We’ve put together a Premier Pro Guide to share some of the tools, tips, and workflows we’ve developed while creating our multimedia projects—from our short-form videos, social media posts and story-driven interviews. This guide highlights the editing techniques, organizational tricks, and export settings that have helped us streamline our process and maintain quality across projects. Whether you’re new to Adobe Premiere Pro or looking for ways to make your editing more efficient, we hope this resource offers practical support for your own creative work.

Process

  1. Select interview quotes
  2. Add tagged block Qs to temp timeline (colour code used Qs)
  3. Pancake temp TL and final TL
  4. Pull best Qs into final TL; rough cut/storyboard
  5. Write/record/clean voice over
  6. Select music bed
  7. Mark up music
  8. Select b-roll and arrange in Icon View (colour code used broll)
  9. Automate to Sequence b-roll to align markers
  10. Project Manager – export with files to SSD – reopen rough project on SSD – kill rough cut on Master Project
  11. Build proxy files for selected files on proxy drive
  12. Cut/Add Images
  13. Speed ramps
  14. Colour grading/presets
  15. Effects (warp + unsharpen mask)
  16. Animation of clips/images/titles (Ken Burns or Basic 3D)
  17. Title/Transitions/Graphics
  18. Export all audio to Audition for final clean/Re-import
  19. Chapter markers (if necessary)
  20. Export

Increase Speed

  • Proxies
  • Global FX mute
  • Render

Sequence Settings

  • Preset 16×9 or 18×9 (use black bars for ref or not)
  • Set Scratch Disk Settings with each new project

Frame Rate

  1. Interview footage:
  2. Don’t interpret
  3. Drop on sequence/keep settings
  4. Broll footage:
  5. Interpret
  6. Use speed ramp to increase to normal speed or keep as slo-mo

Automate to Sequence

  1. Search broll tags
  2. Create working bin and organize in icon view
  3. Drop music into timeline
  4. Markers at beats (plus at 0:00:00)
  5. Automate to sequence:
  6. Selection order
  7. At unnumbered markers

Cutting

  1. J/L-Cut: Overlay audio before/aftervideo starts/ends to shift story progress
  2. Action Cut: Cut to beat or movement or action (ie cut to tight shot on key movement of bear)
  3. Montage: demonstrate progress
  4. Match Cut: two different scenes with similar movement/feel/direction to create smoother transition
  5. Horizontal Flip: flips image to keep direction same between cuts, moving each clip left or right)

Speed Ramps (Warp Stabilizer must be after)

  1. Speed/Duration for full speed up/slowdown of clip:
  2. S = Hotkey
  3. Change %
  4. Time Interpolation = Optical Flow (key for slo-mo 23.976)
  5. To speed up/slowdown within one clip (ie VH or VD):
  6. FX = Right click on FX button on clip > Time Remapping
  7. Creates rubber band > enter Keyframes to slowdown/speed up > adjust in clip
  8. Click “V” > make blue > expand to create ramp > adjust tilt feature for micro adjustments
  9. Easy ease in/out to smooth
  10. Right click > Time Interpolation > Optical Flow
  11. Freeze Frame
  12. Stop playhead on desired freeze frame spot
  13. Right click > Insert Frame Hold Segment > edit/adjust

OR

  • Right click > Add Frame Hold Segment > ends video with last shot

OR

  • Use camera icon to take JPG or PNG > import into project (or LR/PS) to have static/edited image to blur in/out from video
  • Speed Ramps with Interpreted Footage (make 60 fps, etc play at full speed in 23.976 TL):
  • FX = Right click on FX button on clip > Time Remapping > Speed
  • Increase % to 230-250% or move rubber band up to this threshold

Reference Videos

Colour Grading

  1. Adjustment Layer
  2. Project Panel > New Item > Adjustment Layer OR ‘A’ Hotkey
  3. Adjustment layer is master effect on all video below
  4. Always blank in project panel/can re-use and will always be blank
  5. Put each effect on new adjustment layer (Nest if needed)
  6. EX: Go to colour > add preset > go to Effects Control to adjust on entire layer
  7. ALT: Copy/select footage > copy > CMD + Option + V > select assets to paste
  8. Design Preset/LUT
  9. Import LR Preset or Design preset per camera
  10. Lumetri Colour > menu (triple line) > right click
  11. Save As .CUBE
  12. Save to Desktop or Adobe File in Docs
  13. Right click Premiere icon on Desktop > Show in Finder
  14. Right click > Show Package Contents
  15. Find Lumetri Colour > Find LUTS > Find Creative
  16. Move saved .CUBE files here = permanently loaded
  17. Import Preset/LUT
  18. Lumetri Colour > Creative > go to LOOK > ADD LUTS
  19. Adjust intensity on input
  20. Lumetri Curves
  21. Mainly same as LR
  22. Hue v Sat: drop keyframes markers to isolate parts of footage to enhance, lower specific colours
  23. Luma v Sat: desaturate black/white in Lumetri Colour (possibly build into LUT)
  24. Hue v Hue: use eye dropper to alter specific colours
  25. Hue v Luma: use eye dropper to improve light (interviews mainly)
  26. Masking
  27. Add Lumetri Colour
  28. Go to Effects
  29. Click clock icon on Mask Path
  30. Click pen tool
  31. Draw mask
  32. Adjust colour/light for in/out of mask
  33. Click PLAY button for mask to track subject
  34. Scopes/Colour Wheel
  35. Use for deep colour adjustment; breakdown histogram
  36. Set Scopes to Waveform Luma (to analyze luma/light)
  37. Set Scopes to Vector Scope YUV (to analyze chroma/colour)
  38. Set Scopes to RGB Parade (to adjust chroma-luma intersection/colour/light in shadows, etc)
  39. Fix luma (Waveform), mid-tone chroma (Vector Scope YUV), then chroma high/shadows (RGB Parade)
  40. Colour Matching (same link as above)
  41. Use existing image/file of video colouring you like from similar scene and upload/ place in timeline (could use final LR files of bears)
  42. Place ref image/vid on left of video you want to correct
  43. In Colour Wheel (Lumetri Colour), click Comparison View
  44. Click Apply Match
  45. Apply new Lumetri Effect to Apply Match without overwriting previous colour edits
  46. HSL Secondary (same link as above)
  47. Deep colour correction of specific colours
  48. Use eye dropper to select specific colours you want to pump/lessen (especially if one colour is seen in one place on shot)

Core Effects

  1. Sharpen/Unsharpen
  2. Add Sharpen effect
  3. Go to Effects
  4. Click clock icon on Mask Path
  5. Click pen tool
  6. Draw mask
  7. Adjust sharpness in/out of mask
  8. Click PLAY button for mask to track subject
  9. Warp Stabilizer (or this source)
  10. Key is smoothing: lessen (even between 1-5); don’t increase (mostly)
  11. No Motion works only if camera is static to create tripod effect
  12. Advanced: crop less/smooth more can help with very rocky footage
  13. Advanced: Rolling shutter Ripple > Enhanced Reduction helps with Jello effect
  14. DeNoise
  15. Alt option in After Effects
  16. Dust
  17. Search Effects: Dust
  18. Create “elipse mask”
  19. Radius = 20-30

Crop/Animation Effects

  1. Keyframes
  2. Effects Control (apply) > Effects (find): Insert to place effect on certain part of frame/clip
  3. Stopwatch to engage
  4. < o > = to start/end
  5. Keyframe Interpolation
  6. Helps speed up/slow down animations/titles
  7. Use easy in/easy out to smooth
  8. Crop/Scale (see above link)
  9. Crop
  10. Where horizon can be adjusted
  11. Where to adjust position of frame
  12. Zoom (see above link)
  13. Use scale w/Keyframes to zoom in/out + transitions
  14. Ken Burns
  15. Scale + Position to create movement and effect
  16. Use Key Frames to speed ramp, create timing
  17. Basic 3D:Alt to Ken Burns

Graphics/Niche Effects

  1. Stack
  2. Stack two video files on top of each other, adjust opacity (for Choco/Stone bear in open?)
  3. Gaussian Blur
  4. Use to move out of or into focus
  5. Alt is to use Camera Blur in After Effects
  6. Google Earth Recordings
  7. Highlight scenes in video

Transitions

  1. Audio Transitions: Use constant power for smoothing audio between cuts w/ audio
  2. Mask Transitions: Use mask to transition video to video if cut is awkward; requires frame by frame mask construction

Titles

  1. Title: File > New > Legacy Title
  2. Source
  3. Source
  4. Black Screen: Located under New Item tab on project panel

Audio

  1. Extend song
  2. Edit > Edit in Audition > Select sequence
  3. In Audition: Select audio or song
  4. Click enable Remix
  5. Enter Target Duration – enter how long you want song
  6. Multitrack Mixdown > Export to Premiere > Mixdown > Select Stereo
  7. In Premiere: Select track

Chapter Markers

  1. Add markers
  2. Marker Panel > click chapters
  3. On export

Export

  1. Video:
  2. Profile = Set to high
  3. Level = 5.2 (check this is right for 18×9)
  4. Frame Rate = 23.976
  5. Render at Max Depth = Check
  6. Bit Rate
  7. Encoding = CBR
  8. Target Bit Rate Depth = increase to 100
  9. Maximum Render Quality = Check
  10. Audio:
  11. 48000 Hz
  12. Quality = High
  13. Bitrate = 320
  14. Effects:
  15. LUT Applied = Upload Gamma Correction LUT

Reference Videos

***Remove Attributes to reset specific assets across board