This is meant to be a beginner guide, so let’s just start off by booting up Premiere Pro. While this is booting, I think it’s nice to know that Adobe actually offers a free 7-day trial if you want to try out Premiere Pro, so I left a link to that in the description if you want to join along or if you just want to try it out later.
Starting a New Project
Okay, so Premiere Pro has booted up. This is the latest version, version 24.1, so yours may or may not look a little different than mine. What we’re going to do is start a new project. We’ll come up to the left-hand side here and click on “New Project.” We’ll give our project a name—I’ll just do “Premiere Pro Beginner.” Now we have to choose a project location, then all we have to do is click “Create,” and we have our first project.
Workspace Setup
Now, it’s likely that your project will look something like this. If it doesn’t, then you can come up to the top right-hand corner, which is the Workspaces section, and click on “Editing.” Sweet.
Importing Assets
Now what we have to do is import some assets. This could be video, images, whatever you’re using in your project. First, I’m going to make a folder to import these assets into. All we have to do is come down to the bottom left-hand corner and click “New Bin,” and that will create a bin in our project panel. By project panel, I mean this panel right here. We’ll name this bin “B-Roll.”
Then I’m going to double-click inside of this bin, right-click, and click “Import.” I’m going to import these two shots and click “Open.” As you can see, they populate in the project panel.
Creating a Sequence
Now what we want to do is create a sequence. Basically, a sequence is when you put clips together on a timeline to create a video. One way to create a sequence is simply by dragging footage onto the timeline. As you can see, when we do that, our footage shows up on the timeline as a layer, and we also see it in the playback window.
As we drag the playhead along, we can preview the clip. The playhead is just what I’m dragging in the timeline. We’ve now made our first sequence, which will show up in the project panel.
Sequence Settings
Now we created a sequence using this footage, which means that if we go up to “Sequence” and then “Sequence Settings,” these settings match the footage we dragged in. If we want to change our sequence settings—say we want to make the frame size 1920 by 1080—we can do that here.
When we change it, you can see it crops the footage. Now our sequence is 1920×1080, but I’m going to undo that and keep it in the original 4K quality.
Adding More Clips
Now I want to drag another piece of footage onto the timeline so we don’t just have the water shot but also the nebula. I’ll drag that next to the first clip, and as you can see when we play it, there’s a nice transition between them.
Basic Tools Overview
Now I’m going to cover some basic tools to get you started.
First is the Selection Tool. This is what you’ll use most of the time. It allows you to click and adjust clips. For example, if we want to shorten a clip, we can drag its edge to the playhead.
If your clip doesn’t snap to the playhead, make sure snapping is enabled. We can also remove gaps by dragging clips together or clicking the empty space and hitting backspace.
Next is the Track Select Forward Tool. This lets you select everything to the right of where you click. You can press “A” on your keyboard for this. There’s also a backward version of this tool.
Speed Adjustment Tool
Next is the Rate Stretch Tool. This is really useful. If we want to speed up a clip, we just drag its edge inward. If we want to slow it down, we drag it outward.
Cutting and Drawing Tools
The Razor Tool allows you to make cuts in your footage. The Pen Tool lets you draw on your footage and create shapes or adjustments.
Adding Text
Now let’s talk about the Type Tool. You’ll likely use this a lot. Click anywhere and type something—we’ll say “Galaxy.” Now we have text on the screen.
We can move it around and center it. If we go to the Effect Controls panel, we can change the font, size, add stroke, shadows, and more to customize it.
Text Animation and Effects
Now let’s fade the text in. Go to the Effects panel, then Video Transitions → Dissolve → Cross Dissolve, and drag it onto the text layer. Now it fades in.
We can also animate the text using keyframes. Turn on animation for scale, set a starting size, then move forward and increase it. This creates a zoom effect.
To make it smoother, we can apply “Ease In” and “Ease Out,” which makes the animation feel more natural and dynamic.
Color Correction
Now let’s adjust color. Go to the Effects panel and search for “Lumetri Color.” Drag it onto your clip. Then increase saturation to make the colors more vibrant. This is a powerful tool used in almost every project.
Adding Music
Now let’s add music. Drag your audio file into the timeline on an audio track. You’ll now hear music playing with your video.
Using Remix Tool
If the music is too long, instead of cutting it abruptly, you can use the Remix Tool. Just drag the audio to match your video length, and Premiere will automatically adjust it.
Adjusting Audio Levels
If the audio is too loud, right-click on it, go to Audio Gain, and reduce it (for example, -5). This lowers the volume.
Conclusion
That’s all we have time for. If you followed along and understood most of this, you’re already on a great path to becoming a video editor. I hope this tutorial was helpful. If you want to learn more advanced things, check out my other videos. And again, if you want to try Premiere Pro, you can use the free 7-day trial. Thanks for watching!
