Best Way to Learn Premiere Pro?

[vicfirth1]

Hi.

Good ole' FCPX Veteran here looking to take my professional editing to Premier. Industry dictates the need.

I know I'm late to the game. Don't judge. Have come mercy those of you who have been with Premier since when Avid and FCP7 were the standards.

Can you all recommend the creme' de la creme - or whatever the saying is - top notch online learning courses?

At this stage in my career I don't have the time or money to go back to school. Many have told me not to waste my money.

But, I'd be willing to spend a little if it meant sitting down for, say, all weekends for one month, to learn everything.

Please note: I know there are TONS of free resources on Adobe, YouTube, etc. But, I'm at a point in my career where unfortunately for me, I feel like I've hit a glass ceiling regarding learning everything I can learn through self teaching. I need a course that forces me to sit down and learn good foundations from file ingestion and organization (Media Encoder/Prelude?) to editing and output so that when working with other editors such as yourself or productions, I can integrate into the workflow as anyone would expect.

Thank you for all your recommendation in advance.

Sincerely

Zach

[Warren Heaton · Accepted solution]

Hi Zach:

It's common for professional editors to take a two to five day intensive workshop from an Adobe authorized training center:

Adobe Partner Finder | Adobe Training & Certification

Of course, those are not self-paced, online courses.

Adobe provides some tutorials here:

Premiere Pro tutorials | Learn how to use Premiere Pro CC

Do you have access to Lynda.com?  In Los Angeles, the entire Lynda training library can be accessed at no cost if you have a current library card.  Something similar may be available in your area.

I'm sure others will post will resources that they've liked.

-Warren

[vicfirth1]

Oh, this is Awesome! Thank you Warren.

Do you know at these workshops (this would be ideal since I learn-by-doing) if they, for example, give you 50 files and say, "here's what we taught you, now go do it in the next hour" and teach you Premier from ingestion and organization, to rough cut, through output

[Warren Heaton]

Those types of courses are usually called "bootcamp" and there's usually some time to work on your own with the footage, but that really varies by instructor.

Instructor feedback is definitely what you're usually missing with the Adobe Learning or Lynda.com.

The Adobe Education Exchange manages to get around lack of feedback by having both teacher assistant feedback and peer feedback integrated into most of the courses; however, that's not on-demand training, but an actual online course (and free!): Adobe Education Exchange

I'm not sure they have anything that goes into Premiere Pro as deeply as your looking for, but check that site.

Places like headTrix Training (Adobe Training & Consulting | Computer Training Classes | Los Angeles | headTrix, Inc. ) offer classes via Skype.

All of the other resources listed so far in this thread are certainly worth checking into as well.

-Warren

[vicfirth1]

Also, I do not have Lynda. My plan is to take a course or two and establish a good foundation for proficiency. Then, join Lynda.com for the long-term for specific technical topics.

[John T Smith]

Somewhat dated now, but may help with some basics

CS5-thru-CS6 PPro/Encore tutorial list http://forums.adobe.com/thread/1448923

[excited_Genie16B8]

I recommend the following as a first step.

1. Read the manual, in sequence, from beginning to end.

2. Try each new thing as you learn it.

3. Look up any words you don't know the meaning of.  (Or ask here, if those words are specific to PP.)

[stefan_gru]

Zach: If you prefer using a book, I recommend the Classroom in a Book series: Adobe Premiere Pro CC Classroom in a Book (2017 release)

Btw, Jim neglected to link to the manual; as with most manuals, it's no longer provided for free with the product: https://helpx.adobe.com/pdf/premiere_pro_reference.pdf

At 530+ pages, it's not for the squeamish. It's better as a reference book after you've learned the basics or need a refresher.

[Ann Bens]

I would forget about the pdf manual for now. Last updated june 2016.

As for books: they always fall behind.

Stick to video tutorials Adobe provides

and definitely take a Lynda subscription

[vicfirth1]

Thank you all so far!

To answer Stefan's question: I don't prefer books. Despite me reading my car manual when i purchase a car, user manuals for cameras and gear etc... when it comes to editing, I can only read so much.

​I learn by doing!

[dwight_9160]

The best way to learn Premiere Pro is to take a structured approach, combining hands-on practice with high-quality learning resources. Here’s a step-by-step guide to get started:

1. Official Adobe Tutorials: Adobe offers free tutorials on their website, covering everything from the basics to advanced techniques. Start with their beginner lessons to understand the interface and tools.

2. YouTube Tutorials: Channels like Premiere Gal or Film Editing Pro provide easy-to-follow tutorials. You can find specific lessons on color grading, audio editing, and motion graphics that cater to all levels.

3. Online Courses: Websites like Udemy, Skillshare, and LinkedIn Learning offer structured courses with professional instructors. These platforms often include downloadable project files for you to practice along with the lessons.

4. Practice Projects: Create your own short videos, experiment with different editing techniques, and mimic styles from movies or your favorite YouTubers. Regular practice is essential to get comfortable with the software.

5. Join Communities: Premiere Pro forums and Reddit communities are excellent places to ask questions, share your work, and learn from others.

[Michael Grenadier]

gotta say. back in the day, I just sat down at an avid and made it work...  but I had an extensive background in film and offline video editing, supervising online video edits and a pretty good sense of how computers and software work...  and avid was designed for someone with that background.   I started on avide, moved to FCP1 and stayed there thru FCP7 and then finally made the move to Premiere (with occasional forays into DaVinci Resolve). 

The most important thing you can learn is how to understand how to minimize any chances of losing substantial amounts of work by setting up your workflow with dependable safeguards... and then start playing and exploring...   Almost more important is to watch films and gain a basic understanding of how to tell a story.   

I'm a great believer in Linkedin Learning as they have a substantial library of well structured comprehensive groups of tutorials that are frequetly updated..   and this forum is an amazing resource... There are amazing people participating here and it's well moderated (thank you Kevin).    Was a heavy hitter on the avid and fcp forums.  I don't really remember much about avid forums, although I do remember being insulted for my "lack" of knowledge on an avid mail list which taught me to be sympathetic to people just learning. ...    As far as Apple went, there was really no visible help from Apple employees.  Here in Adobe land, Adobe employess often contribute which is extremely valuable...  And monitoring this forum on a regular basis helps to prepare you for possible issues down the road.