Last week, Adobe released a comprehensive 138-page guide to Premiere Pro. While this guide is filled with best practices and workflows aimed at film and TV editors, I think it will be useful for anyone that uses the software because it covers numerous essential topics. It’s well thought out and well laid out — segmented as to not be overwhelming, but still with a number of callouts and screenshots. Let’s take a look at what it offers:
Getting started
At the beginning of the guide, Adobe offers a section entitled “Before Getting Started.” The section is filled with important recommendations and terminology. Then, the guide gets into hardware and settings. This discusses how to get the best performance of Premiere Pro on your machine. The section also provides an overview of important preferences to set to your liking. This is great info for a beginner, and something to just glance over if you are a power user.
Dailies
The guide’s next section discusses workflows aimed at those who process the day’s shoot. There are great tips here for any editor or director. This includes information on LUTs and color workflow, ALE format and metadata.
Proxy workflows
If you work with proxies (copies of source footage transcoded into smaller, easier to use files), this section is loaded with workflow tips for beginners and advanced users alike. Learn about ways to create, enable, use and export proxies. This could be the most detailed yet focused section on proxies found anywhere.
Working with productions
This lengthy section involves productions, which are collections of Premiere Pro project files geared toward an editorial team. While you may think this is only useful for full feature film projects, there are surprising benefits to smaller productions. Review the production panel interface and settings, and also learn how to create or open a production.
Then, the guide does a deeper dive into using and referencing clips in a production. Finally, there are tips on exporting, migrating, updating or renaming your production.
Multi-camera editing
Multicam lets you insert synced clips into your sequence as one clip. In Multi-Cam View, you see your different camera angles and can easily switch between them. Learn how to create multicams, choose your sync method, use the track mixer and so much more. Pick a workflow that fits your situation perfectly. This section has a large amount of screenshots so you can gain a quick and thorough understanding of this process.
Dynamic Link with After Effects
Cut down on rendering and speed up collaboration with Dynamic Link. See AE work in your Premiere Pro timeline. Learn about clip replacement, color settings and other tips.
Turnovers
Need to turn your project over to color, VFX, or audio? This section offers workflows and settings to prepare your timeline for this process.
Remote and cloud-based workflows
More and more productions are using Premiere Pro to support various cloud-based workflows. This section offers information on screensharing, cloud storage, online video review and remove approval processes.
Panels and integrations
This section discusses the tools available for developers to extend functionality. Learn about extensions, plugins, and other customizations. The guide goes in-depth about custom panels. Finally, the guide wraps up with a resources and tutorials section, which provides handy links to increase your knowledge of Premiere Pro workflows.
Overall, this guide properly explains more than some 300 page online tutorials do. It should be a go-to resource for video professionals to get at least an adequate amount of knowledge on a given topic. While it doesn’t review everything under the sun or go in-depth on all features, the layout and contents cover the most popular topics and use cases.
