1 : The project window is the main footage library for your project. In it you can see the names of all the footage in your project, and some other information about those footage files, such as duration, and how many times you have used them on your timeline. Whenever you import video, or audio files into your project they are added to the list in the project window. Any footage you capture must also be imported and added to the project window.

This can be done through the file menu>import options: file, folder, multiple or project. There are also keyboard shortcuts for each of these options. Additionally, double clicking in empty space in the project window allows you to import a single file.



2 :The monitor window does exactly what it says on the tin. The monitor on the left allows you to watch unedited rushes, either by double clicking on them in the project window or dragging them across. The monitor on the right displays the edited footage on your timeline.

Both monitors have their own set of carriage controls. The strip along the top of the carriage controls shows how far through the movie you are, and the small grey block can be dragged back and forwards to scrub through the movie.



3 :The timeline window is where you assemble your grand vision. Placement of all your video and audio clips is controlled by placing them on the timeline, which forms the main area of the timeline window, with various buttons and tags at the left hand edge.

The timeline has a number of channels (3 audio and 2 video when you start a project, but you can add more). The left hand end of the timeline represents the beginning of your project, and time extends to the right. All audio channels can be heard at the same time, and the volume levels of each clip can be controlled by setting the red lines which can be seen in the picture below. If your audio (or video) tracks are minimised and these red lines are not visible, click on the triangle beside the track's name (just to the left of the timeline) to expand them. Next to this control are two check boxes. The first allows you to hide the track (so it is not audible/visible when the project is played back - it stays visible on the timeline). The second locks the track so that it cannot be edited, and is not affected by the multiple selection tools (see below).


You'll notice that the video clip on video channel two also has a similar red line on it. This controls the opacity of the clip - when the line is right at the top of the box, the clip is opaque, and when the line is right at the bottom it is completely transparent. In between are degrees of transparency, so you can create a fade by having a gradual change in opacity, as illustrated. This system means that it is possible to have video clips on the timeline which cannot be seen. Clips on the higher channels take precedence, so if a completely opaque clip with no transparency effects applied was placed on channel six, this would block out channels one to five.

Video channel one is different from the other channels, because it is split into Video 1A and Video 1B, with a transitions track in between.

At the top of the timeline window, just above the strip with the time marked on it, is a blue strip, book-ended with small white triangles. This is used to define your work area, which tells Premiere what part of the timeline to render when you press return.

In the top left corner of the timeline window is a selection of different tools. They are:



The selection tool – used to select and move individual clips, or to select empty areas of the timeline.
The multiple selection tools – hold down the mouse button on this button to bring up an array of four different tools. The first allows you to draw a rectangular box around the clips you wish to select, and move them around the timeline, although they may only be placed in an empty space which is large to contain all the clips. The second is the virtual clips tool. The third tool selects all of the clips in a single track, from the point where you click to the end of the timeline, and fourth does the same, but for all the track (audio and video).
There are lots of tools here. Some are quite useful (rate stretch tool, ripple edit tool, rolling edit tool) and some less so (slip tool and slide tool).
Razer tool. This allows you to cut clips into smaller pieces after you put them on the timeline. If video and audio clips are tied together, you will cut them both. If you wish to avoid this, you will have to break the link between them ('edit>break link'). Also in here are the multiple razor tool (cuts clips across all channels of the timeline) and the fade scissors tool, which is a complete waste of time.
Hand tool. Use it to wave bye bye at people. It also scrolls the timeline window if you click and drag. nobody ever uses it. This shares its space with the link over ride tool, which allows you to move part of a linked clip without breaking the link first. This is rarely useful, but can come in handy if you have audio and video which are out of sync.
Magnifying glass. Use it to zoom in and out of the timeline (in a timebase sense). This is slower and more awkward than using the drop-down menu at the bottom left of the timeline window, so use that instead.
There are three tools on offer here. First, the cross fade tool. This automatically creates cross-fades between audio clips. Make sure the two clips overlap, and then click on one of them, and Premiere will create a cross fade which last for the duration of the overlap. The second is a tool for adjusting the audio level across the whole length of an audio clip. You can achieve the same thing by holding down shift when you change the audio level. Third, the soft link tool, which allows you to link audio and video clips (they don't have to be from the same clip originally). Only a single video and audio clip can be linked.
There are two tools here – the in point tool, and the out point tool. Guess what they do.



4 :Above you can see the Adobe Premiere transition window. It contains a list of the different 2D and 3D wipe effects available to the Premiere editor.

These transitions can only be used between two video clips placed on video channel 1 on the timeline - one on video 1A, and the other on video 1B, with an overlap between the two video clips. The transition is dragged from the transition window to the timeline and placed on the transition track between these two video channels, in the area where the clips overlap. Premiere will automatically set the size of the transition box to fit this overlap.

By double clicking on the box representing the transition on the timeline, you can access the transition settings window. The settings for each transition are different, but work in the same way - a variety of arrows allow you to set the direction of movement across the screen, sometimes it will also be possible to adjust the centre point of a spinning motion or 3D effect. There is always an arrow which allows you to change start and finishing video tracks for the wipe, in case it is not obvious to Premiere which direction you intended.





5 :The navigator window contains a small map of the timeline for your entire project. Its main purpose is to allow you to move to specific parts of your timeline quickly, which can be done simply by clicking on it. It also shows you where your work area is currently located, and which part of the timeline is currently visible on screen. The number at the bottom tells you the location of your edit line (in time code) and the controls next to that allow you to alter the magnification of the navigator window in order to zoom in and out. if you zoom in, it is possible for the timeline window to show only a part of your timeline in the navigator window, which will then be able to scroll horizontally.



The capture window can be opened either from the file menu (file>capture>movie capture) or by pressing F5. If you wish to use device control (to remotely control a FireWire video player, for example) then you must turn this on (file>preferences>scratch disks and device control) before opening the capture window. if you are not using device control, the capture window will look much simpler than that pictured.

Without device control, your options are limited to recording, and stopping recording. With device control, you can still capture required footage as the tape plays, but you also have the option of setting exact in and out points for the recording.

By making sure the 'auto-record' box is checked, you can automatically capture between these points precisely, or log them in a batch list. A batch list is a file containing a list of in and out points, each with the name of the tape they refer to (in case you want to create a batch list split over several tapes), and a filename for each. You can also add comments if you wish. As each clip is captured, this will also be noted. In order to recapture a clip, you must change its status by clicking on the symbol on the left of its entry in the batch list.



Transparency effects such as chromakeying and lumakeying can be easily applied to a clip through the transparency menu – clips>video>transparency, which opens the window shown on the right.

The first thing to do is select your key type. Chromakey allows you to select any single colour you wish, and also set the similarity, blend, threshold and cutoff settings, using the preview in the top right corner to find the settings to produce the best result. Lumakey removes all areas which are brighter/darker (depending on settings) then the threshold. The various alpha matte keyers, remove areas of the picture as indicated by the image's alpha channel.

An alpha channel is an extra grey-scale image attached to the visible picture, and parts of the visible picture are made transparent depending on the brightness of the grey-scale alpha channel.

The difference matte keyer is an interesting option, which compares the current frame of video with a separate picture (intended to be a picture of the background from the movie). Any part of the picture which is the same in both images is made transparent. This allows keying effects without use of a chromakey screen, but results are not necessarily of the highest quality



The motion settings are accessed my selecting clips>video>motion. This window allows you to move, spin, twist, and distort the shape of video. You are automatically given two keyframes (start and end), and you cannot add more. Unhelpfully, the default settings assume that you want to scroll the picture from the top to the bottom of the screen, which is one thing I have personally never done, but it is easy to change the settings to achieve the effect you do want.

The background is transparent if there are other video clips behind this one on the timeline, so the fill colour will only show in parts of the screen which are unoccupied.

Use the preview window in the top left corner to see whether or not you are achieving the animation you have envisioned, but remember that you will have to watch the final rendered effect on a video monitor to be sure. If you want to apply the same effect to several clips, motion settings can be saved to disk, and loaded into the motion settings window to apply the effect to this clip too.



Premiere's video filters allow you to create a large selection of special effects, as well as letting you adjust the colour balance or contrast of your video. When you choose to apply filters to a video clip, the window on the right will pop up. On the left of this window is a menu showing all the available filters, and on the right is a list of all the filters currently applied to the clip. Filters can be easily added, removed or adjusted, and any number may be applied to the same clip.



As you apply each filter (or if you edit its settings later) a window such as the one on the left will pop up. This contains slider and check boxes for all the available settings for the filter, and a preview image, so that you can tell what you are doing.

Filter settings be changed over time using keyframes in the timeline area near the bottom of the filters window. If you scroll down the list of available filters, you should find "Quicktime Filters" (Mac version only). These contain a further selection of useful effects such as "film noise" and an animated cloud creator.



There are a large number of different audio filters available in Premiere, from bandpass and notch filters, to reverbs and delays, to flangers and other weird things. You can apply as many filters as you wish to a single clip, simply by selecting them from the left hand menu. Filters applied to a clip are listed in the right hand side of the window , and can then be removed from the clip by selecting them and clicking on the remove button.



Each time you apply a filter to a clip, a window with settings for the filter will appear, such as the one shown on the left. These obviously vary for different effects, but all have a preview function, which helps you to find the required settings more easily.

Audio filters do not necessarily need to be rendered in order to work, but Premiere will render them anyway, and this is probably for the best, as it may help to prevent the occasional stutter.



The title window is where you create all your text pages and rolling captions. The main section of the window, contains your title in all its glory. On the left is your toolbox, and at the top (on the menu bar, in the Mac OS version) is the title window, where you can select fonts, type justification, and other text formatting options.

The toolbox contains the select tool (top left), colour select tool (top right), text tool (next down), and rolling text tool (bottom left). In between, are various shape drawing tools. Apart from the line tool, these all have two modes (depending on which half of the icon you select): unfilled shapes (left) or filled shapes.

Below those tools are the colour selection boxes. The top two boxes show the foreground and shadow colours. Either of these can be set as a gradient pattern by choosing two colours in the smaller boxes, and gradient direction by selecting one of the arrows surrounding the lowest colour box.

At the bottom is the shadow placement box. By dragging the mouse around this box you can place letter shadows in any position you like. If you don't want a shadow, simply drag the shadow exactly under the real letter.

Right-click (or ctrl-click) in the title, to get a menu with various text formatting options, and title window options. In the title window options you can change the background colour and size of the title



Rendering is something which mystifies many people. All you really need to know is that your still images, effects, transitions and some other things, won't work unless you render them, and that this can be done by setting the work area (by placing the blue blob as shown on the left) to surround everything needing rendered, and pressing return.

If you are a bit more technically minded (or just interested) you may want to know what's actually going on...

Unless you have special hardware, your computer will be unable to generate transitions, captions and special effects in real time. Instead it has to create a new movie with the effect in it, which can be played in real time (which, you may notice, can take several minutes per second of footage for complicated effects). These movies are saved in a folder called "Adobe Premiere Preview Files" (usually saved in the same folder as your project) and will have long strings of alphanumeric gibberish as filenames. If you are having trouble getting your project to render properly, it can sometimes be helpful to delete all the preview files and render the whole project again.