Premiere Pro Editing
Television Journalism

Getting ahead

by Sarah Bellingham

CHEAT SHEETS/VIDEOS (You can and should use!):

• All of these links are great for review–or for getting ahead! Check them out and become an awesome editor.
• Here are some quick tutorials that are good reminders of things in this document.
• Here’s a great lynda.com tutorial – this covers all the basics. You can use Lynda.com for free if you have a New York Public Library membership. Membership is free.
• Adobe also has its own short courses on specific things.
• Do you already feel comfortable on Premiere Pro? Want to be an editing wizard?
  Get familiar with these shortcuts to improve your workflow.

IF YOU RUN INTO TROUBLE:

• First resort: ask Google. Google is your friend.
• Final resort: Remind yourself how amazing you’re going to be at this by listening to the dulcet tones of Ira Glass in his piece “The Gap”.

Setting up your project

FILE MANAGEMENT

• Before we touch Premiere, let’s look at our video files. It is really important to make sure that everything is properly organized BEFORE starting your project. This is because if you rename/move files later on, it could affect your project.
• Master Project Folder: DATE_LAST NAME_SLUG
  • E.g., 180120_Bellingham_WomensMarch
• Inside your master folder:
  • FOOTAGE
  • PROJECT
  • SCRATCH
  • EXPORTS
  • Later you may also need…
    • ARCHIVAL
    • DOCUMENTS

STARTING A NEW PREMIERE PROJECT

• Open Premiere Pro (click on it–the purple “Pr” icon on your desktop)
• Click “New Project.”
  • Name your project
  • Next to “Location,” click “Browse”
    • Select your “PROJECT” folder you created.
  • Next to the “General” tab, you’ll see a tab that says “Scratch Disks.” Click that.
    • Next to each item, click “Browse.”
    • Select your “SCRATCH” folder you created.
• Click “Okay.” The editing workspace will open.

THE INTERFACE

• TIMELINE
  • Bottom Right
  • The timeline provides a graphical view of the sequence. Right now there’s nothing there but we’ll change that.
• PROGRAM MONITOR
  • Top Right
  • This is where you’ll see the visual output for whatever is in the timeline.
• THE PROJECT TAB
  • Bottom Left
  • All the files we will work with go in here.
• SOURCE MONITOR
  • Top Left
  • The source monitor is for previewing material that we will edit inside of our timeline.
• NOTE: If your workspace ever looks out of wack, go to Window > Workspaces > Editing. If things still look off, go to Window > Workspaces > Reset to Saved Layout.

IMPORTING FILES

• Go to File > Import
• Select your footage
• Click “Import”
• NOTE: You can import entire folders OR individual videos/images/audio by going into the folder and selecting an individual file.

ORGANIZING IN PREMIERE

• Right click in the Project Box OR click the folder icon at the bottom right of the Project Box
  • Click NEW BIN
    • Enter a name: RAW FOOTAGE
  • REPEAT
    • Enter a new name: SEQUENCES
• Want to change the name of a bin? Select it and hit ENTER

• Want to move your files? Click, drag and drop!

Viewing your footage

LIST VIEW AND ICON VIEW

• Bottom left of your Project Box are two buttons. If you hover over them you’ll see they have descriptions: list view and icon view. Switch between them and look at the difference.
• TIP: In “List View” mode: Scroll through the columns on the right. Check out “Description.” If you drag and drop that next to “Name,” you can write descriptions for clips without changing the name of your file.

LOOKING AT CLIPS IN ICON VIEW

• Click the Project Box. It should now have a blue line around it.
  • On your keyboard, click the TILDE button. It’s the one that looks like a squiggle: ~
  • You’ve now fullscreened your Project Box. You can go back and forth. This just makes one box bigger.
• Underneath every video preview is a little blue line. You can scrub through your video by clicking and dragging it.
• Press ~ to go back to the normal view.

LOOKING AT CLIPS IN THE SOURCE MONITOR

• Double click  a video file in the Project Box. It should appear in big in the Source Monitor (Top left).
  • Play the file by hitting the SPACE BAR.
  • TIP: Press the “L” key to play forward, the “J” key to play backward, and the “K” key to pause.

SUBCLIPPING

Problem: You have a TON of footage, and need a way to identify the parts you actually want to use.

Solution: A subclip is simply a part of an original clip you want to save as a new, smaller clip. Subclips can make the editing process easier: imagine you’re reviewing an interview and there’s a bite you love–subclip it for later! Or you see a B-roll shot you definitely want to use in your video. Subclip it!

• Create a new bin and title it SELEX.
• In the Project Box, double click a clip to make it appear in the Source Monitor.
• To the left of the play button, there are two symbols: “{“ and “}”. These are called MARK IN and MARK OUT. This is marking the beginning and the end of your clip.
  • TIP: Simply use the “I” key to mark your “in” and your in and  “O” key to mark your out!
• Click somewhere along the timeline in the Source Monitor and click “IN” or press the “I” key.
• Move along the video by clicking the “L” key or scrubbing forward with the mouse. Find the spot you want to go out and pressing OUT or the “O” key.
• Once you have your In and Out set, click your SELEX bin in the Project Box. Then click back into your Source Monitor.
• Now we’re going to create a subclip! So how do we do this? Simply mark an in (I) and out (O) point, then press COMMAND and “U”.
  • You can rename the clip if you wish. I personally prefer to add the clip info in the “Description” column, but find your flow!
  • Uncheck “Restrict Trims to Subclip Boundaries.” If this is UNchecked, you’ll be able to extend the clip later if you need to.

Basic Editing

CREATING A NEW SEQUENCE

• Sequences are where all the editing happens. You can manipulate them in the timeline panel. To do that you need to create a new sequence.
• There are two ways to create a sequence:
  • Option 1: FILE>NEW>SEQUENCE
    • There’s now a lot of options but we don’t have to worry too much. Select AVHCD 1080p30 (we’re doing 30 because your smartphone automatically shoots at 30 frames per second)
  • Option 2: DRAG AND DROP A VIDEO FILE INTO THE TIMELINE. Done. Sequence. This matches the format of your footage.
• Make sure your sequences have NAMES and are in the SEQUENCE FOLDER. It’s so easy to lose things, especially as your project gets larger!

BRINGING A CLIP INTO THE SEQUENCE

• Option 1: Drag and drop a clip straight into the timeline. Ta-da!
• Option 2: The period “.” key adds a clip AND will overwrite other footage on your timeline.
  • In the Project Box, double click a clip to make it appear in the Source Monitor.
  • Mark your In (I) and Out (O)
  • Click your Timeline Box (it should now be highlighted with a blue line).
  • Make sure your cursor is where you’d like to see the beginning of your new clip in the Timeline
  • Press the the “.” key on your keyboard to insert the clip.
• Option 3: The comma “,” key adds a clip WITHOUT overwriting anything on your timeline. It will SPLIT a clip if your cursor is in the middle of a clip!
  • Go to a clip in your Project Box and DOUBLE CLICK it to bring it into the source monitor.
  • Mark in (I) and out (O) points.
  • Click your Timeline Box (it should now be highlighted with a blue line).
  • Make sure your cursor is where you’d like to see the beginning of your new clip in the Timeline
  • Press the “,” key on your keyboard.

MOVING CLIPS

• You can move clips around with your mouse. Just be careful not to overwrite another clip!
• You can also select the empty space between clips and hit the “Delete” key to put clips side by side.

NAVIGATING YOUR TIMELINE

• Go to the start or end of a clip by clicking the “Up Arrow” and “Down Arrow” keys on your keyboard.
• Move forward or backward by one frame by clicking the “Right Arrow” or “Left Arrow” keys.
• Play your timeline by clicking the Space Bar or the “L” key. Make it faster by clicking “L” two or more times.
• Play your timeline backward by clicking the “J” key. Make it faster by clicking “J” two or more times.
• Pause your timeline by clicking the Space Bar or “K” key.

MANIPULATING YOUR TIMELINE

• Zoom in and out by pressing the “+” or “-” keys.
• On the left side of your timeline, the “A” lines are for audio and your “V” lines are for video.
• You can increase the size of each line by clicking and dragging their borders on the left hand side of the timeline.

EDITING CLIPS IN YOUR TIMELINE

• Go to the tool box. Find the one that looks like a razor. This is the Cutting Tool. Click it.
  • Shortcut Tip: Click “C” to activate the Cutting Tool!
• Go back to your timeline. You can move the razor around and cut wherever. It magnetizes to the in and out points you’ve selected or to the blue line.
• To turn off the cutting tool, click the arrow symbol, officially known as the Selection Tool, in your toolbox.
  • Shortcut Tip: Click “V” to return to the Selection Tool.

CUTTING/COPYING AND PASTING IN YOUR TIMELINE

• Select a clip and press COMMAND X. Move the blue line to a new spot and press COMMAND V.
• COMMAND C and COMMAND V work to copy/paste!
• Time to edit! Good Luck!