Travel Video: Intro to Premiere Pro

Topics Covered in This Premiere Pro Tutorial:

Creating a Sequence, Importing Files, the Editing Workspace, Timecode, Adding Audio to the Timeline, Audio Fades, Adding Video

Exercise Preview

Exercise Overview

In this hands-on exercise, you'll construct a compelling short-form travel promo video for United Airlines while mastering essential Premiere Pro fundamentals. This comprehensive introduction covers the core interface elements, sequence creation workflows, and media import processes that form the foundation of professional video editing. You'll develop practical skills in both video and audio editing techniques, establishing the technical proficiency needed for advanced post-production work. This exercise mirrors real-world client deliverables, giving you immediate applicable experience in commercial video production.

Previewing the Final Video

1. Before diving into the technical aspects, let's examine your target deliverable. Ensure your audio setup is ready—speakers turned on or headphones connected—as the audio component is integral to this piece.

2. Navigate on your Desktop to Class Files > Premiere Pro Class > Travel Promo > Finished Movie and double–click Travel-Promo.mp4 to launch the preview.

3. Analyze the following structural elements as you watch:

   • Three distinct video clips seamlessly integrated
   • Continuous audio track providing emotional continuity
   • Professional audio fades creating smooth entry and exit points

4. Study this reference video multiple times to understand the pacing, transitions, and overall narrative flow—these elements will guide your editing decisions in the upcoming exercises.

5. Close the video player when you've familiarized yourself with the final product.

Getting Started

Project setup is crucial for maintaining organized workflows and ensuring compatibility across different systems. Follow these steps to establish a properly configured Premiere Pro environment.

1. Launch Premiere Pro if it's not already running. If this is your first session, complete exercise 1A to configure your preferences properly.

2. Create a new project by navigating to File > New > Project.

3. In the New Project dialog, enter yourname-Travel next to Name. Using descriptive naming conventions prevents confusion when managing multiple projects.

4. Click the Browse button adjacent to Location to specify your project directory.

5. Navigate to Desktop > Class Files > Premiere Pro Class > Travel Promo and click Choose (Mac) or Select Folder (Windows). This centralizes all project assets in one location.

6. In the General tab, locate the Video section and set Display Format to Timecode. This provides frame-accurate timing essential for professional editing.

7. Switch to the Scratch Disks tab at the top of the dialog window.

8. For each setting—Captured Video, Captured Audio, and others—select Same as Project from the dropdown menu.

   NOTE: Consolidating all project elements in a single folder structure simplifies project archival and transfer between workstations, a critical workflow consideration in collaborative environments.

9. Click OK to finalize your project settings.

10. Premiere Pro offers multiple workspace configurations optimized for different tasks. For this tutorial, select the Editing workspace preset from the top menu bar, or navigate to Window > Workspaces > Editing.

11. To ensure consistency with the tutorial, reset to the default layout by selecting Window > Workspaces > Reset to Saved Layout. This eliminates any previous customizations that might cause interface discrepancies.

12. Maximize Premiere Pro to fill your screen: click the green Maximize button (Mac) or the square Maximize button (Windows). Full-screen editing provides better visibility of timeline details and reduces eye strain during extended sessions.

13. Locate the Project panel in the bottom left corner—this serves as your media browser and organizational hub for all sequences and assets.

Creating a New Sequence

Understanding the distinction between clips and sequences is fundamental to efficient Premiere Pro workflows. This knowledge becomes increasingly important as projects grow in complexity.

A clip represents a continuous piece of video or audio content without timeline breaks or cuts. While a clip can contain multiple "takes"—where recording pauses and resumes with different content—it appears as a single unit in the timeline. In professional productions, clips from DSLRs, mobile devices, or stock footage libraries typically contain single takes, though this varies depending on the recording method and source.

A sequence functions as your primary editing timeline, supporting multiple video and audio tracks for complex compositions. Think of sequences as individual projects within your larger Premiere Pro file—similar to multiple compositions in After Effects or multiple pages in an InDesign document. Professional editors often maintain multiple sequences for different versions, rough cuts, or specialized segments within a single project.

1. With your project settings configured, create your editing timeline by selecting File > New > Sequence.

2. In the New Sequence dialog, expand the Digital SLR folder under Sequence Presets, then open the 1080p subfolder and select DSLR 1080p30. This preset matches common DSLR recording formats and ensures optimal playback performance.

3. Enter Travel-seq in the Sequence Name field at the bottom of the window. Descriptive sequence names become essential when managing multiple versions or segments.

4. Click OK to create your sequence.

5. Verify you're viewing the Project tab in Premiere Pro's bottom left panel area.

   NOTE: To rename sequences later, select the sequence in the Project panel, press Return/Enter, type the new name, and press Return/Enter again to confirm.

6. Navigate to the Sequence menu and ensure Selection Follows Playhead is disabled (no checkmark). This prevents unintended selections during playback and provides more predictable editing behavior.

Importing Files

Efficient media management begins with proper import procedures. Premiere Pro's reference-based system links to original files rather than copying them, making organization critical from the start.

1. Switch to your Desktop and navigate to Class Files > Premiere Pro Class > Travel Promo > Capture.

   You'll find three organized folders containing all media assets for this project—a structure that mirrors professional production workflows.

2. Arrange your windows so both Premiere Pro and the Finder/Explorer window remain visible simultaneously. This drag-and-drop approach is faster than traditional import dialogs.
3. Select all three folders using Cmd–A (Mac) or Ctrl–A (Windows).

4. Drag the selected folders directly onto the Project panel in Premiere Pro's bottom left area.

   NOTE: Premiere Pro creates links to your original files without duplicating them. Moving or renaming source files after import will break these links, requiring relinking—a time-consuming process we'll address later in advanced workflows.

5. Click in an empty area of the Project panel to deselect all items and clear your selection.

The Editing Workspace

Mastering Premiere Pro's interface layout accelerates your editing efficiency and reduces the learning curve for advanced techniques. Each panel serves specific functions in the post-production workflow.

1. In the Project panel, click the List View icon at the bottom left. List View displays detailed metadata including frame rates, durations, and file types—essential information for professional editing decisions. While Icon View offers visual thumbnails, List View provides the technical details needed for this workflow.

2. Explore the New Item icon at the Project panel's bottom right. This menu provides alternative methods for creating sequences, adjustment layers, and other timeline elements.

3. Click outside the menu to dismiss it.

4. In professional editing terminology, organizational folders are called "bins"—a term inherited from film editing where clips were literally stored in bins. Double–click the videos bin to open its contents in a separate tab, giving you focused access to video assets.

5. Close this tab by clicking the panel menu and selecting Close Panel. This demonstrates tab management for complex projects with multiple bins.

6. Return to the main project view by clicking the Project: yourname-Travel tab. If tabs overflow the visible area, use the double arrows at the panel's top right to access additional tabs.

7. Click the expand arrow next to videos to reveal its contents without opening a separate tab.

8. Double–click any video file to load it for preview.

9. The video appears in the Source Monitor (top left), also called the Clip Viewer in other video editing platforms. This preview environment allows you to review footage and select specific segments for your timeline—similar to isolation mode in Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop, or Layer View in After Effects.

10. The Program Monitor (top right) displays your edited sequence output—the final result viewers will see. This dual-monitor system allows simultaneous source review and sequence preview, a cornerstone of professional editing workflows.

11. The Timeline panel spans the bottom of the interface, displaying numbered timecode rulers. This is where you'll construct your edit using video and audio clips, graphics, titles, and effects. The timeline represents your project's temporal structure and serves as the primary workspace for most editing tasks.

12. The Tools panel sits between the Project panel and Timeline, containing specialized editing tools that we'll explore throughout this exercise series.

Timecode

Understanding timecode systems is crucial for professional video production, especially when working with mixed-format media—a common scenario in contemporary workflows where content comes from multiple sources and devices.

1. Examine the 00;00;00;00 display in the Timeline's upper left corner—this shows your sequence timecode. The DSLR 1080p30 preset you selected established a 30 fps (frames per second) project frame rate, which affects how timecode is calculated and displayed.

   In modern production environments, you'll frequently encounter mixed frame rates as content arrives from smartphones, DSLRs, stock footage libraries, and professional cameras, each potentially recording at different rates.

2. To observe this variation, ensure you're in List View in the Project panel.

3. With the video bin expanded, examine the Frame Rate column. Notice the variety of frame rates—this diversity reflects real-world production challenges where editors must harmonize content from multiple sources.

4. Double–click EveningSea.mp4 to load it into the Source Monitor.

5. In the Source Monitor, click the timecode display (bottom left), enter 24, and press Return/Enter. This navigates to frame 24 of the source clip.

6. Press the Right Arrow key to advance one frame. The timecode jumps to 1:00 because this clip runs at 25 fps—after frame 24, the next frame begins the second second. Similarly, in 30 fps footage, frame 29 is followed by 1:00.

   NOTE: Drop frame timecode addresses the discrepancy between NTSC video's actual frame rate (29.97 fps) and the simplified 30 fps calculation. Drop frame skips two frame numbers every minute (except every tenth minute) to maintain accuracy over longer durations. This broadcast standard uses semicolons (;) rather than colons (:) in timecode displays, and we'll be working in drop frame throughout this project.

Adding Audio to the Timeline

Audio editing requires precision and an understanding of how music structure supports visual storytelling. Professional editors often begin with audio tracks to establish pacing and emotional tone before refining visual elements.

1. Collapse the video bin by clicking the down arrow to organize your workspace.

2. Expand the audio bin and double–click Peter_Rudenko_-_Peace_Within.mp3 to load it into the Source Monitor.

   The dual timecode display shows current position (left) and total duration (right). At 3;03;05, this track far exceeds our target duration for a short promotional piece—you'll need to extract a focused 12-second segment that supports the visual narrative.

   This length disparity is common when working with stock music or full-length compositions that must be edited to match specific video requirements.

3. Navigate the timeline to 23;27 in the Source Monitor—this position offers an ideal entry point with strong musical phrasing suitable for a promotional piece.

   Notice this clip displays drop frame timecode, consistent with your sequence settings.

   NOTE: Use Left and Right Arrow keys for frame-accurate positioning—precision that's essential when syncing audio to visual beats or specific moments.

4. Set your audio in-point by clicking the Mark In button (left bracket icon) at the bottom of the Source Monitor. This establishes where your selected audio segment begins.

5. For more precise audio editing control, drag from the Drag Audio Only icon below the waveform preview directly to track A1 at the timeline's beginning:

   

6. Play through the audio to identify an appropriate ending point. Based on musical analysis, approximately 12 seconds provides strong thematic closure while maintaining engagement for a promotional piece.

7. Enhance your timeline visibility by adjusting the zoom slider at the bottom of the Timeline panel. Click and hold the right circle, dragging left to zoom in on your audio clip for detailed waveform analysis.

   

8. The magnified view reveals more detail—similar to After Effects' zoom functionality. This level of detail is crucial for precise audio editing and identifying natural break points in the music.

   NOTE: Drag between the zoom slider circles to pan left or right through your timeline without changing magnification levels.

9. Increase track A1's height by dragging the divider line between A1 and A2 downward. Larger tracks provide better waveform visualization for identifying audio characteristics and editing points.

   

10. Access Timeline Display Settings at the Timeline's top left and verify Show Audio Keyframes is unchecked. This simplifies the display for basic editing tasks.

11. Understanding timecode context is essential: Timeline timecode represents your final edit duration, while Source Monitor timecode shows individual clip timing. Navigate to 11;29 by clicking the Timeline timecode, typing 1129, and pressing Return/Enter. This position aligns with a natural musical phrase that provides clean cutting points.

    NOTE: The Program Monitor reflects identical timecode, confirming your timeline position.

12. Select the Razor tool from the Tools panel to make precise cuts in your audio clip.

13. Ensure the Snap function is active (blue, not gray) at the Timeline's top left. This feature helps align cuts with the playhead for frame-accurate editing.

    NOTE: Toggle Snap on/off using the S keyboard shortcut for quick access during intensive editing sessions.

14. Position the Razor tool over the playhead in the Timeline. When you feel the snap engagement, click to cut the audio clip at this precise timecode position.

    NOTE: The Razor tool only cuts clips—it cannot select or move them. Switch back to the Selection tool immediately after cutting to resume normal editing functions.

15. Adjust the zoom slider by dragging the right circle rightward to view your complete audio clip and assess the cut you've made.

    Audio Editing Workflow

    1

    Set In Point

    Move playhead to 23:27 in the 3+ minute audio clip and click Mark In button to start your 12-second excerpt

    2

    Drag Audio Only

    Use Drag Audio Only icon to pull just the audio to Timeline track A1, avoiding unwanted video

    3

    Cut and Trim

    Use Razor tool at 11:29 to cut the clip, then delete the unwanted second section