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Nonlinear editing programs like Adobe Premiere Pro CC have changed the game when it comes to making movies so much that it’s easy to take it for granted. Anyone with an Adobe Creative Cloud subscription and a dream can make a movie and show it to an audience that spans the globe. But it wasn’t always like that. Not that long ago, making a movie depended on a tabletop full of editing equipment with a severe lack of forgiveness. There was no undo in this world. Actually, there was its own version — it was called the do-it-over.
As for editing costs, the passion of putting a movie together in the last millennium could make you broke faster than an online gambling site. Unless you were fortunate to be working in the industry, and had access to state-of-the-art equipment, chances are you were making quality sacrifices. So, without a suitcase filled with cash, putting the finishing touches on your movie project was as far off as a walkin membership to a snooty country club. Even if you could afford the most basic equipment, the disparity between the consumer and professional level was far beyond a professional-quality movie. Instead of providing the look of a Hollywood movie, the end-result would be of significantly lesser quality.
Nowadays, that glass ceiling has been broken and all that should matter is how well you shot and edited your movie. Nonlinear applications like Premiere Pro CC are leading the way by allowing average Joes access to professional-style editing tools. Video content creators have access to the tools to create a real movie — be it long, short, really short (looking at you TikTok) or anything in between.
Premiere Pro CC puts the creative power at anyone’s fingertips. Not even Nostradamus could have imagined the power in the hands of the average user, who was long on passion and short on accessibility, to now make a movie with limited resources and deliver to a potentially wide global audience.
About this Book
I’m making no allusions that this book is the oracle to understanding everything about Premiere Pro. To adequately cover every feature, function, and technique, in addition to tips, workarounds, and other tricks, I would need far more than a few hundred pages. Rather, this singular Adobe Premiere Pro CC For Dummies serves as a reliable resource to familiarize you with the software and get you editing quickly.
So, what exactly does that mean? It means you get the dollar tour of the workspace with the basics of setting up your project, importing various types of content, and
making magic in the Timeline — otherwise known as the place to arrange your movie assets. This is what’s important when dipping your toe into Premiere Pro.
If you’re not sure how important editing is to the filmmaker, just check out some classic films like the shower scene from Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, or the Odessa Steps scene from Sergei Eisenstein’s seminal 1925 film, Battleship Potemkin. Brian DePalma paid homage to that classic scene in the 1987 film, The Untouchables
Versatility is the name of the game with Premiere Pro. Much like the special way you take your latte at a particular coffee chain, Premiere Pro is quite versatile. Plus, making a movie with it won’t get your name spelled wrong on the cup. So, whether you’re capturing a documentary with your new Sony F7 professional camcorder system, using your Canon 5D (of any mark you choose), a consumerlevel camcorder, or more than likely, your smart phone, you can easily ingest that footage and begin making a movie after a quick perusal this handy guide.
How this book is organized
Reading this book should make you feel like living in the no commitment zone. That means you will not have to read it cover to cover; instead, you’ll consume the information that you need and apply it with hands-on ease.
Premiere Pro CC For Dummies is divided into five parts, each detailing an aspect of preparing, editing, and delivering your movie. Depending on your level of understanding and your needs, you may prefer a particular area over another. Feel free to read it start to finish if that’s your thing. But chances are you want to spend more time editing. So also feel free to jump around.
PART I: Getting Familiar with the Adobe Premiere Pro Universe
Think of this set of chapters as the appetizer to the big meal — you know, if the big meal were a pro-quality movie. Complex in what it can do, yet easy to learn, Premiere Pro CC essentially consists of a collection of individual windows called panels that together create its powerful interface. This section prepares you with a swift overview of setting up your workspace and customizing it for your needs.
PART II: Gathering Content
With features and functions that transform old school linear video editing from the suite to a nonlinear powerhouse on your laptop or desktop computer, the following chapters explain fundamental techniques for bringing content from a
variety of sources into the workspace. These include the previously mentioned collecting, managing, and organizing movie assets.
PART III: Editing Your Masterpiece
If the past sections were the appetizer, then think of the following chapters as the main course. Whether you’re a beginner looking to make a short video, a working professional looking to understand the program’s newest and most powerful features, or anyone in between, this group of chapters takes you through the ins and outs of editing your movie with sublime simplicity.
PART IV: Finishing Off Your Project
Now that your movie is edited, it’s time to give a quality control once-over and export it as a movie file. After that, you can upload it to a social media site with your sights set on viral video victory. Maybe festivals or public showings are in the cards — then you could have a full house. Sharing your movie through a file transferring service is another option, or you could go old school by transferring to a DVD (or an even older school, like transferring to videotape) if that’s your thing. Whatever you choose, your movie is ready to live outside the program.
PART V: The Part of Tens
The For Dummies version of the top ten list provides insight into tools and techniques that take your Premiere Pro moviemaking skills to the next level. And by including a trio of lists, think of your progress increasing three times as much.
Icons Used in the Book
What’s a For Dummies book without icons pointing out pertinent information that quickly gives you what you need and lets you get on your way? Here’s a brief description of the icons used in book.
This icon marks a generally interesting and useful fact — something you may want to remember for later use.
This light bulb points out helpful suggestions and useful nuggets of information.
When you see this icon, you know that techie stuff is nearby if you’re not feeling very techie feel free to skip it.
The warning icon alerts you of lurking danger. With this icon I’m telling you to pay attention and proceed with caution.
Beyond the book
In addition to what you’re reading right now, this book comes with a free accessanywhere Cheat Sheet that includes tips to help you use Adobe Premiere Pro CC. To get this Cheat Sheet, simply go to www.dummies.com and type Adobe Premiere Pro For Dummies Cheat Sheet in the Search box.
1 Getting Familiar with the Adobe Premiere Pro Universe
Learn how you can use Premiere Pro for video editing projects.
Become familiar with the Premiere Pro workspace.
Learn about hardware requirements. Identify what accessories you’ll need to capture video.
Learn how to tweak settings for you needs and customize windows.
IN THIS CHAPTER
» Getting to know the workspace
» Introducing the panels
» Describing each tool
» Briefing on the libraries
Chapter 1
Perusing the Premiere Pro Landscape
Way back in the early 20th century, the only way to edit a videotape package was to put it together in linear order. You know, the first scene first, then the second, blah, blah, blah. Nowadays, Adobe Premiere Pro lets you randomly drag clips (parts of a movie file) around and put them in any order you like. This is known as nonlinear editing. The really cool thing is that you can shuffle clips around as many times as you like until you’re happy with the results.
As with any software, learning how to navigate the Premiere Pro features is extremely important. This chapter introduces you to the Premiere Pro workspace, including the panels, tools, and libraries.
In the workspace, various configurations of panels allow you to control various aspects of making a movie: audio mixing, controlling effects, and managing project assets. One of the key panels here is the timeline, which is the place you arrange, and often rearrange your clips to make your movie.
Understanding What Premiere Pro Can Do
Premiere Pro brings the creative power of post-production moviemaking from the editing suite to the convenience of your computer screen. Tape-to-tape editing, film splicing, and workprint are a few of the antiquated terms now in the rear-view mirror thanks to nonlinear editing.
That’s quite a contrast from the way things used to be. For years, putting a movie together involved a series of steps that had to occur in sequential order. Imagine splicing pieces of film from different reels and putting them together and then realizing that you missed an entire scene. That’s not a good feeling, and you get little forgiveness for skipping parts of the order.
Premiere simplifies the process of telling stories visually by making it more affordable, more flexible, and allowing you to change your mind and experiment with placing clips in the timeline without penalty. Change your mind and see how it plays out without any worry. You also don’t get your fingers sticky with film cement, and you won’t get cut with a razor blade. While the software is intuitive, it’s important to have a lay of the land to fully understand its potential.
Premiere Pro lets you to place elements in a timeline, a long panel that appears at the bottom of the screen where you add video clips. The order in which you add the clips doesn’t matter; you can drop in the last scene first, and the first scene later on, or in any other combination. It still plays out in linear fashion, regardless of when you add the clips. Yet, while Premiere Pro is intuitive, it’s important to have a lay of the land to fully understand what the software can do.
Dissecting the Workspace
Premiere Pro makes you feel like a video-editing superhero whose special powers transform your movie project from appalling to appealing. Not quite as cool as x-ray vision or web-slinging, but producing effective, clean edits is a power in its own way.
Before you can create an award-winning masterpiece, you need to get familiar with the workspace. C’mon, even Batman had to know his way around Gotham City, right? So think of yourself as Batman (your choice on which actor. . .okay, Christian Bale, no wait, Robert Pattison, or go old school with Michael Keaton or Adam West). No matter. You should learn your way around Premiere Pro so when you see the Bat-Signal — or most likely a text message on your iPhone — to edit an important package, you intimately know the Premiere Pro tools and functions
