Editing video using Premiere

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After using Premiere's video recording features in our previous session, we will now use its editing capabilities to:

• Create a title card (a full-screen image with type).
• Combine the title and video shots (separate motion picture segments) on a timeline.
• Add a transition (a special effect which gradually reveals a new shot) between the title and the opening of the video.

As before, you will find familiar features in this program, helping you to guess function and operation. The Title window has many of the standard facilities of drawing programs; the Project window displays a visual list of the elements to be edited (like the Cast window in Director); and the Construction window offers a timeline on which to arrange those same elements (similar to the Score window in Director).

Basic Operation:

1. Unlike video recording, which requires special hardware, video editing can be accomplished (for small files) on any reasonably fast computer. You can therefore use any of the computers in the lab. To set up their configuration:
   • Use Apple-->Control Panels-->Extensions Manager, choose the General Use set.
   • Special-->Restart.
   • Use the Control Strip to switch display to thousands of colors.
2. Find and re-open the Premiere application. In the New Project Presets dialog, again choose 'Presentation - 160x120'.
3. Start creating the title card. Use File-->New-->Title to open the Title window. This is a drawing program built into Premiere, with features and tools not unlike the ones we saw in other graphics programs (PageMaker, Illustrator, etc.). The dotted boxes at the margin of the blank document are the title-safe and action-safe areas, which are only relevant to work done for  TV. The boxes will not appear in the final version, however, and they may be useful to help position your title.
4. Use Windows-->Title Window Options to bring up the Title Window Options dialog.
   • Fill in the frame size (160 W x 120 H)
   • To choose a different background color, click on the box below 'Background' to bring up a color picker dialog, then click on the color you prefer.
5. Now enter and format the text of your title. Remember to make it legible by using uncomplicated typefaces at the largest size possible:
   • Choose the Type tool ('T') in the toolbox
   • Click anywhere in the document area. A white box and a flashing insertion bar will appear. Start entering text at the keyboard.
   • To reposition the title block, click inside it with the Arrow tool, then drag it to a new location.
   • To resize the title block, click on one of the handles at its edges with the Arrow tool, then drag.
   • To format the type, click on it to select it, then:
     • Use the commands in the Title and Font menus. The same formatting applies to all the text in the same block.
     • Click on the double-headed, curved arrow to switch between solid-color and gradient fill for your type.
     • Make the type see-through or opaque with the Opacity pop-up sliders.
     • Choose new colors in the color picker, brought up by clicking on the color swatches.
     • Change gradient direction by clicking on one of the arrowheads surrounding the gradient preview.
     • Modify the drop shadow by dragging on the shadow preview ('T' at the bottom of the toolbox).
       • Click on the double-headed, curved arrow to swap the object and shadow fills.
       • You can also change the settings in the Title-->Shadow submenu.
       • A drop shadow is often helpful to increase the separation between the background and the type.
   • Optionally, you can explore the simple drawing tools available in the Toolbox to add other elements to the title card besides type.
6. While the Title window is still active (in front of other windows), use File-->Save to save your work to a Premiere Title file. Close the Title window.
7. You are now ready to import the elements that will be combined into a video for the web.
   • Make a folder on the hard drive, then copy into it the title file you just created, and the video recording. This is important because Premiere needs plenty of space for temporary files, and plenty of speed, both unavailable on a floppy disk.
   • In Premiere, click on the Project window to make it active, then use File-->Save to save  your project file (containing information on the whereabouts of all elements, and their placement on the timeline) to the same folder on the hard drive.
   • Use File-->Import-->File to open the Title file. Repeat for the video recording file. Both will appear as clips in the Project window.
8. Premiere needs to know when, and for how long, each element will appear in the final video. This is indicated by dragging each item from the Project window to an appropriate location in the Construction window.
   • Drag the title from the project window to the first Video channel (the shaded band at the top of the Construction window), and position it so that its thumbnail is flush with the left edge of the window.
   • Drag the video recording to the second Video channel (the second shaded band from the top), positioned some distance away from the left edge (look at the ruler at the top of the window to position its first thumbnail approximately at the 2 second mark).
   • Extend the duration of the title so it overlaps by about one second the beginning of the video recording:
     • Make sure the Arrow tool at the bottom-left of the window is selected.
     • Point to the right edge of the title's thumbnail. The cursor shape will change to a bar with two horizontal arrows.
     • Click and drag to stretch the title to the appropriate length.
   • Extend the yellow band at the top of the window (the preview area) to encompass all your elements, then use Project-->Preview to see what your video looks like so far.
9. Next, you'll replace the abrupt change from title to video (a jump cut) with a visual effect (a wipe).
   • Click on  the Transitions window to activate it. The thumbnails for each effect will animate, previewing the result of using that transition to go from image A to image B.
   • Scroll to find the transition you prefer, for instance Zoom. Drag it to the Transition channel (the one between the two shaded Video channels) in the Construction window, positioning it right where title and video recording overlap. Premiere will automatically size the duration of the transition to match the amount of overlap.
   • Use Project-->Preview again (or press the Enter key on the numeric keypad) to see the revised version of your video.
10. Save your edited project (you will need it again for any modifications): File-->Save.
11. Use Make-->Movie to generate the final version of your edited video.

Additional Info:

• Documentation on  Premiere is available in Acrobat format on the ACG lab file server (GX), in the Manuals folder.
• The Art Computer Graphics program of Fullerton College will offer a class covering video in detail, ACG66: Multimedia Video. In the meanwhile, some video topics are included in ACG150: 3D Computer Animation for Macintosh. Look it up in our class schedules.