Video Editing Terms
Here are plain-English definitions for terms you will encounter while using ReelCut Studio:
Aspect Ratio — The shape of your video frame. 16:9 is wide and horizontal (like a TV), while 9:16 is tall and vertical (like a phone screen held upright).
Beat Marker — A vertical line on the timeline showing where a musical beat falls. These are used to sync your clips to the rhythm of the background music.
BPM (Beats Per Minute) — A measure of how fast the music is. Higher BPM means a faster tempo. A slow ballad might be 70 BPM, while an upbeat track could be 120 BPM or more.
Clip — A single piece of video or photo placed on the timeline. Your final video is made up of multiple clips arranged in order.
Cross-Track Move — Dragging a clip from one track to a different track. For example, moving a clip from V1 (the first video track) to V2 (the second video track).
Export / Merge — The process of combining all your clips, overlays, and music into one final video file that you can download and share.
Fill Mode — How a clip fits inside the video frame. "Fill" crops to fill the frame completely, "Fit" shows the whole clip with possible black bars, and "Stretch" distorts the image to fill the frame.
Frame — A single still image within a video. Standard video plays 30 frames per second, creating the illusion of smooth motion.
Free Mode (Absolute) — A track layout where clips have fixed positions and can have gaps between them. Gives you precise timing control.
Ghost — The semi-transparent preview that appears while you are dragging a clip, showing where it will land when you release it.
Letterboxing — The black bars that appear on the sides (or top and bottom) when a clip's shape does not match the project's aspect ratio. Visible when using Fit mode.
Montage — A video made up of multiple short clips edited together, typically set to music. This is the most common type of real estate video.
Multi-Select — Selecting more than one clip at a time by holding Ctrl (or Cmd on Mac) and clicking multiple clips.
Overlay — Content that appears on top of your video — text labels, logos, images, or title cards. Overlays float above the footage without replacing it.
Playhead — The vertical line on the timeline showing the current playback position. Whatever the playhead is on is what you see in the preview.
Render — The process of generating the final video file from your project. Also refers to the background preview rendering that happens as you edit.
Resolution — The quality and size of the video output. Higher resolution means sharper, more detailed video but larger file sizes.
Ripple Mode (Sequential) — A track layout where clips sit back-to-back with no gaps. Adjusting one clip automatically shifts the others to maintain the sequence.
Scrub / Scrubbing — Dragging the playhead left or right to manually move through the video. A quick way to navigate to any moment.
Slip Edit — Changing which portion of a longer video is shown within a clip, without changing the clip's position or duration on the timeline. Like sliding a window along a filmstrip.
Snap — The feature that automatically aligns clips to nearby edges, beat markers, or the playhead while you drag them. Helps with precise positioning.
Tempo Sync — Automatically matching clip durations to the beat of your background music, creating a rhythm-driven montage.
Timeline — The horizontal workspace at the bottom of the editor where you arrange all your clips in order over time. Time flows from left (beginning) to right (end).
Title Card — A full-screen overlay that appears between clips. Commonly used for intro slides, closing cards with contact info, or section dividers.
Token — The currency used within ReelVids for premium features like AI-powered video generation from photos.
Track — A horizontal lane on the timeline that holds one type of content. Video tracks hold clips, audio tracks hold music, and overlay tracks hold text and images.
Trim — Shortening a clip by cutting from the beginning or end. The original video is not deleted — you are just choosing which portion to show, like cropping a photo but for time.
Waveform — A visual representation of audio that shows louder parts as tall peaks and quieter parts as shallow valleys. Displayed on audio tracks to help you see the shape of your music.