10th Grade — Intro to Video: Your First Timeline Edit

⏰ Do Now — Start Here

Think of a 30-second video you actually enjoyed recently. What made the editing feel smooth instead of choppy?

🎯 Today's Big Question

Everything you know about layers and time already applies to video -- so what happens when we add motion?

📈 By the End of Today, You Will Be Able To

Import real footage into a video editor and assemble a basic timeline.
Trim, sequence, and add simple titles to a short video.
Export a finished short video in a web-appropriate format.

🧰 What You'll Need

Phone or camera footage (own or provided)
A video editor (Premiere Rush, CapCut, or similar)

📋 Your Plan for Today

Day 1: Import & Plan

Do Now (5 min, above).
Mini-lesson (15 min): timeline basics and how editing software mirrors layers you already know.
Plan (20 min): outline a simple 3-shot sequence.

Day 2: Assemble

Independent work (40 min): import footage and build a rough timeline sequence.

Day 3: Trim & Title

Independent work (40 min): trim clips for pacing and add simple titles.

Day 4: Export & Share

Finish (25 min): polish and export.
Share (15 min): screen finished videos for the class.

🖥️ Today's Slide Deck

Short, on-the-board pacing slides — project these to follow along. (The full details are in the handout above, not here.)

📚 Key Words

Timeline: The horizontal, time-based workspace where video clips are arranged in sequence.
Trim: Cutting a clip shorter by removing unwanted footage from its start or end.
Sequence: The order clips play in, which shapes how a story is told.

✅ What Your Finished Work Should Include

Finished video assessed for a clear sequence, clean trims, and a working export -- not technical perfection.

Exit Ticket: What was the single hardest editing decision you had to make, and how did you decide?

📊 Before You Leave

Quick, anonymous class check-in -- takes less than a minute.

Class Check-In

📤 How You Submit This — For Credit

How you submit today's work depends on what kind of work it was. Physical/paper work (most of this semester so far): photograph it with a classroom camera, upload the photo from its SD card onto a computer, and save it into your portfolio -- that upload is your submission, and the physical piece itself is yours to keep, the same as in Grade 9 (your notebook is the one thing with a home base in the room, and even that's your call to bring home when you want it). Digital work (once you're producing files in Photoshop, second semester on): no camera needed -- instead, EXPORT the file. Export your finished project as a JPG, as a PNG, AND save a copy as a PSD (all three), then upload all three into your portfolio. Either way: the portfolio upload, with a description, is what actually counts as turning the assignment in for credit.

📁 Portfolio Update — Once a Week

Once a week, add your best finished or in-progress piece to your portfolio (the Google Drive folder you started in Grade 9, becoming your Google Sites portfolio in Lesson 10) with a 1-2 sentence caption: what it is, what tool/skill it used, and one thing you learned. Keep it current -- don't save it all for the portfolio-website lesson.

✍️ Example description for your Google Sites portfolio (fill in YOUR blanks -- don't just copy this):

For this piece, I made ______________ (name what you made) for “Intro to Video: Your First Timeline Edit.” This project asked: “Everything you know about layers and time already applies to video -- so what happens when we add motion?” I used Timeline by ______________ (explain how you used it in THIS piece). The hardest part was ______________, and I solved it by ______________. I'm proud of ______________ because ______________.

🎓 ACP Exam Prep

This lesson connects to the Photoshop Adobe Certified Professional exam: Domain 2: Project Setup and Interface · Domain 5: Publishing Digital Media

🔗 Want to Learn More?

The Motion Path (companion book) -- Ch. 1-4, Video Editing

🚀 The Extra Mile

Cross-Class Connection: The same cause-and-effect, motion-over-time thinking a Physics class uses to describe how something moves.

Career Connection: This is your literal first step into Video Design.

Go further -- turn this into a portfolio piece:

Edit a real 30-second recap video of an actual school event, delivered and actually used. Start here: import all your raw footage and scrub through it first to log timestamps of the 5-6 best clips before you start cutting anything into the timeline.
Cut the same footage two different ways (fast-paced vs. calm) and compare which suits different platforms. Start here: duplicate your sequence into two separate project files before changing anything, so you're editing two real versions instead of overwriting one.
Read the opening chapters of the free companion book The Motion Path and identify one real editing term (J-cut, room tone, B-roll) you can point to in your own edit. Start here: open your own edit's timeline and look for a moment where you already used one of these techniques instinctively, then read to find its real name.