Premiere: Controls
Once you've gotten your project set up, you need to view it, edit
it, and make it into a quicktime movie. To do so, you need to know
how to control Premiere.
Below are a few instructions about the different windows in the
basic premiere set up and how to control them.
- Project window
- The project window shows which clips you have added to your
project. To add a clip to your project, you need merely drag it from
its spot in the files or the desktop and it will appear in the project
window.
The project window is also the source for material being introduced
on your timeline. To add something to your timeline, drag it from the
project window.
- Monitor window
- The monitor is set up like the two-screen platform of a video
editing deck. The screen to the left is your "source" screen, the one
on your right is your "target" screen. Each screen has a set of
controls like a VCR (play, stop, forward, loop) and a small slider bar
along the bottom that shows the progress of the clip as it plays. The
advantage of the two-screen system is that you can manipulate a clip
in the source screen and then play the timeline to see how the changes
look in the overall project.
Source screen: If you double click on a clip (either in
the timeline or the project window), it will appear in the source
screen. You can use the source screen to edit the clip's length, its
in and out points, and so forth. You can then add a clip to the
timeline by clicking and dragging that clip from the source screen to
the timeline.
Target screen: If you play your final output from the
timeline, it will appear in the target screen.
- Timeline
- The timeline is perhaps the most important window you will use in
Premiere. The timeline is where you structure your movie, where you
combine clips, and were you manipulate them. To play the timeline,
you can use the target screen in the monitor window or you can press
the spacebar (to stop playing from the timeline, press the spacebar
again). Here are a few of the features of the timeline:
- Editing tools -- located in the upper left corner of the timeline,
the editing tools allow you to select, move, cut, and otherwise
manipulate your clips. Hold the mouse over the tool for a moment to
see what each one does. Note that some of the tools have a small
arrow that indicates that there are sub-tools in that category.
Click-and-hold the tool to see the sub-tools.
- Tracks -- Premiere
allows you to put multiple tracks in layers. There are several video
tracks and several audio tracks. You can make tracks invisible by
clicking the "eye" toggle to the left of the track or you can lock
them by clicking the box to the right of the "eye."
- Working Area
-- Along the upper edge of the video tracks, there are two arrows
pointing at one another with a blue area between them. This is called
the "Working area." When you get to exporting, it will be useful to know that.
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