How to add multiple clips into your timeline from a single source video

[Subuddh5F91]

Hi all,

Very newbie question here but one that got me very stuck and as a result had to abandon Premiere. (Coming to premiere from iMovie/Final Cut).   I have a long source video, an interview going about 18 minutes. In my timeline I expect to use many small clips from it at various places.  This is v easy to do in Final Cut. On Premiere however, after watching some tutorials I added the video to my source files, then went and selected my first little clip in it(using I and O) and brought this clip into my timeline. Then I went to select my second clip which ocurrs at a different place in the source video however everytime I made this new selection in the source video, all it would do is overwrite the first one in the timeline!   I spent quite some time trying to figure out how to get it to not do so, to instead add this new selection in the source video as a new clip in the timeline, but no luck. What did I miss? I'd love to get into Premiere again but am afraid I'll get stuck again at this first step.

[Peru Bob]

If you do it that way, you need to right click > duplicate the clip in the Project Panel and then use that new clip each time.

Another way is to not put the in and out points in the source clip in the Project panel, but to cut it on the timeline.  That way, each piece on the timeline will be editable independently.

[Subuddh5F91]

Thanks!  In that case, for approach 1, if I have an 18 minute video and I need to extract 100 short clips from it, it will need to be duplicated 100 times? Won't that blow out the storage? It seems so inefficient?

For approach 2, where I cut it on the timeline, does that mean I have to first add the entire 18 minutes into the timeline? I will be making 100s of cuts, and there are many such long interview videos.  Won't this make the timeline an unmanageable mess?

[MyerPj]

It's not duplicating the clip, in fact the clips (.mov, .mp4 etc) are not actually placed in the project, just a reference to it. But you do not need the clip 100 times in the project, just once. You can keep dropping it into the project using different points in the clip at different times (or the same portion again in a different place in the timeline, etc). If the 18min clip follows along basically in order it makes it easy when you do drop in the whole clip and keep making edits in it. "Q" is your friend there. I usually don't use I/O I just plop the clip in the timeline and start cutting.

[Subuddh5F91]

Thanks! Does this mean though, that if each little clip is say 30s, then each time I have to drop in the whole 18mins in the timeline, find my relevant 30s in it and trim out all the rest?  

[Ann Bens]

You open your file from the Project Panel which opens in the Source Monitor.

Set in and outpoint and drag section to timeline.

Repeat this over and over.

Do not doubel click on the clip in the timeline; it will open the clip from the timeline instead of the source file. Hence to overwriting.

If you are stuck always open clip from the Project Panel.

[MyerPj]

That would be the case. Thus why I tend to drop the whole 18mins in and cut out the bit, then find the next bit and cut that out and move it next to the previous cut clip, thus the 18mins keeps getting shorter, while the cut pieces next to each other the edited sequence keeps gettting longer. If for the most part the 18mins is in roughly sequential order, you'll be able to use the Q shortcut and it becomes even easier.

[Subuddh5F91]

Thanks! In the timeline the clips actually won't  be in order e.g a clip from the end of the interview will end up ahead of a clip from the start of the interview.  I assume I can move these clips around once they are in the timeline? I'll give it a try but this doesn't sound very user friendly. It seems like I might be better with final cut or even just imovie!  I could also give DaVinci resolve a try....

[MyerPj]

It's really no problem to do, your description sounds pretty basic. But the professional video editing software in general are pretty intensive to learn, especially to get fast. If you're into it, then it could be worth it. You're trying to edit on a software that can also be used to create feature films. Imovie and Adobe Premiere Elements are easier to get a handle on, if this is your only project. But if you want to build for the future, Premiere is an excellent way to go.

[smrpix]

Resolve and iMovie and every other NLE work in exactly the same way.  You either build up your timeline from marked sections of the source, or add your whole source to the timeline and cut out the parts you don't want.  Then rearrange.  That is literally the entire basis of digital editing.  Everything else is elaboration.

[Richard van den Boogaard]

Instead of working via the Source Monitor panel, you may also consider working with two stacked sequences, where you drag segments from one to the other. This is also called pancake editing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p46CUfDhun0

Hope this helps.