I recently bought Vegas Movie Studio 9.0. By using the help contents I have learned how to trim scenes from the beginning or the end of a video. However, I have a video for which I would like to cut several short scenes (e.g. a 10 second section) from the middle. I have not been able to find out how to do this. I would appreciate it if someone could let me know how Movie Studio 9.0 can be used to remove a scene from the middle of a video

Have you really looked at the help file? Have you tried the manual? Or the downloadable Quick Start Guide (which may well be the same thing)?

OK. I'll be kind. Look up "Split".

Or even kinder....
Place your cursor over at the start of the bit you want to cut out. Press "S"
Now place your cursor at the end of the bit you want to cut out. Press "S"
Click on the bit you want to cut out and press the "delete" Key.

Or many other ways of doing it.

HTH (if it doesn't I really can't make it any simpler for you )

__________________
Tim

[FONT=Verdana]Hi Tim:[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana]Thanks for your help, but I’m afraid your procedure doesn’t work. When I placed the cursor at precisely 00:01.02:09 on the timeline by using the alt key and sideways arrow key and pressed S, it selected all the video materials that come before 01:02:09 (I see two small blue triangles appear in the upper two corners marking off the beginning all the way to 01:02:09. Also, the event FX and Event pan/crop icons show up below the blue triangles). Then, as instructed, I clicked further into the video (and then used the side arrows and alt key to navigate to precisely 00:01:10:08, where I wanted to make the cut). Once again I clicked S, clicked on the small bit I wanted to cut out, and pressed the delete key. The entire video from the original click point (01:02:09) gets deleted.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana]I downloaded the manual and went over the sections on selecting events, splitting, and cutting. But it hasn’t gotten me to the Promised Land. However, I got to give you the punch line: I’m in the last stage of doing a PhD in instructional design (I’m trying to use Movie Studio to prepare videos for my dissertation project) and I’m reasonably proficient with both Dreamweaver 8 and Flash 8. If some software companies can’t provide instructions clearer than this, I don’t think I’ll ever be out of work. Once again, thanks for trying. I'm probably doing something simple wrong and I'm sure I'll get things worked out in the end.[/FONT]

Thanks for your most detailed description. I'll get back to you when I'm on a machine with Vegas.....(I usually use my mouse and cursor keys to move the timeline cursor but that shouldn't make a difference.....)

__________________
Tim

OK I've had a play and cannot recreate what you're getting at all.
It would appear the problem you are having is with what bits are selected.

This is what I get (and what the manual says I sould get) I'll start with an empty timeline.

My cursor is the "Normal Edit Tool" not the "Selection Tool"

Drop a clip (event) onto the timeline.
My clip is now one event on the timeline. It is NOT selected.

I click somewhere on my event on the timeline.
My event is now selected.

I move the timeline cursor to where I want the first split to occur (using Alt-Left Arrow for frame accuracy).
My event remains selected

I press "S"

My event is split into 2 events with the RIGHT HAND one selected (you're getting the left hand one selected??? - please confirm)


I then move my timeline cursor to the right (using alt-left arrow for frame accuracy) and press "s" again. I've now got THREE events with the RIGHTMOST one selected. (What do you have?)

I now click on the middle event.

I now have ONLY the middle event selected.

I press delete, and the middle section is removed.

Depending on whether I have Ripple Edit switched on or off the event to the RIGHT of the removed section may shift left to fiull the gap.

Now, if you're not getting that I'm really stumped.

I can't reproduce what you're describing with any of the modifier keys (Alt, Ctrl, Shift) locked down, so I don't think it's a jammed keyboard.

But this really IS the simplest task and works as described in the very clear manual. I don't think the manual is wrong and from what you've described I don't think you're following it incorrectly. It really sounds like Vegas is not doing what it's meant to.

I'm scratching my head trying to figure whether ther's some fundamental misunderstanding or some other setting hidden away. In the meantime, please let us know what you get when you repeat the exercise above.

__________________
Tim

I would just selct track, normal edit tool, hold lms off media in time line window, drag to highlight area wanted, copy or cut, paste -aint it that simple ???

That was in pro but I am pretty sure the basic moves are shared.

__________________
I do my best work after at least a whole jar of nescafe with just a touch of boiled natural spring water - and a fag
My neglected website -- www.zaskarfilms.com My censored you tube channel -- http://uk.youtube.com/user/zaskarfilms

Tim:

Thank you very much. The second time was the charm. I did a lot of experimental clicking after I couldn't get things to work at first so I'm not totally sure what the problem was. But I suspect it was that I was not doing the selecting properly before pressing the S key. Thanks again for your very prompt and detailed help. You might see me in the forum again pretty soon as I'm running into a few conversion issues involving Vegas, MPEG-4, and .mov files.

Kevin

Glad to assist. As for conversion issues, these are a frequent topic here (and on most video forums). You'll find plenty of help here.

__________________
Tim

Hi Tim:

Thanks again. I got all my editing done in about 90 minutes with one exception. There is one culturally sensitive line that only lasts for about 1 second or so that I want to delete. I haven't been able to delete it, though, because it's too small to select with the mouse. Any ideas about how to get around this problem? (l thought maybe selecting a time range might be an option, but it doesn't seem to apply here).

Kevin, use your mouse wheel to zoom in; make sure the blinking cursor is where you want to zoom in. Zoom in as much as you need to in order to make your detailed selection. You can zoom in far enough to select one frame at a time if you'd like.