About Premiere Pro
What Is It?
Premiere Pro is Adobe’s video editing software and one of their post-production apps, along with After Effects.
For those not familiar with the term, video editing is the process of taking footage and arranging it in a particular order, occasionally in combination with effects. While this might sound pretty cut and dry on paper, video editing is an incredibly in-depth field, with the ability to completely change or bolster the meaning of the video just by altering the sequence of clips.
Animation vs. Video Editing
The difference between animation software and video editing is that the former is for creating footage from scratch. Video editing involves taking already made clips and altering them within a sequence to create something new.
Premiere Pro offers a huge variety of tools to allow users to create any video project they can think of. It has footage transition effects built-in with the option to create your own, video effects, audio effects, and of course the basic cut and edit tools.
Simultaneous Editing
Premiere is powerful enough to allow simultaneous editing, which means the user can place several video clips at once into the program and edit all of them within the same project. The application also can take all sorts of file types while maintaining high-quality resolutions for real-time playback. This means the user can import audio files, different kinds of video files, and even static images without blurring or pixelating. If the user previews their project, Premiere will play back their clips in real-time without stuttering or loss.
The best part of Premiere Pro, however, is how accessible it is. It’s powerful enough to be used professionally, yet available to use within the comfort of your own home.
Who Uses It?
Ostensibly, the majority of people who use Premiere are video editors. However, the applications they use it for are vast and varied.
You probably have seen Premiere Pro used in famous movies such as Deadpool, Avatar, Gone Girl, Hugo, The Social Network, and more. It’s used in Netflix originals like Mindhunter, and television shows like Snapped: She Made Me Do It on Oxygen. Youtube channels as well utilize the program. This all goes to show the great duality of Premiere Pro: Industry grade software but easy enough to learn and use at home.
Terms and Tools
Premiere has a pretty well-stocked toolbar, but don’t feel intimidated by its scope. Here’s a handful of basic tools and terms to get you started with the application.
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Timeline: The Timeline panel in Premiere is used to arrange clips in a particular order.
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Playhead: This indicates where the project is paused in time.
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Media Browser: This panel is for importing files to use in the project, as well as organizing assets.
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Ripple Edit Tool: This tool allows the user to shorten or lengthen clips in a Timeline sequence, while maintaining the length of the adjacent clips.
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Rolling Edit Tool: This tool allows the user to change the beginning and end points of a footage clip while maintaining the clip length.
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Razor Tool: This tool is used for shortening clips with one click.
Conclusion
There you have it! Premiere Pro is easy enough for anyone to pick it up, yet powerful enough to become an industry powerhouse for video editing. The next time you want to try putting together your own film or ad, consider reaching into Premiere Pro.
Not only will you be using the same software used by industry giants, you’ll have access to an incredible library of effects and tools. All of this is packaged in an intuitive, easy-to-learn setup. So grab some footage, start up Premiere, and take a look through our library of tutorials to get you started on your next project.
Happy editing!
