Divide a video into scenes

A scene is a stretch of your video with its own look. Divide a video into scenes and you can give each one a different layout, a transition into it, its own layers and its own caption style, while the edit itself stays one continuous timeline.

Scenes are numbered in order: Scene 1, Scene 2 and so on.

Add a scene boundary

• In the script: put the caret where the new scene should begin and press the / key. Select some words first and / wraps them in a scene of their own.
• From the menu bar: choose Scenes > Add Scene Boundary. Chosen from the menu, the boundary goes at the playhead.
• On the timeline: right-click the time ruler and choose Add Scene Boundary Here, or press Split with nothing selected.

A scene cannot begin at the very start or the very end of the video, or where one already begins; Rooster says so if you try.

Give a scene a layout

Click a scene's mark in the script to select the scene. A chip appears beside it with Layout:

• Camera, the recording as it was made - the default;
• Side by side;
• Picture with camera inset.

The last two put a picture behind the main recording, so the scene needs a background picture first; Rooster says so if it has none. See Remove the background from a video for where the background is set.

The layout is also on the scene's right-click menu on the timeline, as Change Layout, with Reset Layout to go back to Camera.

Add a transition

From Scene 2 on, the same chip offers a transition into the scene: Cross dissolve, Fade through black or None, with a Length. A new transition lasts 0.4 seconds.

A fade needs a little room either side of the boundary. A cross dissolve blends spare footage either side of the boundary, so it needs clips that have some to spare; Rooster says when there is none and suggests a fade, which needs none.

Merge or move scenes

• Merge: choose Scenes > Delete Scene Boundary, press Delete beside a scene mark in the script, or right-click the scene on the timeline and choose Merge With Previous Scene.
• Move a boundary: drag the scene's badge on the timeline.

Scenes are stretches of one timeline, so they cannot be dragged into a different order. To reorder, move the clips themselves.

Move between scenes

Scenes > Previous Scene and Next Scene move the playhead from scene to scene.