The Interview: Editing Clips in Premiere Pro

Topics covered in this Premiere Pro tutorial:

Moving & Trimming Clips, Ripple Edit Tool, Rolling Edit Tool, Slip Edit Tool

Exercise Preview

Exercise Overview

In this exercise you’ll learn new video editing techniques

Getting Started

1. You should still have Your Name - The Interview version 2 open in Premiere Pro. If you closed it, re-open it now by going to File > Open Project then Desktop > Class Files > Premiere Pro Class > The Interview. We recommend you finish the previous exercise (2A) before starting this one. If you haven’t finished it, do the following sidebar.

   If You Did Not Do the Previous Exercise (2A)

   1. If a project is open in Premiere Pro, go to File > Save, then File > Close Project.
   2. Go to File > Open Project and navigate to Desktop > Class Files > Premiere Pro Class > The Interview.

   3. Double–click on The Interview - Ready for Editing.prproj.

   4. Go to File > Save As. Name the file Your Name - The Interview version 2.prproj and save it to Desktop > Class Files > Premiere Pro Class > The Interview.

Editing Clips on the Timeline

Adding clips to the Timeline is just the beginning. Later you want to reorder clips, or make one a bit shorter or longer. Maybe you need to change the content of a clip or adjust where two adjacent clips meet. The more clips you add, the more important it is to keep them all organized which is where the Timeline tools come in.

1. There’s a little too much time before the speaker starts talking at the beginning of the video. Move the Timeline playhead to 1:00

   TIP: When entering timecode, you can add a period (.) to mean second. So typing either 1. or 100 will take you to 1 second.

2. Press the + (plus) key a couple times to zoom closer in on the Timeline.

3. In the Tools panel, select the Ripple Edit tool (or press B on the keyboard).

4. We want to remove the part that comes before the playhead. On the Video 1 track, drag the beginning of the clip to the playhead line.

   Notice that all the other clips move over by the amount you just trimmed from the first clip. This is to keep everything in sync.

Moving & Trimming Clips

In Premiere Pro, you use the Selection tool to move and trim clips.

1. Move the Timeline playhead 16:05

2. In the Tools panel, choose the Selection tool (or press V on the keyboard).

3. Click on the Book Cover clip to select it.

4. Hold Shift and click on the Book Page Flipping - Slomo to select it too.

5. Drag the highlighted clips to the right until the first clip lines up with the playhead.

6. Move the playhead to 14:20

7. With the Selection tool drag the beginning of the first book clip (Book Cover) to the playhead line. This shows more of the beginning part of the source media.

Rolling Edit Tool

1. Move the playhead to 20:02 (the speaker’s about to say “thousand page book”).

2. In the Tools panel, click and hold on the Ripple Edit tool and select the Rolling Edit tool .

   NOTE: You can also press N on the keyboard to switch to the Rolling Edit tool .

3. Drag the edit line that’s between the 2 book clips to the playhead.

Applying Default Transitions

1. In the Tools panel, choose the Selection tool (or press V on the keyboard).
2. Select the Book Cover clip.
3. Hold Shift and click on Book Page Flipping - Slomo so both clips are selected.

4. Press Cmd–D (Mac) or Ctrl–D (Windows) to apply the default video transition to the beginning, middle, and end of the pair of clips!

   NOTE: The Video Transition Default Duration determines how long these transitions are by default. You can change that amount of time as follows:

   • Mac: Go into the Premiere Pro menu and choose Settings > Timeline (instead of Settings it will be Preferences on older versions of macOS).
   • Windows: Go into the Edit menu and choose Preferences > Timeline.

5. Play through the book clips to see the final edit and transitions.

Slip Edit Tool

Sometimes you want to change the part of a clip that’s visible on the timeline. Let’s see how the Slip Edit tool helps.

1. Move the playhead to 1:14:15, the start of the Adobe Illustrator screen capture.
2. Play through the Illustrator screen capture to see it’s not very interesting. Let’s switch to a different section.
3. Move the playhead back to 1:14:15
4. Double-click on the Illustrator clip to view it in the Source panel.
5. With a blue outline around the Source panel (indicating it’s the panel we’re working in), press the – (minus) key several times to zoom out to see the entire clip’s timeline in the Source panel.

6. In the Source panel’s timeline, notice on the left there’s a gray area bordered by blue lines (the in and out points) as shown below. This is the portion of the footage we’re currently using.

   

   • In the middle of the gray section, hover over the grab handle (3 vertical black lines) and the cursor should change to a hand.
   • Drag to the right to choose a different section of the footage (it doesn’t matter which section you choose for now).

   As you drag, the left side of the Source panel shows the in point (beginning) and the right side shows the out point (end).

7. This is one way to make a slip edit, but let’s use the Slip tool to do the same kind of edit. In the Tools panel, select the Slip tool (or press Y on the keyboard).

8. With the Slip tool , hover the cursor over the Illustrator clip in the Timeline panel (NOT the Source panel) and drag left/right until the preview on the left reads 26:21

   

9. Play through the Illustrator screen capture again to see this is a more interesting part of the video.

10. Move the playhead to 1:20:23 (the beginning of the InDesign screen capture).

11. With the Slip tool , hover the cursor over the InDesign clip and drag it to the left until the left preview reads 58:26. You may have to drag and release, then drag again (repeat as many times as needed).

12. Move the playhead to 56:05

    This is where the speaker begins to say “As video became more popular…”. We’re going to cut out a part of the interview here.

13. In the Tools panel, choose the Selection tool (or press V on the keyboard).
14. Click on the Main Interview clip on the Video 1 track.
15. Press Cmd–K (Mac) or Ctrl–K (Windows) or choose Sequence > Add Edit to cut the clip at the playhead’s position.
16. Move the playhead to 1:03:20 (right after the end of the sentence about video).
17. Click on the Main Interview clip under the playhead to select it.
18. Again press Cmd–K (Mac) or Ctrl–K (Windows) or choose Sequence > Add Edit to cut the clip at the playhead’s position.
19. Ctrl–click (Mac) or Right–click (Windows) on the clip to the left of the playhead and choose Ripple Delete from the menu.
20. Press Shift–K to play around the edit you just made.

21. We want to start the Photoshop Demo clip on Video 2 at this playhead position. Try dragging the beginning of the Photoshop Demo clip to the left and notice it will not extend. Why is that?

    Notice the small white triangle at the top left of the Photoshop Demo clip.

    When you see a white triangle at the start or end of a clip, it indicates there’s no more source media (you’re already at the start or end).

    For this clip we have more source media at the end, so we’ll have to move the entire clip over, then extend out the end. Let’s see how.

22. Drag the entire Photoshop Demo clip so that it starts at the playhead position (56:05).
23. Now there’s some space after (to the right of) the Photoshop Demo clip. Drag the end of the Photoshop Demo clip to the right, filling up the space so it touches the Illustrator clip.

24. Choose File > Save or hit Cmd–S (Mac) or Ctrl–S (Windows).