Setting up so the project survives

Start in a way that will not collapse in week three.

Most Premiere problems are project management problems rather than editing ones, and they are all preventable at the start.

Organise the files before you open Premiere. One project folder, with subfolders for footage, audio, graphics, exports and the project file. Premiere links to files rather than containing them, so a clip moved or renamed after import becomes a missing media error, and reconnecting forty clips is an afternoon.

Never edit from a phone, a camera card or a network drive. Copy everything to a local drive first. This is also your backup, because a card gets reused.

Match your sequence settings to your footage. The reliable method is to drag your first clip onto the new sequence button, which creates a sequence with exactly the right settings. Guessing produces scaling, black bars and unnecessary rendering.

Decide your delivery format at the start. Vertical 9:16 for social, 16:9 for YouTube. Deciding at the end means recomposing every shot.

Use bins inside the project and label them. A project panel with two hundred unsorted clips is where editing time goes.

Enable autosave with a short interval and keep several versions.

Learn the four keys that matter most: in and out points, the blade, and ripple delete. Those four are most of an edit, and using the mouse for them is what makes editing feel slow.

Lab — try it yourself

Set up one project folder with subfolders before importing anything. Then create your sequence by dragging the first clip onto the new sequence button.

Check what you learned

Create your free BvLogic ID to take the quiz and record your score.

Create your BvLogic ID

Continue to lesson 2 Up next 2. The edit itself