Participant

Question

Not for beginners

Forum|Forum|8 years ago
October 8, 2017
6 replies
964 views

Premier Pro is a powerful program but it's complex and there is no real help for true beginners. All the discussions in the Forum and online tutorials assume a basic knowledge of the fundamentals of the program. By fundamentals I mean the basic structure on the conceptual level -- how does the functionality fit together. For the most part, the video tutorials are useless because instructors zip through the steps too quickly and for the most part, again, assume basic knowledge. For example, they say "just do this and then do that" without explaining the steps to do "this" in order to get to "that." Another problem is that the program is not counterintuitive. I'm sure that those who know it think that it is, but they are biased due to their knowledge.

The program is feature rich, but there's no description of the hundreds of features, all of which have special names. Those names mean something to an experienced user but for the novice it's a trial and time-consuming error process.

I'm sure that those who provide tutorials mean well, and they probably are useful for those at an intermediate level, and I'm sure that users of Premiere have nothing but praise, but it's not for beginners.

This topic has been closed for replies.

A

Andy 1968

Inspiring

There is always the option to have someone else edit the video for you. It might not be a expensive as you think. It also might not be that expensive to hire a tutor for a couple of hours for 2 or 3 days.

When the film was trasferred to a digital format what video codec was used?

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Rofiah5CD0

Participant

I am 78 years old and have a Master's degree in film. To me film is cut and splice and A roll, B roll and C roll.

I have recently retreaved footage I shot in 1974 and had it digitized.

My time to edit is very limited, especially at my age. To clean up my act and learn to use this wonderful program I probably need a tutor. Covid 19 and fire evacuations have stopped school programs from operating and forced us to leave our home.

Having taught school for the past thirty years I cannot afford the $1,000 a day a local professional suggested.

I'm not interested in marketing or animation and all the wonderful new things that could be done. I am interested in cleaning old footage that will never be reshot, splicing and adding a sound track. I felt "Struggling in Stockholm" voiced my experience with trying to follow your tutorials. Any and all suggestions appreciated.

Some of my footage is color and could benefit by some Lumetri corrections.

I have convinced myself Premier Pro is the way to go. Is that a mistake?

R Neil Haugen

Legend

My best advice is to get a subscription to LinkedInLearning for a month or so. Get the "upper" subscription that includes being able to download and work the exact same media along with the instructor. And giving you the time then to do each step the four to ten times it takes to really "learn" something.

Their tutorial programs are very structured and all steps are completely shown. In a month, you'll be able to work away and handle most things you'd want to do.

I do NOT recommend much time on YouTube. While there are some out there that are very good, such as ThePremierePro and VideoRevealed, so many I look at and cringe. WRONG steps and information, things left out ... or simply a bad way to do something.

Neil

Everyone's mileage always varies ...

Kona_Bob

Inspiring

When I was in the beginning phase of learning PPro and After Effects, I got the the absolutely most effective training from books.

Books that would walk me through the entire process from setting up a project to rendering out the final movie.

After getting the basics, the books continued to be of value as I would be able to look up specific issues in the index or table of contents.

This is also the point at which the video tutorials begain to make sense as well.

You can look on Amazon.com- there are many books about PPro 2017 aimed at the novice user.

My personal opinion- if you are serious about learning to edit, just stick with PPro. Once you get some guidance, you'll see that it can be easy to do simple projects, then going forward, it will feel natural to build on that foundation.

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excited_Genie16B8

Legend

Premier Pro is a powerful program but it's complex

This is why Step 1 below is listed as Step 1.

Unofficial Premiere Pro Troubleshooting Guide

Ann Bens

Community Expert

I agree Premiere Pro is not for beginners.

Premiere has a high learning curve.

But Lynda is a very good start.

If you want to learn Premiere well you need to invest a lot of time.

If you are a beginner at editing I would not start with Premiere but rather with Premiere Elements.

When you have got the hang of editing then switch over to PrPro.

Warren Heaton

Community Expert

Ann offers some great suggestions. I'd add iMovie to the list if you happen to be on a Mac.

Professionally, video editing is a craft learned through mentoring. We have apprentice editors, assistant editors, lead assistant editors partly because there are a lot of tasks in the process of editing, but just as much to learn the craft and eventually be the editor. Also keep in mind that being the edtior is just one role in video post production.

Is there someplace in your area where you can assist on projects being cut in Premire Pro? That would be a good place to look for an apprenticeship/internship.

davescm

Community Expert

Hi

Take a look at the courses on Lynda.com. They take you through, starting with the basics, and are broken down with a step by step approach. They do charge but offer a 30 day free trial, so you can see if that style of learning is for you.

Dave

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Richard M Knight

Community Expert

I learnt using a paper manual, so much better than an online tutorial I think.

davescm

Community Expert

Everyone's learning style is different. I find a combination of tutorials, a note book and pen, and a good reference book works well for me.

I would recommend though that video tutorials are best followed on a multi screen set up - so that you can practice on the app whilst watching, and pausing, the video. That doesn't have to be elaborate - watching the video on a tablet and working on a laptop will do.

Dave

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