10 - Cutting Out Fluff

About this video

This is a hands-on first-pass editing session cutting the fluff from a multi-track timeline whose clips and audio are already synced, with an adjustment layer on top and the main track magnet deliberately turned off. The goal of this pass is not a finished story but removing the big chunks that definitely will not be shown — messed-up lines, repeats, false starts, rearranging, and dead air — and worrying about tightening, camera cuts, and montages later. The editor works largely from the audio waveforms: spikes mean louder sound worth keeping for an explanatory video, while flat stretches mean little or no sound and are likely cuts. Cuts across all tracks are made with Ctrl+Shift+B, unwanted sections are selected and deleted with Backspace, and leaving empty gaps is fine because with multiple tracks the magnet would mess things up. The example footage is ‘Getting Sweet with Sam,’ making banana split sundaes and ice cream cookie sandwiches; the editor keeps a good intro, trims to just before waveform spikes, deletes a take where the subject could not be seen on camera, and cuts struggles like turning ice cream over because viewers only want interesting, productive parts. Playback shortcuts speed review: J plays backward, K pauses, L plays forward, and pressing J or L repeatedly plays faster, such as double speed. For the outro, he assembles a better ending out of order — moving a clean ‘don’t forget to stay sweet’ after a stronger sign-off, noting editors can take things out of context if it works in the final edit. When a bite reaction clip (‘Oh yeah, that’s good’) has no usable audio on one camera, he extracts audio from another camera and fixes its left-ear-only sound by selecting the audio and using the Channels setting ‘fill right with left.’ The session ends with all major content pieces remaining and all major unneeded parts cut out.

Key takeaways

• Do a rough first pass first: cut only the obvious fluff — mistakes, repeats, and dead sections — and leave tightening and camera work for later.
• Read the waveforms to edit faster: spikes signal sound worth keeping, flat stretches signal silence you can usually cut.
• Use Ctrl+Shift+B to blade all tracks at once and Backspace to delete; with multiple tracks, keep the track magnet off and leave gaps rather than letting clips shift.
• Use J/K/L shortcuts (J backward, K pause, L forward, repeated presses for faster playback) to review footage quickly.
• You can rebuild an ending out of order and rescue audio from another camera, fixing one-sided audio with the ‘fill right with left’ channel setting.

Episode details: published January 7, 2026 · 20:06 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Business results and any income figures mentioned are Kevin Stratvert’s own claims, shared for education — they are not typical or guaranteed.

← Previous: 09 - Rough Layout · Next: 11 - J and L Cuts →

All Kevin Stratvert videos · Kevin Stratvert profile · Kevin Stratvert on YouTube