How to Import & Organize Your Media in Video Editing - A Beginner's Complete Guide
Anyone who wants to learn awesome ways to transition and grade their videos has one thing in common - they want to do it well. However, one thing that most beginners do not know, but that professionals do, is that the time spent on the edits themselves pales in comparison to the time spent locating the source files used in an edit.
Suppose you recorded 200 separate video clips of a short film over the course of three days, you threw them all together into one big folder, and started the editing process, then two hours later, after you started the edit, you were still looking for the one clip (the sunset) you needed. Does this sound familiar? This guide is designed to help you avoid this situation.
The process for importing and organizing your video clips is the same; no matter which editing software you use (Premiere Pro / DaVinci Resolve / Final Cut Pro), we will focus on Premiere Pro since that is what most people use in the industry. Even though the steps may vary slightly, they will all have the same basic principle:
Importing Your Clips
There are two main ways to import video clips, photos, and sound effect files into your editing software so that they can actually be edited. This process is referred to as “Importing.”
Drag & Drop
This is the most common method for importing video clips into your editing software. Simply go to your file manager (or the Finder on a Mac), locate where the video clips are saved, and click & drag them into the Project Panel of Premiere Pro.
The clips will then be immediately imported into your project. Essentially, it is like taking a novel from a shelf in your closet and putting it onto an office table in your home. The novel (file) remains on the shelf (hard drive), but is available now directly in front of you while you work.
Media Browser
The Media Browser assists with the import process, especially when importing video footage from a camera card or an external drive. Select File > Import or open Media Browser directly in Premiere Pro. Through the Media Browser, you can view your computer folders and even preview videos (clips) before importing them into your project.
In addition, the Media Browser allows you to import an entire folder at once. The Media Browser is particularly helpful for file types saved in a complex folder structure, such as AVCHD or R3D (camera), which can be affected by drag-and-drop importing.
Step 2: Understanding File Types
Files are not all identical in their form. Typical video files created on phones will generally save as .mp4—as opposed to files created using a professional camera, which may save as .mov, .mxw, or .r3d, which are three different forms of the ‘language’ that different manufacturers use to store the video data.
MP4 (H.264 / H.265)
The uses of this file type for video are extensive, and it has many advantages. In addition to being the most ubiquitous video file format for recording from smartphones and for streaming on YouTube or other sites, they are also small in size and will typically play anywhere MP4 files are available. However, they do represent a compressed format and thus suffer a degree of reduction in the video quality as a result.
MOV
MOV is the Apple video file format. This file type is primarily used by professional filmmakers and will generally open on both Macintosh and Windows operating systems. The MXF (Material eXchange Format) video file format is widely used in professional broadcasting, particularly with Sony and Panasonic cameras. You will commonly find the MXF format used in television and film production.
AVI is an older format used on Windows systems, but it has declined in popularity over the years. R3D refers to the proprietary RAW file format developed by RED for high-end film production, including the Bollywood and Hollywood industries.
All of these formats are supported in Premiere Pro, along with many others. If you come across an unknown file extension in your workflow, don't panic! Simply import the file into your project to see if Premiere will support it. There is a high likelihood that it will.
Step 3: The Project Panel
The Project Panel is where you'll find everything for your editing project. It is essentially your digital workbench for all of your projects; your clips, audio files, graphics, and sequences live in the Project Panel.
When you first import your files into Premiere Pro, they will appear in the Project Panel. Depending on how you want to view your imported assets, you can toggle between the List View and the Icon View. The List View displays the filename and metadata (for example, duration and resolution) for each clip, while the Icon View displays thumbnail previews. The List View can make managing large projects easier.
One important thing to remember when importing your files into the Project Panel is that importing them does not copy or move the files from their original location on your hard drive; it merely creates a link to the files' location.
As a result, if you move or delete a file from your computer after you have imported it into Premiere Pro, the file will be labelled "Offline Media" because Premiere Pro will try to locate it at its old location, which no longer exists. To maintain proper file organization on your computer, please store all your project assets in a stable, unalterable folder.
Step Four: How to Make Bins for your Digital Filing System
You can build bins (Folders) within the Project Panel. This is where many beginners miss a step and later regret it. You just right-click inside your Project Panel and choose New Bin. A good way to start setting up your bins for your project is as follows:
One bin for Raw Footage
One bin for Audio & Music
One bin for Graphics & Logos
One bin for B-Roll
One bin for Sequences (the timelines where you edit)
If you're working on a larger project, such as a Short Film or Documentary, you may want to go one step further. For your Raw Footage bin, you may want to create sub-bins for each day of filming, i.e, Day 1, Day 2, Day 3.
While this may seem like extra work at the onset, imagine trying to search for a single clip after six hours of working on an edit, with your brain spent. Good bins let you find what you need in under 10 seconds. In a Professional Studio where time is money, having good organization isn’t just a luxury; it’s a must.
Step Five: Previewing Clips and Marking Your In & Out Points
As you prepare to add a clip to your timeline, you should preview it to determine which portion you would like to use. The way to do this is to double-click the clip in your Project Panel, which opens it in your Source Monitor (the preview window where you can view the entire clip).
When working on video clips using Premiere Pro (or any other video editing software), you will find that there is frequently extra footage at the start and end of any given clip. For example, if your camera isn’t quite stable yet and you have an In & Out Point on the timeline, or if someone says “cut” at the end of a shoot, you do not want any of that additional footage to appear in your final edited product.
To remove this unnecessary footage from the timeline, you will want to create an in point (where the clip should start) by pressing I on your keyboard, and an out point (where the clip should end) by pressing O.
Once this is done, Premiere automatically saves only the footage between those two points, and when you turn (or move) the clip into the timeline, only the footage you saved will appear — no extra footage at the beginning or end of the clip! This simple task is one of the best things you can do as a professional Editor, and while it can take some time to develop a habit of doing this on all of your clips, it will save you a tremendous amount of time trimming clips later on!
Step Six: Creating Subclips In Premiere Pro
Suppose you filmed a 45-minute interview with someone, and now you have a single enormous clip of it on your timeline. Note that not all of the interview footage will be used in your final edit, and you only need to use about 12 distinct, widely separated moments from the 45-minute interview.
The problem, then, is how to manage a timeline that contains only the footage you need (the 12 moments) while using a massive clip that runs around 45 minutes. The answer to your problem is Subclips! A Subclip is a virtual clip of a specified portion of your longer “Master Clip” that does not duplicate or cut anything in your Master Clip! How To Create Subclips in Premiere Pro:
1. Create In & Out Points in the Source Monitor
2. Go to Clip, then Create Subclip (or Ctrl/Cmd + U)
When you create a Subclip, make sure that you give your Subclip a descriptive name. Once you give a Subclip a descriptive name, it will appear as its own separate clip in your Project Panel. You can create as many Subclips as needed from your 1 Master Clip, making them particularly useful for interviews, event videos, and documentary-style projects.
Building A Career Around The Basics of Clips/Subclips
If you are a student considering video editing as your career in Bollywood, OTT Platforms (Netflix and Amazon Prime), YouTube Content Creation, Advertising Agencies, or News Channels, then this is where it all begins. Every professional video editor will tell you that an organized project is a sign of professionalism.
If you are working with another video editor or director who will be taking over the editing of your project, having clean bins and organized labelings will make you look like a professional. However, if your project is disorganized, you will appear careless.
Learn these habits now and embed them in your muscle memory before you have to do them under pressure from a deadline; this will make it easier for you to carry them out after working under a deadline.
The most exciting part of this industry for video editors, which is the cuts, the color timing, and the sound, will be done faster and with better quality if your foundation is built on clean and organized Projects.
The video editors who succeed in our industry are not just the most creative, but also those who can work quickly and efficiently, delivering clean, creative projects under stressful conditions. All of this will begin for you here in the Project Panel.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What are the comparisons between the process of dragging and dropping media to create a new Premiere Pro project and using the media browser to import media files into a new Premiere Pro project?
Dragging and dropping media to create a new Premiere Pro project requires you to drag the files from your file manager into the Premiere Pro project window. This makes it the fastest and most effective way of creating a new Premiere Pro project. On the other hand, using the media browser allows you to preview the content in the media file before it is imported and reduces the risk of problems related to compression due to the file structure (for example, AVCHD and R3D type video file paths). Therefore, using the media browser would be the better, safer option for importing media files captured with professional video cameras.
2. Will a video clip be copied or moved when it is imported into the Premiere Pro application?
Importing a video clip into Premiere Pro does not actually move or copy the original video file; it only creates a link to where the original video file was located before it was imported. Once the file has been imported, you must leave your original file in place; if you delete or move the original file, you will render the link created in Premiere Pro to the original file. Eventually, no one will be able to access the original file in Premiere Pro and will become offline.
3. What video file format would be best for beginner video editors?
MP4 (H.264/H.265) video file format would be one of the most widely used and recommended video file formats for beginner video editors to begin working with. The MP4 format has much smaller file sizes than other formats, enabling it to be compatible with many devices and operating systems. An additional benefit of the MP4 file format is that virtually all devices can read, play, or display MP4 files. Film and television users will typically use the MOV, MXF, or R3D format because other formats, such as MP4, result in much more data loss due to compression.
4. Bins - What Are They, and How Are They Used?
You can think of bins (folders) in your project panel in Premiere Pro as a way to organize your footage in bins. This is one of the most important aspects of the editing process, especially if you are a new user of the software or working on your first project. A typical bin structure could include: Raw Footage, Sound, Graphics, B-roll, and Sequences. By following the above structure, you can quickly and easily locate clips while editing in Premiere Pro.
5. In/Out Points - What Are They and Why Do You Need Them?
In and Out Points are markers that will provide you with a way to identify the parts of a clip of footage that you wish to use in your timeline prior to adding those parts to your timeline. By pressing the "I" (In) and "O" (Out) in the Source Monitor, Premiere Pro will create an edit point for you while also eliminating any unnecessary "Shake" at either end of that edit point prior to adding the edit point to your timeline.
6. What Is a Subclip and When Would You Use It?
A subclip is simply a virtual piece of a master clip. For example, if you have a 45 minute long video of an interview that you will want to edit, you would have the ability to create subclips from the 45-minute video interview. This will allow you to reference those sections of your video later.
By creating a subclip named as the identify of that specific part of your (45-minute) video interview, you can simply reference the identified subclips, thus saving time when it comes time to complete the edit of your completed losel.
Subclips will not change the original footage but provide an easy way for you to locate pieces of your 45-minute video interview, thus assisting you in producing long-format productions such as documentaries or interviews.
7. How Does Being Organized in Your Project Affect Your Career as a Video Editor?
Being organized in your project is an extremely important factor in building your career as a video editor in the industry (Bollywood, OTT Platforms, Commercial Advertising Agencies, etc.). When you are well organized regarding project completion, you are perceived by other editors and directors as more of a professional, in terms of reliability and efficiency.
When an editor or director comes into the usability of a project you created, their ability to collaborate with you will be straightforward because of how you organized your bins and files. Additionally, if you are organized, you will spend your time applying your creativity to editing rather than trying to locate the files needed to create your edits!
