cut problem and lay a piece of B-roll (Chapter 20) over the join on V2. Note how the cut disappears. Then say why this is a preview of a bigger technique that Chapter 30 builds into a whole method. (Answer provided.)

35. ⭐⭐⭐ Sound → cut (Ch.14/15 + Ch.26). Take any two-shot dialogue moment and lay continuous room tone on A2 underneath both shots. Cut the picture on V1. Notice how the unbroken sound bed makes the picture cuts feel smoother. Write one sentence predicting what letting the dialogue itself lead across a cut would do — you're describing the J-/L-cut that Chapter 28 teaches. (Answer provided.)

When you have done the Cut This exercises — especially assembling both projects — you have crossed from someone who shoots footage to someone who makes films. Save your project files. Chapter 27 will make the whole process faster and safer, and Chapters 28–33 will take today's rough first cuts all the way to finished, graded, mixed videos.