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Video Editing: From Cut to Screen, a free arts course on Tomo

Video Editing: From Cut to Screen

Learn to transform raw clips into compelling, fluid stories. Build a rock-solid workflow covering cuts, pacing, audio mixing, visual polish, and export standards.

Like Duolingo, but for Video Editing: From Cut to Screen. Tomo turns the whole topic into a game you play five minutes a day, until it actually sticks.

25 levels across 4 sections, about 50 minutes end to end, roughly 10 days at five minutes a day. It moves through Assembling the Story; Rhythm and Momentum; Audio and Visual Polish; and Color, Finish, and Export. It starts from scratch.

25 bite-size levelsAbout 5 minutes each

Free forever · No credit card · iPhone & Android

Splice the Squirrel, the guide who teaches the Video Editing: From Cut to Screen course
Video Editing: From Cut to Screen
with Splice the Squirrel
25
Levels
4
Sections
5
Min/day
What you'll learn

Key ideas in Video Editing: From Cut to Screen

  • A rough cut focuses on establishing story order, pacing, and emotional flow first
  • Polishing fine cuts and transitions too early wastes time on scenes that might get cut later
  • Raw takes almost always begin and end with dead air, camera settling, or subject hesitation
  • Trimming the empty 'head' before speech starts and the trailing 'tail' after speech stops instantly tightens pacing
  • A regular delete leaves an empty gap between remaining clips
  • A ripple edit deletes the selected range and automatically pulls all downstream media forward to close the gap in one step
  • Cutting during natural conversational pauses or breath breaks keeps speech sounding fluid
  • Cutting mid-gesture or right as a natural motion completes hides the seam better than cutting mid-syllable
  • Dedicated audio tracks prevent different audio elements from colliding or overwriting each other
  • Separating speech, sound effects, and background music makes mixing and balancing volume much simpler
  • The edit should happen midway through the actor's upward motion rather than before or after
  • The viewer's eye tracks the movement across the screen, hiding the seam between two camera setups
  • Cutting when the subject is completely still makes the change in camera position obvious and jarring
  • Jump cuts drop small chunks of time within a single continuous take to build speed or disorientation
  • Match cuts link two entirely different scenes using a matching graphic silhouette or physical motion
  • Continuity cuts aim to keep time and space feeling natural and uninterrupted
Why not just Google it

You've tried the other tabs

Wikipedia

Thirty open tabs. Four facts you actually kept.

YouTube

You watched. You nodded. By Sunday it was gone.

ChatGPT

One answer, then back to scrolling.

Online courses

Eight weeks. You meant to finish. You didn't.

Tomo gives Video Editing: From Cut to Screen the Duolingo treatment: levels, streaks, and quick quizzes that test what you just learned. That game loop is what the tabs above never had, so it's the one you actually finish.

Try a question

Here's what playing it feels like

A real question from this course. Take your best guess.

Building Your First Rough Cut

Why should you avoid fine-tuning transitions and effects during your very first edit?

Get it right to open this lesson and 24 more in the app.

Course map

Where Video Editing: From Cut to Screen takes you

  1. 1

    Assembling the Story

    • The First Assembly
    • Invisible Cuts and Continuity
  2. 2

    Rhythm and Momentum

    • Pacing and Tension
    • B-Roll and Split Edits
  3. 3

    Audio and Visual Polish

    • Dialogue and Sound Design
    • Reframing and Graphic Elements
  4. 4

    Color, Finish, and Export

    • Color Correction and Grading
    • Exporting and Delivery Standards

4 sections · 8 units · 25 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.

How it's taught

You pick the voice

This course
The Professor

Video Editing: From Cut to Screen is taught in the The Professor style: clear, structured, thorough. Want a different feel? In the app you can spin up the same topic in any of Tomo's teaching styles. Same facts, totally different vibe.

Keep going

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