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Holds and shortening

Every clip has a Holds for value: how long it plays on the reel. It starts at the shot's full marked length and you can set it to anything shorter. The question this page answers is which part of the shot you keep when you do.

How it works

Select a clip and the settings panel shows Holds for in seconds, along with how much of the source is available beyond it. Type a shorter value and the clip plays for less. Full Length puts it back to the whole marked shot.

Shortening does not move the shot's in point. Instead, the reel decides which window of the shot to play, and When shortening in the reel's own settings decides how:

Setting Keeps
Keep the start of each shot The first frames. The default.
Keep the middle of each shot A centered window.

That is a reel-wide setting, not a per-clip one, because a reel that answers this question differently for each clip is a reel nobody can reason about.

Holds for typed shorter on a plain clip, which keeps its head; then on a clip with an interest point, which keeps the marked part instead

Interest points beat both

If the shot carries interest points, they override the rule: the window slides to keep the marked frames. This is the payoff for pressing P while marking, and it is the difference between a shortened shot that still shows the thing and one that shows the run-up to it.

Start replacements at the marked interesting point extends the same idea to replacement: a clip dropped in over another one starts at its interesting frame rather than at its head.

What this means when you

  • ...shorten a clip with no interest points: you get the head, or the middle, per the reel setting.
  • ...shorten a clip with interest points: you get the marked part, whichever setting is on.
  • ...lengthen a clip past the shot: you cannot. The available figure beside the name is the ceiling; the shot has no more frames.
  • ...change the reel-wide setting: every clip that is currently shortened re-resolves.