Day 1: Basic Editing

Objectives

Practice Files: https://byu.box.com/shared/static/ht0a3vbmxr3oiew7v6ameos9og5kapv3.zip

General Learning Objectives:

  • Understand how to import, edit, and export a video.
  • Understand the workflow of Premiere.

Specific Learning Objectives:

  • Navigate Premiere.
  • Cut and trim video clips.
  • Add audio.
  • Add titles.
  • Know the preferred export settings.

Outline

Introduction / Hook:

  • Get to know the class!
    • Names, goals for class, etc.
    • Find out current level of experience with video editing / Premiere Pro.
  • How you hook the class in is up to you. We suggest showing the class a finished video, either one you’ve made before or the finished video example from the class files.

What is Premiere?

  • All in one Video / Audio Editor + Effects and Graphics.
  • Explain how Premiere is different from other Adobe software, specifically After Effects.

Navigation:

  • Starting Menu.
  • Standard Workspace.
  • “Window” Dropdown.
  • Basic Toolbar (In the Timeline Window).

Importing / Organizing Assets (“The Pre-Edit”):

  • Explain 
  • Explain how Premiere links media into the project instead of using the actual media file itself.
  • Explain Bins and how necessary organization is to increase the effectiveness of your workflow.
    • Fun Fact: The term bin is a leftover from the manual editing days where in the editing process the physical filmstrips would be hanging from a frame built on top of a bin.

Editing:

  • Make sure to cover the following principles, preferably in the order they appear:
  • Cutting Media
    • There are two ways to cut media: 
    • 1. Drag the clip from the Project window and manually cut entire clips in the timeline.
      • Drag in from the edges or use the Razor tool.
      • This is useful, but you get the whole video in the timeline, which can sometimes be super long.
    • 2. Use In/Out Points in the Source window, then drag the video from the Source window to the timeline.
      • Double click the video you want to add into your Timeline, then while the video plays in the Source window use the “I” and “O” keys to create In and Out points. Click and drag the video from the Source window into the Timeline to add the selected clip instead of the entire video.
      • Option + “X” gets rid of In and Out points.
  • Sequence Aspect Ratio.
    • To change the Aspect Ratio after you’ve already inserted your first video, click into the Timeline window, then go to Sequence > Sequence Settings  to change the Frame Size.
  • Basic Editing Tools
    • Click on empty space to Ripple Delete
    • Add text using the Text Tool
    • Link / Magnet Buttons
  • Transitions
  • In the Effects window, there are two kinds of transitions that you can apply.
  • To apply your Default Transition (the default will be highlighted in blue), use the keyboard shortcut [Shift + D]. Premiere should have Cross Dissolve and Constant Power selected for the default Video and Audio Transitions, respectively. To change a default transition, just right click on an effect and select “Set Selected as Default Transition.” The effect will now be outlined in blue.
  • To apply a transition manually, just click and drag the transition onto the video/audio clip in the timeline. Usually transitions are used between clips, and each effect changes the transition from one clip to the other.
  • Video Transitions:
    • Cross Dissolve
    • Dip to Black/White
    • Everything else is only if they want their video to look like it’s from Star Wars or the 90’s.
  • Audio Transitions:
    • Constant Gain
    • Constant Power
    • Exponential Fade
    • Don’t worry about the details of how these effects work too much. As students work with audio transitions more, they’ll get a feel for what each transition does.

Exporting the Final Project (“The Post-Edit”):

  • There are three ways to get to the Export window.
    • Export tab at the top.
    • Ctrl/Cmd + “M”
    • File, Export, Media
  • Demonstrate how to navigate the Export Menu:
    • The optimal export formats are H.264 or Quicktime. Premiere auto-selects H.264.
    • Change the name and export location of the final video
    • Don’t worry about the rest of the other options in the Export Menu unless you’re really interested in the nitty gritty details of the project.
  • Explain the difference between “Queue” and “Export.”

Conclusion:

  • Review Questions
  • Today we learned:
    • What Premiere is
    • How to Navigate Premiere
    • Basic Importing/Organizing/Editing/Exporting
  • Next time we’ll learn about: Advanced Editing Tools
  • Be sure to remind the class that if they attend all the classes they can earn a  Badge!