Adobe Premiere Notes

Intro - Premiere is part of the Production Premium or Creative Cloud suite. IU Students can get the Production Premium software suite free of charge from IUware.

One of the greatest aspects of Premiere is that it lets you work with almost any kind of footage (without transcoding) and in any pixel dimensions. Premiere also works with most 3rd party AV hardware (AJA, Blackmagic, Digidesign, MOTU, etc.).

There are a huge amount of tutorials and lessons on-line. My top resource suggestions include:

• Adobe Communities: Premiere Pro forum
• Creative Cowcommunity.
• Lynda (Lynda IU IT login)
  • Lynda Premiere Pro tutorials
• Color Correction with Rich Harrington (from Lynda)
• video2brain Basic Color Correction
• Awesome shot Basic Color Correction

The program has been around for quite some time. So for whatever question you might have, chances are it's been asked and answered. Also, be sure you know how to get to the help pages. These come with the application and cover most everything the program can do.

Before you begin to import & edit:

T351 students: If you haven't done so already, create a master folder called yourlogin_T351 on the Local Scratch drive. This is where you can store your T351 project files and media.

Think about where you are storing your project files and its relationship to the media files.

If you are going to move your projects around from computer to computer you need to move project files, media, and render files all at the same time. The easiest way to do this is to store them in one master folder.

Name & save your project! - You do NOT want it called "Untitled". Be sure to save it into your master project folder.

Know where your media goes! - Adfobe Premiere stores media files, project files, and user files in different places than you might be accustomed to with Final Cut Pro or Avid Media Composer.

To set your scratch and render locations: Go to the Project menu and then to Project Settings to set your scratch location.

Know where all of the various files associated with your Adobe Premiere project are stored!

• Adobe Premiere Pro Preview Files
• Audio Render Files

Once you've started a project -

Project Window: This is the main "go to" window where you access bins, settings, and effects. To see your bins, click on the "Bins" tab.

Note the little tiny triangle in the top corner of every menu. This is a contextual "fast menu" that offers different choices depending on what's selected (Bins, Effects, Volumes, etc.)

Speeding up your workflow - Keep footage original - WITHOUT transcoding

Transcoding (converting from one codec to another) takes time. Sometimes it's required and sometimes not. If you want to avoid transocding do the following:

• When you bring your first footage into Premiere it might askCHange sequence to match clip. "The clip does not match the sequence's settings." Click "Change sequence setting."
• When outputting click on "Match sequence settings" from the top checkbox of the output window.

Learn keyboard shortcuts and get in the habit of using them.

Patching Tracks

Just like FCP you sometimes need to patch source tracks to the proper destination (V2, A3, A4, etc.) The source clip tracks are visible just left of the available sequence tracks. Click on different sources (audio, video, etc) and see how the source clip tracks change.

Keyframe Mixing

Adjusting the audio levels of clips is often required. Keyframes are a great way to do this. In your timeline, be sure you have the Volume data turned on. You can now use the Pen tool (Command-P) to add and adjust keyframes.

Video/Audio Effects & Transitions

Look under the "Effects" tab to access.

You can drag transitions & effects directly onto clips and transition points in the timeline.

Right-click on the transition to add a "favorite" transition.

Exporting

Make sure your work area spans your entire sequence. (Alternatively you can set in & out points, or output the entire timeline.)

Go to File/Export/Media (Command-M).

T351 Students - Output your finished sequence. Export your sequence as a Quicktime movie at 1920x1080 using the H.264 codec. Be sure to save it as your username.

Be sure you know now how to:

• Select and unselect tracks
• Mark in and out points
• Add tracks
• Patch tracks
• Make a 3-point edit
• Splice-in and Overwrite edit
• View & Adjust Audio Levels
• Generate tone
• Add fades & dissolves
• Add black
• Export media

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