Premiere Day 1: Basic Work Space and Editing

 Taco Video

 
Getting Started

In the day 1 practice files on the drive there is a complete video of the end goal of day one and 2. It probably takes 1:30 minutes of instruction in order to get the entire video done with sound effects, so for this first day you will do a lot of over view, showing people how to import, organize files, the flow of premiere, and then some basic editing.

Don’t use the already created project file. Create a file from scratch and just import all the video.

  • Here we have a bunch of video files and we know we want to compile them into a video. If you can, find out the specifications before you create the file and then you can sent your sequence settings. If not the file will adjust to the first video you place in your sequence.
  • On a PC–Right click on the video file and look at the frame width, frame height, frame rate, etc.
  • On the Mac the info is sometimes available if you right click in the Finder>>”Get Info.” You should show them in Adobe Bridge or Quicktime if you can’t find it in the Mac Finder. Bridge has the info down on the right side and if you open it in Quicktime and hit Command I you should see the frame rate and dimensions.
  • Open Premiere, give it a name, and where you want to save it.

Importing Methods

  • Can import audio, video, JPEG, Illustrator/Photoshop files, etc.
  • METHOD 1
    • Go to File, Import and choose the files you want to import.
    • You can select “Import Folder” to import and entire folder of clips/files
  • METHOD 2
    • The Media Browser Panel (usually behind the Project Bin panel)
      • The advantage of the Media Browser panel is that you can hover over and get a preview of the clip before you import it
    • Navigate to the desired files and
      • Click and Drag to the Project panel
      • OR Right click on the files and select Import
  • Video Files in Premiere are linked, so don’t break media links by moving files from their original location.
    • You can fix it by reconnecting though.
    • Project files are pretty small since they only link, THIS IS A GOOD THING
  • Sometimes you lose connection with your files
  • Right click and choose Link Media, and find the footage, now it’s relinked

Organization

  • Within Premiere Pro it is good practice to Create New folders / Bins to organize the footage, drag and drop files into them
    • Audio
    • Video
    • Sequences
    • Images
  • Once they finish importing the videos give them a chance to become familiar with them and watch them a bit.

Panels

  • Project panel–top left. Your Library that contains your imported linked clips and audio files. Organized with folders (Audio, Video, Titles, Sequences)
  • Source Monitor–top middle, allows you to preview clips and select specific portions to place in your timeline.
  • Program Monitor–top right, shows your actual project
  • Timeline–bottom middle, contains your project, each Sequence has a separate Timeline
  • Effect Panel–bottom left. contains you video and audio transitions as well as your video and audio effects.
  • Tool panel–bottom right, contain your editing tools.
  • Maximize a panel by selecting (highlighted in orange) and hit the ~ Tilda key.

 

Adding Clips to Sequences

  • Simply drag a clip from the Project panel to the Timeline of your Sequence.
  • You can also double click on the File and open it in the Source Monitor to preview it. We’ll do this later.
  • You can still bring in clips from different dimensions, but it is a good idea to have your sequence match the dimensions of the main clip you’re using.
  • New to CS6: When you drag in from the Project panel, it conserves the In and Out clips, so you’ll have to reset them in the Source Monitor if you want a different place.

Rough Cut

  • Change the view from List view to Icon view
  • Can move them around in Icon view, make a rough assembly of the order of clips
  • Click Automate to sequence, this will send them to the timeline in the correct order
  • This is nice if you want to create a quick slideshow without doing a lot of editing.
  • Can have them overlap, apply default transitions
  • Important way to quickly get them in order and into your timeline so you can edit and cut them

You can jump between your edit points by using Page up and Page Down

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Timeline

  • Tracks–have several different audio and video tracks.
  • Select them on the left (will be highlighted in White). This is called Targeting tracks.
  • Timecode–the way we define time. (Time is the environment in which we work as video editors)
  • Yellow Time Indicator (hours, minutes, seconds, frames–series of still images)
    • Can click and type on it to jump to particular time
    • Can be 20-60 frames per second.
  • Flows from Left to right
  • Red scrubber marks you place

Navigating in the Timeline Panel

  • Zoom in or Out, my preferred method is Alt (Opt) Scroll wheel.
  • Click and brag the Scroll bar to move left and right
  • Shift or Ctrl/Command and scroll wheel goes left and right
  • “” allows you to see the entire program at a glance
  • Home key–beginning or program
  • End key–End
  • Right and Left arrows–frame by frame
  • Scroll wheel goes up or down in time
  • Left hand on keys j, k, and l.
    • J–backwards in time, push more times to go faster
    • K–to stop
    • L–forward in time, once to start, keep pressing to go faster and faster

Editing

There are many ways to edit and place videos in the timeline.

Basic Trimming

  • Put Current Time Indicator (Scrubber) at the place you want to end your cut
  • Hover the Black arrow over the beginning of a clip and you’ll see it become a red Bracket. Click and drag to the right and stop at your scrubber
  • Snap–turn on magnet with S
    (and it will snap to the scrubber when you’re trimming).
  • Then Click and drag to fill the space (black lines appear, snapping to other key points on the timeline)
  • Razor Tool
    • Allows us to split up footage

    Select the Razor tool and click on the places where you want the clip to split and shift them to add space

      • Use the audio to help you see where to do it
    • Click on the visibility of the top video track
    • Home key goes back to first frame
    • These cuts are non destructive, can extend them if we want
    • Command/Ctrl K will split a track that is Targeted

Preliminary Edits

  • Sometimes the edits are very large, maybe even half the clip
  • How do you make an edit before you even bring it into the timeline?
  • Double click the clip in the Project panel and open it up in the Source Monitor
  • Scrub to where you want to start, create and In Point
    • Click “Set In Point” or press “i” on the keyboard
    • Set an Out Point, press “o” on the keyboard
  • Make sure you Target the track you want to add the clip to. It will be highlighted in White.
  • Click Overlay and it will plop it down into the timeline
  • Now it’s a process of refinement rather than getting rid of minutes of junk
  • Can right click on the Source monitor after setting the IN and OUT points and choose Make Subclip to save it in the Project Panel, which can then be dragged into your sequence. This is nice because it saves all your IN and OUT points as separate clips. (NOTE!–if you use this option you will not be able to slip or extend on either side of the clip. The IN and OUT points become the beginning and end and the old frames on either side are not recognized).

Creating titles

  • Create a New Title
  • Opens the Titler
  • Click and drag a text box
  • Resize with selection tool
  • Change font size, justification, etc.
  • Pretty easy
  • Want to make the letters Small Caps
  • Add a shadow to make it more visible
  • Close the Titler
  • Drag it from the Project panel onto a new Video Track

Overlay and Insert Edits

  • Explain the toolbar in the Source Monitor. You can add buttons or rearrange them.
  • Jog wheel allows you to go through very slow (doesn’t seem to be in CS6)
  • Shuttle allows you to go faster or slower through your footage (doesn’t seem to be in CS6)
  • Can take just the video or just the audio from the Source Monitor editor
  • Insert button–split the footage at the Current Time Indicator, extends the overall time by pushing all clips to the right of the insert after the inserted clip
  • Overlay–overwrites what is there, does not change the overall time

Rendering

  • Red–no preview, not in real time,
  • Yellow–renders as you go
  • Black–so simple doesn’t need rendering
  • Green–play back at full quality

Exporting

Exporting sequences from Premiere

  • Need to choose a sequence, can’t export project
  • Select the Sequence, File, Export, Media
  • Allows you to preview and scrub through the project
  • Choose the video export format
  • Choose a preset
  • Type a name
  • Choose a codec
    • These are the most common formats and codecs
    • A Video codec–Short for compressor decompressor
    • The way the Premiere will crunch your video
    • However you compress it will be how it is decompressed when you watch it
    • Very important to choose the right one
    • Animation is a good high quality codec that will result in very large files
    • If it’s going to go on the web, go to their website and find their recommendations on the right codec that works best
    • H.264–a video format and a codec, compresses it a lot, but still maintains good quality
    • FLV and F4V (F4V newer so not as compatible, but better quality)

 

  • Export Video and Export Audio, make sure they are both checked because it will take forever to render the video
  • Could choose match sequence settings because you kind of already chose those options when you created the sequence
  • Export will tie up Premiere and keep it busy
  • Queue will add it to the render que in Adobe Media Encoder so you can still use Premiere

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