Think Media - How to Edit a Video in Adobe Premiere 2025! (Complete Beginners Tutorial)
The guide begins with organizing footage into folders for a-roll, b-roll, and project files, emphasizing the importance of organization for efficient editing. It then explains setting up a new project in Premiere, creating sequences, and importing footage. The tutorial covers editing techniques such as cutting, ripple editing, and using keyboard shortcuts to streamline the process. It also discusses adding b-roll to enhance the video and using color coding to organize different sections of the timeline.
The guide further explores audio editing, including adding music, adjusting audio levels, and using the audio track mixer for effects like compression and EQ. It highlights the use of stock footage from Storyblocks for additional b-roll. The tutorial concludes with color correction using the Lumetri Color panel, applying effects to source footage for consistency, and exporting the final video. Practical tips include using keyboard shortcuts, organizing project files, and applying audio and color effects efficiently.
Key Points:
- Organize footage into folders for a-roll, b-roll, and project files to streamline editing.
- Use keyboard shortcuts like C for cut, Q for ripple delete, and G for audio gain to speed up the process.
- Add b-roll to cover jump cuts and enhance video quality; use Storyblocks for additional footage.
- Apply audio effects using the audio track mixer to improve sound quality across all clips in a track.
- Use Lumetri Color for color correction and apply effects to source footage for consistency across clips.
Details:
1. đŦ Welcome & Introduction
- The guide offers a comprehensive step-by-step process for editing videos in Adobe Premiere, ideal for beginners and those transitioning from other software.
- The instructor has over 10 years of experience in using Adobe Premiere, ensuring expert insights.
- The video promises to teach everything needed to edit high-quality videos, making it suitable for complete beginners.
2. đģ Preparing Your Workspace
2.1. Adobe Premiere Pro Setup
2.2. Sponsorship Mention
3. đī¸ Organizing Your Project
- Organizing your project from the start simplifies editing and revisiting later stages.
- Create a main project folder named after the specific project to keep everything centralized.
- Inside the main folder, create three subfolders: 'a-roll', 'b-roll', and 'project files', each serving distinct purposes.
- The 'a-roll' folder contains the main content delivery videos, typically talking-head style.
- The 'b-roll' folder is for supplemental footage that enhances the main video content.
- The 'project files' folder stores the main project file (e.g., Premiere Pro) and any additional assets.
- Transfer footage from your camera or computer into the respective 'a-roll' and 'b-roll' folders.
4. đ Setting Up Your Project in Premiere
4.1. Project Setup and Initial Configuration
4.2. Workspace Layout and Footage Organization
5. âī¸ Editing Basics and Shortcuts
5.1. Opening and Preparing Footage
5.2. Creating a Sequence
5.3. Sequence Settings and Presets
5.4. Editing Timeline Setup
5.5. Organizing Project Assets
6. đ¨ Color Coding and B-Roll
- Zoom in on the timeline using the slider or keyboard shortcuts (+/-), which helps identify mistakes more efficiently.
- The 'C' button activates the cut tool for quick slicing at precise frames, improving accuracy in editing.
- Using the 'V' shortcut allows for quick selection and deletion of unwanted video segments, streamlining the editing process.
- Utilizing the Ripple Edit Tool speeds up editing by allowing simultaneous cuts and shifts, enhancing workflow efficiency.
- The 'Q' and 'W' shortcuts delete segments to the left or right of the playhead and adjust the timeline automatically, reducing manual adjustments.
- Expanding the audio layer visually aids in identifying dead spaces and mistakes, thus accelerating the editing process.
- These techniques contribute to a faster editing workflow, enabling the creation of a 90-second edit from a longer video.
7. đĨ Adding B-Roll and Visuals
- Implement color coding on your timeline to distinguish different sections such as intros or topic changes. This technique aids in quickly identifying where to place b-roll and other visuals, thereby saving time and improving workflow efficiency.
- Use the label tool to assign specific colors to different video segments on the timeline. This practice enhances clarity on where each section begins and ends, facilitating smoother editing transitions.
- Integrating color coding into your editing process not only helps in organizing content but also in maintaining a structured approach to video editing, ultimately leading to a more efficient and effective editing process.
8. đšī¸ Using Slow Motion and Stock Footage
- B-roll footage is used to enhance the visual interest and provide additional context to a video project.
- To efficiently add B-roll, use the 'I' and 'O' keys to set in and out points for the desired segment, ensuring precise selection without disrupting audio.
- Dragging only the video portion (without audio) prevents overwriting existing audio tracks, maintaining narrative integrity.
- B-roll clips should be overlaid thoughtfully on A-roll footage to complement the primary narrative and enrich storytelling.
- Switching between list view and icon view in the project window can streamline navigation and selection of clips.
- Choosing the right B-roll footage is crucial; it should match the tone and content of the A-roll to avoid visual dissonance.
- Avoid overusing B-roll as it can distract from the main content, ensuring it serves to enhance rather than overshadow the primary footage.
9. đ Working with Audio
- Using a 60 fps clip on a 24 fps timeline enables slowing down footage to 40% of its original speed, perfect for creating dramatic slow-motion effects.
- Access speed and duration settings by right-clicking the clip or using the shortcut Command + R for swift adjustments, facilitating efficient workflow.
- Maximizing additional frames through timeline adjustment enhances the visual appeal of footage, making it ideal for sports highlights, action sequences, or artistic projects.
- Consider maintaining audio quality to match the slowed-down video by using audio editing tools or separate background music tracks.
10. đĩ Adding Music and Sound Effects
- Storyblocks provides unlimited access to a large library of high-quality stock footage and motion graphics templates, saving significant time by eliminating the need for shooting your own b-roll or mastering complex animation skills.
- The platform offers content across diverse domains such as tech, real estate, business, and gaming, making it a versatile tool for enhancing video projects.
- Users have effectively leveraged Storyblocks for over eight years to fill in missing elements in their video projects, showcasing its reliability and utility.
- The service includes a wide range of title animation options, complementing the editing process and allowing for streamlined video production.
- An example of Storyblocks' impact is seen in the ability to quickly produce professional-grade videos without extensive resources or specialized skills, thereby democratizing video production for creators of all levels.
11. đŦ Integrating Intros and Outros
- Organize and color-code A-roll for clear structure and flow, ensuring seamless integration of intros and outros.
- Overlay B-roll that complements A-roll content, enhancing narrative cohesion.
- Incorporate music and sound effects strategically to elevate the viewer's experience, ensuring alignment with the video's tone and message.
- Identify and correct audio issues, such as volume inconsistencies and ambient noise, to maintain professional quality.
12. đ Fine-Tuning Audio Quality
12.1. Layering Audio Tracks
12.2. Setting Tone with Music
12.3. Editing Audio Clips
12.4. Adjusting Audio Levels
12.5. Background Music Management
13. đī¸ Adding Titles and Text Effects
- To create space for new additions, use 'A' to select all clips to the right and 'V' to move them, ensuring efficient workflow adjustment.
- Achieve precise timing of sound effects and visuals by zooming in and adjusting frame by frame, aligning them with the end of a-roll for a seamless blend.
- Unlink video and audio clips to allow independent movement, crucial for refining the timing of transitions and ensuring they are smooth and professional.
- Maintain a clean video flow by removing unnecessary clips and dead frames, which helps to keep the viewer engaged and the content concise.
- Ensure sound effects slightly overlap with the start of the main content, facilitating a smooth transition and enhancing viewer experience.
14. đĨ Enhancing Footage with Camera Moves
- Using an audio track mixer allows the application of audio effects to every clip in a track, saving time by not applying effects individually.
- Applying a hard limiter ensures audio does not exceed -1 dB, preventing peaking issues.
- A compressor with a 1.5 ratio can be used to manage loudness, ensuring the audio does not distort when the input is too loud.
- A parametric equalizer can visualize frequencies, allowing adjustments to make the audio sound fuller and brighter.
- High pass filters are used to cut low-end frequencies, typically set between 60 Hz to 100 Hz, to remove unwanted bass without affecting voice depth.
- The high-end frequencies can be slightly boosted around 8,000 Hz to add brightness to the voice, but not excessively to avoid unnatural sound.
- A noise filter, set at around 13-14%, can reduce unwanted background noise without overly affecting the main audio.
15. đ Color Correction Techniques
- Use 'T' on the keyboard to quickly add text to videos, enhancing visual interest.
- Adjust text properties such as font, size, and capitalization for consistency; e.g., use Helvetica 96 Black for a professional look.
- Utilize the 'V' key and Command key to position text centrally and add a drop shadow for better separation.
- Incorporate movement in titles using keyframes; adjust the scale from 100% to 150% to create dynamic effects.
- Add ease-in effects to keyframes to create smoother transitions.
- Explore Adobe Premiere's presets under 'Workspaces' and 'Captions in Graphics' for ready-made templates that can be customized.
- Implement advanced color correction by using scopes and color wheels to balance hues and achieve a natural look.
- Employ LUTs (Look-Up Tables) to standardize colors across different clips, ensuring consistency in video appearance.
- Use masks and tracking to apply color correction to specific areas or objects, enhancing focus and detail.
- Leverage color grading to convey mood and style, potentially increasing viewer engagement by up to 30% according to recent studies.
16. âī¸ Applying Effects to Source Footage
16.1. âī¸ Scaling Video Clips
16.2. âī¸ Keyframing for Consistent Effects
17. âī¸ Advanced Color Correction and White Balance
- Use the color workspace in Adobe Premiere to access the Lumetri color panel, enabling precise adjustments.
- Adjust exposure to correct lighting in footage, enhancing the overall image quality.
- Fine-tune contrast, highlights, and shadows to achieve the desired visual effect, such as reducing highlights to lower brightness.
- Apply creative color grading using custom LUTs at 30-35% power for a subtle effect, like the popular teal and orange look.
- Efficiently apply color adjustments to the source footage instead of individual clips to save time and ensure consistency across all instances.
- Utilize the effects controls panel to adjust source footage by clicking the source icon, streamlining the grading process across multiple project clips.
- Avoid common pitfalls by ensuring adjustments are subtle and consistent to prevent overcorrection.
- For advanced scenarios, experiment with different LUTs and grading techniques to find the most visually appealing balance for specific projects.
18. đ Reviewing Your Timeline
- The white balance tool enables precise color correction by allowing users to click and drag an eye dropper onto a portion of the video known to be pure white, such as a white shoe, effectively correcting the white balance.
- Adjustments with the white balance tool resulted in a temperature increase of 10 points and a tint decrease of 1 point, illustrating its capability for subtle yet impactful enhancements.
- The tool facilitates quick adjustments to achieve a warmer tone by selecting a white object in the scene, crucial for maintaining accurate colors in various lighting conditions.
- Understanding the importance of white balance enhances video quality by ensuring that colors appear natural and consistent across different scenes.
- For optimal results, users should select a pure white object that is well-lit and free from shadows for accurate calibration.
19. đ¤ Exporting Your Video
- Utilizing the Tia key enables a full-screen view of the timeline, providing a comprehensive and detailed perspective that enhances editing precision.
- Organizing footage by placing B-roll on top of A-roll footage not only streamlines the editing process but also facilitates smoother transitions and storytelling.
20. đ Finalizing and Reviewing Your Export
- To export your video, navigate to the last frame and press 'O' to set the out point, ensuring no black frame at the end is included. This step is crucial to avoid unwanted frames in your final video.
- Access the export box via the export tab in newer Premiere versions or use 'Command + M' as a shortcut. This makes the export process more efficient.
- Name your file and select a storage location, such as an 'exports' folder, to keep track of multiple versions. This organization helps in managing different edits.
- Select the h.264 codec for a compressed, YouTube-friendly file. Understanding codec settings is essential for maintaining video quality and compatibility.
- On an M3 MacBook Pro, a 90-second video typically takes 45 seconds to export. This benchmark helps in planning your editing schedule.
- After exporting, review the video in QuickTime to catch any errors or issues. Troubleshooting at this stage ensures the final product meets quality standards.
21. đ Additional Resources & Conclusion
- Access all project files, including finalized video versions, by following the link in the description.
- Explore a recommended video editing setup that costs under $1,000, as suggested in the transcript.