Getting Started. Adobe Premiere Pro 2 is one of the most powerful video-editing programs. Introducing Premiere Pro 2 3

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1 1 Getting Started Introducing Premiere Pro 2 3 Creating a Premiere Pro 2 Project 3 Choosing Project Presets 4 Creating a New Project 5 Adobe Premiere Pro 2 is one of the most powerful video-editing programs on the market. In this chapter, you will learn how Premiere Pro 2 helps you capture, edit, and export video. You will dive in by creating your first project while sorting through the potentially confusing project options. (Of course, with this book, nothing will be confusing!) This chapter also introduces the completely redesigned user interface in Premiere Pro 2. Exploring the Premiere Pro 2 Workspace 10 Arranging Panels 12 Docking, Grouping, and Floating Panels 14 2 Adobe Premiere Pro 2 : H O T

2 01 PP2HOT( ).qxd 03/28/ :03 PM Page 3 Introducing Premiere Pro 2 Video editing is the process of taking a long video recording such as that four-minute panorama from your tropical vacation that puts friends to sleep and whittling it down so it tells a more concise, clear story. The term video editing is also used as a catchall to include the process of combining many separate video recordings to create one new recording complete with titles, pictures, and special effects. In other words, video editing means both editing a single recording and undertaking the entire process of creating new video. From start to finish, Premiere Pro 2 provides tools to help you every step of the way. DVDs, the Web, and many other formats. From television producers to wedding videographers to home hobbyists, many people use Premiere Pro 2 for an even wider array of projects. Premiere Pro 2 allows you to accomplish three main tasks: You can capture and collect video, audio, and graphics in one location; you can assemble your video and add titles, graphics, transitions, and effects; and you can export your video to formats appropriate for television, DVDs, or the Web. For each of these tasks, you will use a project file, which you will learn about in the next section. Premiere Pro 2 is video-editing software that aids you in creating video for playback on television, NOTE: The Pro in Premiere Pro 2 One popular question users ask about Premiere Pro 2 is, is it professional? The short answer is yes. The long answer goes like this Premiere Pro 2 will not make your video professional or unprofessional. It s professionally ambiguous. Premiere Pro 2 is no different from any other video-editing software on the market in this respect. If you give it professional video, it will give you professional video. If you give it lousy video, it will give you lousy video. In other words, Premiere Pro 2 has little to do with the question of professionalism. It is as professional as you need it to be. Creating a Premiere Pro 2 Project A Premiere Pro 2 project is a single file containing all your work. A project holds all the audio, video, and graphics you plan to use. It remembers which files were captured from your camera. Most important, it contains the blank canvas you will use to create your program. Before you can begin using Premiere Pro 2, you must first create a project file. Every task you perform in Premiere Pro 2 takes place within a project file. In fact, Premiere Pro 2 will not allow you to do any work unless you make a new project or open an existing one. Every time you want to capture video from your camera or export video to DVD, you must have a project open. That s why the first task you will learn in this chapter is how to make a new project. Without a project, you can t do much else. Chapter 1 : Getting Started 3

3 01 PP2HOT( ).qxd 03/28/ :03 PM Page 4 NOTE: Video Geek Vocabulary If you re new to video editing, you may discover yourself surrounded by strange videoediting vocabulary. Specifically, you ll find two words sprinkled throughout this chapter: Program: A program refers to your creation. Similar to a television program, a program is the final piece of video you are producing. A program can be a slide show, a wedding video, a commercial, a movie anything! Clip: A clip is any video file, audio file, or still image imported into your project. A clip can be a snippet of a larger video file, or it can refer to the entire file. It just depends on how you use the video file in your project. Choosing Project Presets As mentioned, you must create a project file before you begin working. Premiere Pro 2 asks you (OK, it forces you) to choose the type of project you want to create. Every project file has at least a dozen settings you need to specify before Premiere Pro 2 will create the project. These settings include frame size, pixel aspect ratio, editing mode, color depth, audio sample rate, field priority, and more! Whew. Don t worry. Using project presets makes this daunting task much easier. A project preset is a preconfigured template that automatically chooses the optimal settings for your project. When you choose a preset, Premiere Pro 2 specifies and locks each setting so you don t accidentally choose incompatible options. Of course, you can customize the project settings if you want; however, this is usually unnecessary and can be downright risky! With so many settings that must perfectly match your video, choosing a preset is not only the easiest thing to do but also the safest. When you choose a preset, you must do so with care because after you choose the project settings, you cannot change them. (Insert ominous clap of thunder to underscore this point.) Although this may cause little concern when you re five minutes into a project, you ll find it much harder to start over when you re five days into a project. For this reason, choose wisely! (Of course, if you do choose incorrectly, a workaround can salvage your project; Chapter 16, Working with 16:9, HDV, and 24p Video, discusses this workaround.) In the first exercise, you will create a new project and learn how to properly choose a project preset. 4 Adobe Premiere Pro 2 : H O T

4 01 PP2HOT( ).qxd 03/28/ :03 PM Page 5 EXERCISE 1 Creating a New Project Creating a project is similar to writing an . To write an , you first create a blank letter and then fill it with words. In Premiere Pro 2, you create a blank project and fill it with audio and video. In this exercise, you will learn how to create a new project. 1 Start Premiere Pro 2 if you do not already have it open. When you open Premiere Pro 2, you ll see a Welcome Screen, which lets you start a new project or open an existing project. 2 Click New Project to open the New Project dialog box, which contains a list of available presets. Tip: If you have existing projects, the most recent ones will appear below the Recent Projects heading. This is a quick way to open an existing project without having to navigate through the Open Project folder. 3 Under Available Presets, click the plus sign to expand the DV NTSC preset folder, and click the Standard 48kHz preset to select it. When selecting a preset, it is important to select a preset matching the video you ll be editing this is not the format of the final video you want to produce but is the format of the source video you will be using. Throughout this book, you ll be using video Premiere Pro 2 thinks came from a standard DV (Digital Video) camera. For a more in-depth explanation, please see the tip at the end of this exercise. Premiere Pro 2 ships with six groups of presets, each represented by a folder. You can expand (or minimize) a folder by clicking the plus (or minus) sign next to the folder icon. Chapter 1 : Getting Started 5

5 01 PP2HOT( ).qxd 03/28/ :03 PM Page 6 To the right of the Available Presets area, you will see a description of each preset. In the pane below that, you will see a list of the preset settings. If you scroll through the settings, you will see exactly how many settings any given project has. The preset saves you from having to specify each of these settings. Note: If your video-capture card came bundled with Premiere Pro 2, you may see additional presets in the Available Presets list. 4 Click the Browse button. In the Browse For Folder dialog box, navigate to the c:\exercise_files\chap_01 folder, click to select it, and click OK. This returns you to the New Project dialog box. When creating your own projects, make sure you know exactly where you are creating your file, because you will need to refer frequently to the file location. Pick a location you can remember and easily find. Some editors like to save their project files in the same folder with all the video they capture from their camera so everything is in one convenient location. Other editors like to have projects in one folder and captured video from their camera in another folder. Each method has its merits, and you ll discover the method most comfortable for you. You ll learn more about organizing video content in Chapter 14, Capturing Digital Video. 5 In the Location field, you will see the folder you chose. At the bottom of the New Project dialog box, type exercise01 in the Name field, and click OK. This creates a new project file with the chosen settings on your hard drive and automatically opens your new project. Now your project is ready for use. 6 Choose File > Save. This saves your project and leaves it open. Although at this point it s really unnecessary to save your file, this step shows you how to save a project because at the end of each exercise in this book, you will be prompted to save your project. It s also a good idea to save frequently because you never can predict when a dreaded crash will occur. 7 Choose File > Save a Copy. In the Save Project dialog box, the file name is appended with Copy. Click Save. Leave the project open before moving on to the next exercise. 6 Adobe Premiere Pro 2 : H O T

6 01 PP2HOT( ).qxd 03/28/ :03 PM Page 7 The Save a Copy command creates a duplicate copy of your project but leaves the original open. This allows you to create a backup of your project while continuing to work on the original. Many editors use this as a restore point and name their copies backup 7/18 3:11pm or backup 7/18 4:05pm and so forth. At the end of each exercise, you will be prompted to close your project or leave it open. Of course, you can always close it and open it later when you are ready to continue. You have just created and saved your first project using a preset. The preset contains detailed information for more than 20 possible settings. At this point, you do not need to worry about any of those settings, just as long as you choose the proper preset. However, the list of presets and their settings can be overwhelming. So which is the right one to choose? The project settings should match the format of the source video as closely as possible. For example, if you shot footage on a 16:9 DV NTSC camera with 48 khz sound quality, then you would use the DV NTSC Widescreen 48kHz preset. Some cameras can shoot multiple sizes and multiple formats. For example, if your DV camera shoots both widescreen and standard size, you should pick your screen size before shooting and stick with it. Unless you are looking for a specific effect, avoid mixing and matching formats in the same Premiere Pro 2 project. For a brief primer on widescreen and standard size videos, as well as HDV (High-Definition Video), see Chapter 16, Working with 16:9, HDV, and 24p Video. If you d like to understand what is going on under the hood when choosing a project preset, the following table provides a simple overview of the most important settings defined by each preset. This table is extra credit refer to it if you need to, but this table is not required in order to successfully complete the exercises in this book. Note: Do not operate heavy machinery after reading this table. What About Those Other Settings? Setting Editing Mode Description Tells Premiere Pro 2 what type of source files you will be using and how to play them. Available options include DV NTSC, DV PAL, DV 24p, HDV 720p, and a few more. These are all different flavors of video that Premiere Pro 2 will accept. It s important to choose an editing mode matching your source video so Premiere Pro 2 doesn t have to work as hard to convert from your camera s format to the project format. Timebase Specifies the time divisions of your video. NTSC is divided into 30 frames per second of video. (Actually it s frames per second, but 30 is easier to remember.) PAL is divided into 25.0 frames per second. Some editing modes, such as 24p, have a unique Timebase mode of frames per second. Other editing modes, such as HDV 1080i, use a Timebase setting of frames per second. continues on next page Chapter 1 : Getting Started 7

7 01 PP2HOT( ).qxd 03/28/ :03 PM Page 8 What About Those Other Settings? continued Setting Frame Size Description Specifies the width and height of your video. The frame is the container holding the video. Frames at a movie theater are measured in feet. Frames on a big-screen television are measured in inches. Frames of video displayed on a computer monitor are measured in pixels. A frame of NTSC DV video is 720 pixels wide by 480 pixels tall (even if it s widescreen video). Pixel Aspect Ratio Describes the shape of the video frame. You will deal with three common aspect ratios in video editing: 1.0 aspect ratio pixel (computer monitor) A pixel in a computer monitor is perfectly square, so the ratio of its width to height, or aspect ratio, is 1:1, the same as 1 1, which equals aspect ratio pixel (NTSC DV standard 4:3) A pixel of DV video is not square but slightly skinny. Here s why: NTSC DV video is always 720 pixels 480 pixels, which is a ratio of = 1.5. But standard televisions have a ratio of 4:3 = This means that 1.5-ratio DV video is too wide to fit on a ratio television screen. To fix this problem, each pixel of DV video is a bit thinner, by 0.9 to be exact, which helps it squeeze into a standard 4:3 television screen. Hence, you have a 0.9 pixel aspect ratio. 1.2 aspect ratio pixel (NTSC DV widescreen 16:9) A pixel of widescreen DV video, on the other hand, is wider than a square pixel. Since NTSC DV video is always pixels yes, even widescreen NTSC DV video this poses a unique problem. How do you get the same number of pixels to fill a 16:9 ratio screen? Answer: Make the pixel wider! This is how pixels expand to fit a 16:9-ratio television screen. For you mathaholics: (16:9) (720:480) = 1.2. Color Depth Specifies how many possible colors can be used in your video. DV video is always millions of colors, and it cannot be changed. continues on next page 8 Adobe Premiere Pro 2 : H O T

8 01 PP2HOT( ).qxd 03/28/ :03 PM Page 9 What About Those Other Settings? continued Setting Quality Compressor Description Sets the quality to a value between where 100 is the maximum. DV can be set only to 100%. Compresses and decompresses the video stream so it plays smoothly on your computer. Uncompressed video is very large (25 MB/sec), and the average computer would choke trying to play such a massive file size. Compression is a method of efficiently condensing the video into a smaller size so that your computer can handle playing it smoothly. DV video always uses DV compression. DVDs and HDV use MPEG-2 compression. Other compressors do exist, and you will learn which ones are best for exporting your program to the Web, CD, DVD, and more. Fields Upper field + Lower field = Full frame + = A full DV frame is divided into two fields. Every odd-numbered line is stored in the upper field, and even-numbered lines are stored in the lower field. This is called interlacing fields (picture the teeth of a zipper). DV video is interlaced with its lower field first. If you could slow down an interlaced television screen when playing DV video, you would see the lower field drawn and then the upper field. DV video is sometimes called 60i, short for 60 frames interlaced (30 frames per second 2 fields per frame). Computer monitors are not separated into fields, so each horizontal line of the frame is drawn progressively in numeric order (1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ). This is called progressive scan. Why does this matter? When you watch interlaced video on an interlaced television screen, you don t see the interlacing; the video plays smoothly. But, when you watch interlaced video on a progressive scan computer screen, the interlacing effect becomes apparent. In Chapter 13, Exporting to Files and Tape, you will learn how to convert interlaced video to progressive video for playback on the Internet or CDs. Chapter 1 : Getting Started 9

9 01 PP2HOT( ).qxd 03/28/ :03 PM Page 10 Exploring the Premiere Pro 2 Workspace Based on the task you are accomplishing, Premiere Pro 2 provides different workspaces. A workspace is a collection of panels tailored to the task at hand. The Editing workspace, for example, prominently displays panels for trimming your video footage. The Effects workspace gives you easy access to panels for adding and modifying special effects. The specific arrangement of panels is what makes each workspace unique. Think of the workspace like your neighborhood. Your neighborhood comprises many houses, and the exact location and size of each house is what makes your neighborhood unique. Each house contains neighbors. Some houses have one neighbor, and some have many neighbors. Returning to reality, you can apply this analogy to workspaces. Your workspace comprises many panels, and the exact location and size of each panel is what makes your workspace unique. Each panel contains tabs. Some panels have one tab, and some have many tabs. Note: By default, Premiere Pro 2 uses the Editing workspace. However, because Premiere Pro 2 remembers the most recently opened workspace, if you have been playing with Premiere Pro 2 already, you may have made changes to your workspace. To ensure your workspace matches the workspace shown in this book, choose Window > Workspace > Editing. Also note the illustrations in this book were created on a monitor with resolution of If you have a different resolution, your screen may look slightly different. Project panel Monitor panel Timeline panel 10 Adobe Premiere Pro 2 : H O T

10 01 PP2HOT( ).qxd 03/28/ :03 PM Page 11 The Editing workspace, as shown in the illustration here, is the primary layout in Premiere Pro 2 and is where you will do most of your work. The three primary panels of the Editing workspace are the Project, Monitor, and Timeline panels. The next few chapters discuss each of these panels in detail. In this chapter, you will get an overview of these panels and understand how they fit into the big picture. The Project panel is the holding area for all your video clips. You must first import every audio, video, and graphic clip you plan to use in your project into the Project panel before you can use the clip. When you capture video from your camera, the video file is stored on your hard drive and imported into the Project panel automatically. (You ll learn more about importing in Chapter 2, Importing and Editing. ) All Premiere Pro 2 projects come with one item, named Sequence 01. You can see the sequence patiently sitting in your Project panel. A sequence is the blank canvas where you will do your editing. (You ll find more about sequences in Chapter 3, Assembling a Sequence. ) The Monitor panel is like your television screen. This is where you play all audio, video, and graphics. The Monitor panel is composed of two panels: the left side is the Source Monitor, and the right side is the Program Monitor. The Source Monitor is for playing all your original, unedited clips. The Program Monitor is for playing your newly created video. When you make changes to a sequence, the Program Monitor displays the changes immediately. The Timeline panel is where you assemble your sequence. Whereas the Monitor panel shows the visual representation of a sequence, the Timeline shows what is happening in time. The Timeline starts at zero seconds on the far left and increases to infinity. (Actually, the Timeline stops at 24 hours in length, but a movie that is 24 hours long will feel like infinity.) Before going any further, I ll summarize these panels: You import clips into the Project panel. You preview the original clips in the Source Monitor. You assemble the clips in a sequence in the Timeline panel. You preview the sequence in the Program Monitor. Since you re now familiar with the default workspace, you can begin customizing it. Chapter 1 : Getting Started 11

11 01 PP2HOT( ).qxd 03/28/ :03 PM Page 12 Arranging Panels In Premiere Pro 2 you can dock and group multiple panels in a single pane, as well as turn any panel into a floating panel. Most editors start with a basic workspace as a template and then customize the layout of the panels to fit their needs. (Like snowflakes, no two editors are alike!) Because this is a radical change to the previous Premiere Pro interface, it s important to learn how to dock and group your panels in a pane. Docked top to bottom Docked side by side Unlike grouped panels, docked panels allow you to see the contents of multiple panels all at once in a single pane. You can dock panels side by side or top to bottom. In the illustration shown here on the left, the History panel is docked to the bottom of the pane. In the illustration shown here on the right, the History panel is docked to the right of the pane. The overall pane size remains the same, no matter how you dock the panels. Grouped panels show up as tabs along the top of a pane. You can see the contents of only one panel at a time when they are grouped in a pane. In the illustration shown above, the Info, History, and Effects panels are grouped into one pane. To access each panel, simply select the tab you want to bring to the foreground. In the illustration shown above, the Info panel is in the foreground. A series of dots appears on the tab at the top of each panel. To move a panel, you must click and drag its tab (these dots) to a new location. So how exactly do you group or dock a panel in a pane? The trick is to grab the panel s tab, represented by the dots at the top of the panel, and drag it to one of the five target panels. The target panel on which you drop the panel determines its position in the pane. 12 Adobe Premiere Pro 2 : H O T

12 01 PP2HOT( ).qxd 03/28/ :03 PM Page 13 Panel Target Panel Result Illustration A: Creates a top-tobottom docked panel Illustration B: Creates a side-by-side docked panel Illustration C: Creates a grouped panel The illustration shown here demonstrates the three scenarios for docking a panel inside a pane. Illustration A: If you drag the panel tab to the top or bottom target panel, you create a top-to-bottom docked panel. Illustration B: If you drag the tab to the left or right target panel, you create a side-by-side docked panel. Illustration C: If you drag the tab to the center target panel, you create a panel group. You can also create floating panels, which appear on top of other panel. In the illustration shown here, the History panel floats over the Info panel. Floating panels are especially useful if you have multiple computer monitors because you can float the panel on the second monitor and then dock additional panels to the floating panel. In the next exercise, you will practice the art of docking, grouping, and floating panels. Chapter 1 : Getting Started 13

13 01 PP2HOT( ).qxd 03/28/ :03 PM Page 14 EXERCISE 2 Docking, Grouping, and Floating Panels So many verbs all at once! In this exercise, you will learn how to dock and group panels, how to create a floating panel, and how to save a custom workspace for quick access in future projects. 1 If you followed the previous exercise, exercise01.prproj should still be open in Premiere Pro 2. If it s not, click Open Project on the Welcome Screen. Navigate to the c:\exercise_files\chap_01 folder, click exercise02.prproj to select it, and click Open. 2 Choose Window > Workspace > Editing to ensure you are using the default workspace: Editing. 3 Click and drag the tabs of the Toolbar panel from the lower-right corner of the workspace to the left of the Timeline panel to dock the panel. Hold down the mouse until you see the new location in the left target panel, and then release. Tip: If you accidentally let go of the mouse in the wrong location, simply repeat Step 2 to reset your workspace, and then try Step 3 again. 14 Adobe Premiere Pro 2 : H O T

14 01 PP2HOT( ).qxd 03/28/ :03 PM Page 15 4 Click and drag the yellow bar between the Toolbar and Timeline panels all the way to the left. The pane size doesn t change, but the division of real estate between the panels changes. This gives the Timeline panel a little more breathing room. 5 Click the tab (dots) once at the top of the Audio Master Meters panel. You can find the Audio Master Meters panel at the far right of the Timeline panel. Tip: Clicking the tab of a panel once brings the panel into focus, indicated by the yellow highlight around the panel. Focus means a panel is the active panel. Throughout this book, you ll be instructed to bring a panel into focus before performing certain actions. In Premiere Pro 2, the same command can cause different results depending on which panel is in focus, so it s a good habit to explicitly click the panel you want to work in before you try working in it. 6 Click and drag the yellow bar between the Audio Master Meters and Timeline panels to the left, just enough to see the Audio Master Meters panel more fully. You have just docked and resized panels within a pane. Now it s time to make a panel group in a pane. Chapter 1 : Getting Started 15

15 01 PP2HOT( ).qxd 03/28/ :03 PM Page 16 7 In the lower-left pane, select the Effects panel to bring it into focus. 8 Click and drag the Effects panel straight up to the center of the Project panel. Release the mouse when you see the new location in the center target panel. Releasing the mouse in the center target panel creates a panel group, with tabs along the top of the pane for each panel in that group. 9 Select the Info panel to bring it into focus. Hold down the Ctrl key, and then click and drag the Info panel to the center of your screen to create a floating panel. Release the mouse when you see the panel floating by itself. Tip: You can close a floating panel by clicking the familiar red-and-white Close button in the upper-right corner of the panel. Conversely, you can open any panel from the Window menu. After you customize your panels, you may want to save the custom configuration. Premiere Pro 2 allows you to save your custom workspace for use in future projects. You ll learn how in the next steps. 16 Adobe Premiere Pro 2 : H O T

16 01 PP2HOT( ).qxd 03/28/ :03 PM Page Choose Window > Workspace > Save Workspace. 11 In the Save Workspace dialog box, type My Workspace in the Name field, and click Save. Tip: You can delete a custom workspace from the same menu. Simply choose Window > Workspace > Delete Workspace. Once a workspace is saved, it s easy to switch between workspaces. Next you will open one of the additional workspaces that comes with Premiere Pro 2, and then you will learn how to return to the saved My Workspace. 12 Choose Window > Workspace > Color Correction. Notice the panels are in a completely different configuration this is a strange layout indeed. What if you want to return to the workspace you created in this exercise? Since you saved the workspace, you can return to it easily. You ll learn how in the next step. 13 Choose Window > Workspace > My Workspace. The panels return to the custom workspace you created and saved. 14 Choose File > Save. Next, choose File > Close to close this project before moving on to the next chapter. VIDEO: interface.mov To learn more about the Premiere Pro 2 interface, including how to customize the workspace, check out interface.mov in the videos folder on the Premiere Pro 2 HOT DVD-ROM. Congratulations! You just finished the first step in any Premiere Pro 2 project: creating a new project file. Since you are now familiar with starting a new project, choosing a project preset, and working with the primary panels of a project file, you re ready to move on to the next step: importing and editing your clips. Chapter 1 : Getting Started 17