How to Make Something in Adobe Premiere

Turn video clips into a home movie with Adobe Premiere.

Adobe Premiere is a desktop video program that you can use to edit various media formats. With Premiere, you can turn video clips from your digital camcorder into a home movie to show at family gatherings. You can also archive your old videotapes into a digital format, or put together a short video clip that you can upload to YouTube or Facebook. You can create numerous projects in Premiere.

Instructions

Create and Import

1. Launch Adobe Premiere and click “New Project” in the welcome screen.

2. Enter a name for the project in the “Name” box. Click “Browse” and select a file location to save the project to. Click “OK.” The “New Sequence” window will appear.

3. Enter a name for the sequence and select the sequence preset that matches your media type. For example, if you are using widescreen video clips with a 48kHz audio track from an HD digital camcorder, select “Widescreen 48kHz” in the “DV – NTSC” subgroup. If you're using clips taken with a DSLR’s video recording mode, select the appropriate preset in the “Digital SLR” subgroup. You can also manually configure the sequence options in the “Settings” tab. This is useful if you're using specialized media, such as video converted from analog sources.

4. Click “OK” to create the sequence.

5. Click “File” and select “Import.” Go to your media file and click “Import.” Repeat for every media file that you want to use in your project. You can also drag files directly into the Project window to import them.

Edit and Export

1. Drag and drop clips from the Project Clips window to the timeline to add them to the movie. You can drag and drop clips within the timeline to re-arrange them chronologically.

2. Click a clip in the timeline to turn on the editing commands for that file. Drag the Seek slider in the editing window to pause the video at a specific point. Add a start point by clicking the “Set In Point” button. Click the “Set Out Point” button to crop out the end of the video.

3. Click the “Effects” tab to display a list of special effects and transitions. Drag an effect to the clip in the timeline to apply it.

4. Click “File,” select “Export” and click “Media.”

5. Select an export file format from the “Format” menu. For example, if you are planning to create a home video DVD from the movie, select “MPEG2-DVD.” If you're planning to upload the movie to YouTube or other video streaming site, select “FLV.”

6. Click “OK,” select a file location to save the exported video to and click “Save.”

References

• Adobe: Product Support - Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 & CS5.5: Basic Workflow
• Cal Poly Pomona: CIS 421 - Create and Edit a Premiere Project
• Adobe: Product Support - Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 & CS5.5: About Importing Files
• Adobe: Product Support - Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 & CS5.5: Workflow and Overview for Exporting

Resources

• Adobe: Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5
• Adobe: Product Support - Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 & CS5.5: Effects