Build a Montage That Speeds Up Toward the Payoff

A montage gains energy when its shots get shorter. Each shot carries less time than the one before, and the viewer feels the pace lift. In DepCut the length of every clip shows as the width of its bar, so you can see the rhythm and shape it.

Lay out the shots

Add six to eight short shots to the main track in the order you want them. Use the + button on each card in Media, or drag the cards onto the timeline. Click Fit in the timeline toolbar so the whole sequence is on screen. The width of each bar is the length of its shot.

Shorten shot by shot

1. Click the first shot, then open the Trim tab in the right panel.
2. Press the Trim end bar and drag to the left. The further you drag from the point where you pressed, the faster the end moves. Release to stop. A small drag gives a fine trim.
3. Use Trim start the other way: drag it to the right to drop the first moments of the shot, so it opens on action.
4. Select the next shot and make it a little shorter than the first. Keep going down the line.

Each trim in this tab closes the gap on the main track as you go, so the shots after it move earlier by themselves.

Read the staircase

After a few trims the bars step down from left to right. Return to the start with the skip-back button and play the sequence. If a shot goes by before you can read it, lengthen it again with Trim end and shorten a neighbor. A shot can grow back only as far as its source footage runs.

Look at the first frame of every shot too. A shot that opens on action reads fast, so a short head trim with Trim start often does a lot for the pace.

Vary the pattern

• A steady staircase builds toward a payoff.
• Alternating long and short shots gives the sequence a pulse.
• A final shot held a little longer than the rest lets the montage land.

Pick one main pattern. Mixing all three in a single sequence can read as noise. The payoff shot should be the one the sequence has been building toward, and it can take the longest bar in the final third while the music resolves.

Recheck what stayed put

Trimming moves main-track clips only. Titles, captions and music keep their times. After the last trim, play the sequence again and check that each title still sits over its shot, that the captions still match the picture and that the music still lines up with the new cuts. Drag a title's bar to the right place if it drifted.

Speed up your own sequence

Lay out your next set of shots in DepCut, press Fit and make the bars step down. Watch it once and adjust the shot where you lost the thread.