Video Editing Exercise 1

Download video clips from the virtual drive:

• Copy the folder “videos” to your desktop by dragging it there (this should take 30-60 seconds)
• Notice that you have three folders: A-roll and B-roll and Music

Import video clips to Adobe Premiere Elements:

• Make sure you are in “EDIT” view (top right; three tabs: Edit, Create Menus, Share):
• In the “Media” submenu, click on “Get Media”
• Click on “Files and Folder”
• Browse to the “videos” folder on your desktop and select all the videos inside it >> Open…
 

Record a 10-15 second narration to introduce the story (your own voice); For today's exercise, the narration does not need to fit the story. Just record anything (e.g. "The following is a what I have done in the video editing exercise."):

• Make sure you are in “EDIT” view.
• Make sure your mic and headset are plugged into the computer.
• Click “Add Narration” (above the timeline; next to the mic icon)
• Click record. Wait until the 3 second countdown finishes, and start recording. Click stop when you’re done and listen to it.
• Record again if the first take was not good!
• NOTE: When you are recording, set the computer’s sound level to mute (bottom right of the screen). Make sure you un-mute it to listen to your recording.

Create one 15-to-20 second “sound bite” from the A-roll video (again, for today the content doesn't matter, as long as you know how to do it!):

• Make sure you are in “EDIT” view
• In the “Media” submenu, click on the “Project” sub-submenu.
• Make sure the “Timeline” and not the “Sceneline” is selected on the timeline (bottom of the program window).
• Double click on one of the clips, watch it and select a starting point for your click by click on “Set In” (bottom of the window) and an ending point using “Set Out.” You don’t have to be very accurate with your in- and out- points at this point. You can fix them in the timeline.
• AFTER setting the in- and out- points, click and hold on the video picture and drag it to the Timeline, next to “VIDEO 1.”
• The begining of the sound bite should start at the end of your narration.

OPTIONAL: Clean the edits and arrange the sound bites:

• In the timeline, you can adjust the view-size of each clip by moving the (- +) scroller right about the timeline.
  • Make a sound bite longer or shorter by dragging the edge of each clip (beginning or end).
  • Split any clip into two using the scissors shaped tool (under the main viewer and above the timeline). Your split point doesn’t need to be accurate. You can change the end/beginning later.
  • To change the order or a clip, simply grab it and move it. Make sure there is enough space for it, or it will crop some of the video you have on the timeline.
  • Watch the whole thing and re-edit for flow.

• Use the videos in the “B-roll” folder.
• As you did with the sound bytes, cut short segments of B-roll (say 5-7 seconds; the shorter, the better!) and add them individually to VIDEO 2 track in the timeline.
• Add them right above your narration and over the A-roll segments, but in the VIDEO 2 track!! Leave about 3-5 seconds over the begining of the A-roll without any B-roll.
• Note that the B-roll has no audio (on purpose).
• You should cover around 75% of the A-roll and all of your narration with B-roll.

Add a music track:

• In the video folder you’ll find a couple of audio files; import them and add them to the “SOUNDTRACK” in the timeline (you don’t like my taste in music?? download your own!).
• To control the overall audio level, use your mouse to grab the yellow line that goes through the soundtrack and pull slowly it down.
• OPTIONAL: To bring the music up at certain intervals and bring it down at others (For example, bring the music up when there is silence and down when someone is talking):
  • You will need to insert TWO or more “keyframes” (which are points where the audio level (before and after the keyframes) can be changed separately.
  • To insert a keyframe, CTRL-click on the yellow line (or you can set the pointer where you want it and click on the rhombus shape button right under the word “Soundtrack” at the left of the timeline). Remember to insert TWO.
  • After inserting the two keyframes, change the audio level before the keyframes by simply moving the yellow line down or up.
  • You can also automatically set the audio to “fade in” at the start or “fade out” at the end by: RIGHT-click (on the yellow line) >> Fade >> “Fade in audio” or “Fade out audio.”
• Render the whole story and sit back and watch your piece!

OPTIONAL: Add Transitions between any two clips (A-roll/Aroll or Broll/Broll or Aroll/Broll):

• In the same EDIT view, click on “Transitions”
• Select one of the transition effect and drag it to the timeline; DROP IT BETWEEN TWO CLIPS.
• You can adjust the options of the transition by clicking on it (in the Timeline) and then clicking “Edit Transition” in the Transition window.
• Experiment!

OPTIONAL: Upload to YouTube:

• Go to the “SHARE” view
  • Choose upload to web/you tube and follow the instructions (you will need to have a you tube account!).
  • IMPORTANT: When it asks you to “Allow public view of this share?” (3^rd page) please SELECT NO!!!
  • This should take a few minutes to upload. Check if it did upload it correctly on YouTube.