Effect 1: Clone Yourself — Lock the Camera, Stack Two Takes, Mask the Seam, Feather It (CapCut, Premiere, Resolve, Final Cut)

The script is identical in all five lessons. Step one: tripod 'or any stable surface' - the camera must stay 'completely still for the entire recording'; movement makes alignment 'much harder.' Step two: plan the movements - decide what each clone does (sit, stand, talk to the other) before rolling. Step three: record each version separately - stand left, record a few seconds, stop, move right, record again - and keep track of where 'your other self' was so the two never overlap the middle of the frame, because a crossing body makes the mask much harder. Shoot in a Log profile so the footage is flat and grades cleanly with a LUT. In practice the longer/first take becomes the bottom layer and the right-side performer goes on top.

Both takes go on two stacked video tracks, time-aligned on the punchline (the word 'blow', when the leaf blower hits). Because the top clip covers the bottom clip entirely, a mask on the top clip - a rotatable horizontal wipe in CapCut, a drawn polygon in Premiere/Resolve/Final Cut - cuts away the side where the bottom-layer performer must show through; Reverse/Invert flips which side. A feather/softness value blurs the seam so it can cross an arm invisibly; the values differ wildly by app (CapCut 30, Final Cut 80, Premiere 100) so judge by eye. Only one take's audio is usable (the other has the leaf blower), so mute or delete it. Then LUT and a whoosh on the impact.

Desktop: drag both clips in, tallen the track to read waveforms, zoom and Split to trim the front of clip one and the tail of clip two around the impact; drag clip two above clip one and align 'blow' to 'blow'; select the top clip > Mask > Horizontal, rotate to 270 degrees, slide to the seam, Reverse to flip the side; Feather 30; set the noisy clip's Audio volume to 0. Mobile: New Project, add clip one, add clip two and drag it to the secondary slot, select it and tap Overlay to split into two tracks; drag-hold it underneath the other (layer order is inverted in the UI); Mask > Horizontal, twist with two thumbs to -90 degrees, slide with one thumb, Invert, tick; reopen Mask and pull the feather slider (the white button) while checking neither performer's arm is cut. The mobile lesson is the shortest and re-stresses the tripod 'really, really, really important.'

Bring both clips to separate tracks (left performer on V1, right on V2). Trim with the Razor (C) and Selection (V); first bind Ripple Delete to R via Help > Keyboard Shortcuts (search 'Ripple'). Find 'blow' in each clip with the zoomed timeline and align. Practise the mask on two colour mattes (red under blue): select the top clip, Effect Controls > Opacity > Pen tool, zoom the viewer to 10%, click four points outside the frame to box the reveal area, Invert to flip. Repeat on the real top clip. Right-click > Unlink so the noisy audio can be deleted alone. Mask Feather to 100, nudge the mask to check the blend across the arm. Grade with an Adjustment Layer: Lumetri > Basic Correction > Browse the 'Sony S-Log to Rec 709' pack, pick Cine High Contrast, then exposure down a touch, highlights down, saturation 120, shadows down, whites up. Whoosh Impact 1 aligned to the hair flip at about -9.

New Project, Edit page, drag clips in and accept the frame-rate change; Blade to cut, Selection (A) to delete; bind Ripple Delete to R (Resolve may already use R - overwrite). Stack clip two above and align 'blow'. Select the top clip, Color page, right-click the node graph > Add Alpha Output, drag the node's blue dot to the output's blue dot. Click the Window (mask) button, Polygon/pen, draw a box around the reveal area, Invert as needed; drag corner points to resize (hover to zoom out if you cannot see the edges); raise Softness to blur the seam. Right-click the noisy clip's audio, untick Link Clips, delete the audio. LUT: Settings (gear) > Color Management > Open LUT Folder, copy the 'Sony S-Log to Rec 709' pack into the Sony subfolder, Update Lists, Save; drop an Adjustment Clip from Effects above the footage, Color > LUT > Sony > Cine High Contrast; trim with Primaries. Whoosh Impact at -9.

New project, import both clips, Blade (B) + Select (A) + Delete (ripples natively). Find the impact frame, stack clip two above, snap with the magnet toggle. Practise on red/blue images, then on the real top clip: Effects browser > 'Draw Mask' dragged onto the clip, canvas zoom to 12.5% so points can sit outside the frame, four points to box the reveal, Invert if needed, Hand tool to preview; Feather 80. Audio tab: pull the noisy clip's volume to the floor. LUT: search 'LUT' in Effects, drag 'Custom LUT' onto the footage, Choose Custom LUT > the downloaded pack > Cine High Contrast. Cmd+C the graded clip, select the other, Edit > Paste Attributes, tick only the LUT/Color Adjustment (untick Mask and Volume). Whoosh Impact at -10.

Content Creator Templates ('4,000 LUTs'): search LUT > log > 'Sony S-Log to Rec 709' (his camera is a Sony), pick 'Cine High Contrast'. Apply above the footage - CapCut Adjustment > LUT > Import; Premiere Adjustment Layer + Lumetri; Resolve Adjustment Clip after installing to the LUT folder; Final Cut Custom LUT effect - then nudge: shadows down, contrast up, exposure a touch down, a little saturation (Premiere: saturation 120, whites up). Sound: download 'Whoosh Impact', drag it in, align its peak to the visual hit, level around -9 to -10. The same two finishing moves close Effects 2-5.