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Sequence video clips and render an mp4 file
Overview
Name of explainer: Sequence video clips and render an mp4 file
Creative theme: Video editing
Software used: Premiere Pro
User level: BEGINNER
This is explainer 2 of 5 in this series
This series includes:
- Create a project, import video clips and save the project
- Sequence video clips and render an mp4 file
- Trim video clips, add fades and transitions
- Add text and music
- Putting it all together: Project Stonehenge!
The Software
This series of beginner explainers uses Adobe Premiere Pro. You can download a free 7 day demo version from the Adobe website.
Premiere Pro is a PAID app, often purchased as part of the Adobe Creative Cloud ‘All Apps’ subscription. It can also be subscribed to on its own. Here are example monthly pricing options:
Premiere Pro has a ‘baby brother’ called Premiere Rush, which is a simpler video editor designed to work as well on mobile devices as traditional desktop computers and laptops. It offers a ‘quick and simple’ workflow and doesn’t include many of the tools and features of Pro. Premiere Rush is part of Adobe’s ‘Creative Cloud Express’ bundle which may be suitable for content creators working between mobile and desktop devices. It’s worth trying a free demo to see if it includes the features you need.
Please review all subscription options before committing to a purchase, bearing in mind the various bundles and pricing plans available. Also look for special subscription offers which last between 1 month and 12 months depending on your initial subscription.
This month we’re also running an explainer series for Vegas Pro (paid as a one-off fee or by subscription) as well as offering a single full-workflow explainer for Premiere Rush. Check them out!
The final product
Here’s the simple ‘Spring is sprung’ video we’re creating as we work through explainers 1 to 4. Notice the added text, fades, transitions and music track.
The pre-requisities
This is a BEGINNER workflow explainer, so you just need to install and open the software. We’ll take it from there.
We suggest watching explainer one in this series before continuing here.
If you’re new to IT / computing, you may need help downloading and installing the software. Start with a search for ‘how do i install premiere pro’ or speak with someone familiar with downloading and installing.
Why would I do this?
Video creation is the art of storytelling! It’s essential that video clips are placed in the right order – Imagine if our explainer below included 26 video clips add to the timeline in a random order!
Even if you’re new to video editing software, you’ll have heard of ‘mp4’, the most popular video file format for general use, including uploading to YouTube and Vimeo.
Let’s do it!
Click the play icon to watch this video. Subtitles are available – Click the settings cog at the bottom right for options. You can also watch this video full-screen by clicking the full-screen icon at the bottom right.
Download the video clips used in this series
If you’d like to follow the explainers using the video clips demonstrated, you can download them below. These files are for personal use only and must not be distributed or sold.
Good to know
Premiere Pro uses context-sensitive menus. If you find that a menu option isn’t available (greyed-out), you likely need to click on a particular panel first.
For example, ‘Sequence Settings’ is greyed out below:
This is because we need to select the SEQUENCE panel first. Click anywhere on the sequence panel, and the option is now available…
Where to next?
For this beginner explainer we’re using the default option of ‘match sequence settings’ to render the final video as an mp4 video. To take control of your output, in the ‘Export Settings’ dialog, select H.264 as the format and have a look at the presets available. For example, below we’ve selected ‘Match Source – Medium bitrate’ which will create a ‘medium’ size file:
There is no single ‘best’ option – If your video will be played back in a professional environment, your choice will be different to if your video is destined for YouTube or social media.
Notes and updates
There are no notes or advisories at this time. This video explainer was last updated in March 2023. This page was last updated in March 2023.
We at pixels.cool are not responsible for the content of any external webpages or software downloaded from third party sites. Links are included in good faith at the time of writing. All explainer content is compiled in good faith using processes and methods used by the team. Modern software gives users many ways in which to accomplish the same task, and for reasons of clarity we choose not to reference multiple options. All computer users should run up to date virus / security software at all times to minimise risk.
This is number 7 of 10 explainer videos for video editing month. Make sure you check out the others!
