How To - Adobe Premiere Rush

Owned by Erika Snell
Last updated: Jan 23, 2024 by Tom Garbelotti
10 min read

Instructions on how to access Adobe Creative Cloud HERE

Creating a Project

  • Open Premiere Rush and select Create New Project

  • Create a Title for the project on the bottom left under Project Name

  • The gear symbol next to Project Name gives Project Setup Options

    • All of these features can be adjusted later

    • Aspect Ratio/Resolution

      • 16x9 is standard for video but other options allow for videos to be made for other purposes (such as sizes used in Social Media)

    • Auto Reframe Mismatched Clips

      • Select if using clips with various aspect ratios to make them automatically fill the aspect ratio that is selected

      • EX: if the video clip being used was 9x16 (portrait, from a smartphone) and the aspect ratio for the video project is 16x9 (landscape), this feature will zoom into a portion of the video so it will fill the space

    • Pan and Zoom Photos

      • This is the ‘Ken Burns’ effect that is famous in documentaries

      • Adds movement and depth when showing pictures

  • On the left side, begin Selecting Media from local drive

    • Could be video, photo, or audio

    • Can select from multiple different folders within drive

  • When the settings and media are selected, select Create on the bottom right-hand corner

Importing Media

  • If there is more media to be imported to the project, select the blue Plus button on the top left

  • Browse the local drive to find clips, select them, and select the blue Add button at the bottom

  • This will automatically add the clip to the timeline

  • To view all media assets, select the storage bin icon on the top left

  • To hide media assets, click the same icon

Selecting/Adding Clips in Timeline

  • To select a clip already on the timeline, simply click on the clip

  • To add a clip to the timeline, open the storage bin to see media files

    • Either select clip and then select the Add button at the bottom

    • This will add the clip to the timeline wherever the playhead (cursor) is or at the end of the clip that the playhead is currently over

    • Can also select, drag, and drop clip from the media files folder directly onto the timeline

Trimming/Moving/Deleting Clips

  • To trim a clip, hover the playhead over the edge of the clip until a red bracket appears and then click and drag the beginning or end of the clip to where it should start or end

    • If there is a precise place the clip should start or begin, put the playhead where that spot is and then drag the edge of the clip to the playhead

  • To move a clip in the timeline, select, hold, and drag around the timeline

    • Clips will automatically shift to the beginning or end of the clip that it was added next to

    • Can also layer clips on top of each other

  • To delete a clip, right click and select Delete 1 Clip

    • Can also select the clip and hit the delete button on keyboard

  • Monitor Navigation

    • Use the far left arrow to navigate to the previous edit point (usually where a clip starts or ends)

    • Use the far right arrow to navigate to the next edit point (usually where a clip starts or ends)

    • Use the second to the left arrow to go one keyframe to the left

    • Use the second to the right arrow to go one keyframe to the right

    • Use the play/pause button to play and/or pause project in timeline

  • Keyboard Navigation

    • Use the up and down arrow keys on the keyboard to go the beginning or end of each clip

    • Use the left and right keys to move forward and backward through each keyframe of a clip

      • Video is typically shot 30 fps or 60 fps, therefore there will be 30 or 60 keyframes per one second of video footage

    • Use the spacebar to play and/or pause the video

Adjust size of Work Area

  • In the middle on the right side of the work area there are two horizontal bars that say ‘Adjust Monitor Size’

    • Select, hold, and drag up or down to increase or decrease the size of the monitor/work area

  • To increase or decrease the timeline vertically, select, hold, and drag the bar that is beneath the timeline to the right or left

Monitor Area Tools

  • Square: View/Exit Fullscreen

    • Allows to watch timeline in full screen

  • Rounded arrow: Loop Playback

    • Allows to loop the video (when the video is done playing, it will start again)

  • Two Rectangles: Change Sequence Aspect Ratio

    • Allows to change what the aspect ratio of the final video will be

Work Area Tools

  • Tools are located on the bottom left and affect clips used in the timeline

  • Scissors: Split your Clip

    • Cuts a clip in two

    • Put playhead where the clip should be split and click the scissors icon

  • Square with a Plus Symbol: Duplicate

    • Duplicates whatever media is selected and adds it to the end of the clip selected

    • Select a clip and then select the plus icon

  • Trashcan: Delete

    • Deletes whatever media is selected

    • Select the media and then select the trashcan icon

  • Box with little arrow pointing down: Expand Audio

    • Increases the size of audio clips vertically

    • Makes it easier to see the waveform of audio clips

    • Select the audio clip and then select the box

  • 1 vertical bar with 3 horizontal bars: Control Tracks

    • Displays multiple layers of video and audio

      • Can layer video and audio on top of each other, video is always above and audio is always below

      • Can have a maximum or four layers of video and three layers of audio

      • Can move clips higher and/or lower on the timeline

        • Whatever video is higher is what will be seen

        • Audio will play everything as is

    • Lock icon: can lock and unlock each layer on the timeline

      • Useful to not move things around or make changes that shouldn’t happen

    • Sound icon: mute or unmute audio layer on timeline

      • Useful if there is audio attached to video clips that may not be wanted

      • Or can be used if a specific track needs to be listened to

    • Eye icon: hide or unhide each layer of video on timeline

      • Useful to view video layer by layer or eliminate an entire layer of video from final product

    • Microphone icon: Target Track for Recording

      • Gives the ability to record voiceover directly onto the timeline

      • Place playhead on the timeline where the voiceover should be recorded and select the microphone icon

        • It will give a three second countdown and then start recording

        • It will label the audio track as Voiceover and can be moved anywhere on the timeline

Detach Audio from Video

  • Select video clip, right click and select separate OR expand audio

    • Expand: makes it easier to see the audio waveforms, keeps audio clip attached to the video clip

    • Separate: detaches the audio from the clip

      • Can now delete audio or video clip while keeping the other

      • Can also expand the separate audio

      • Stays ‘connected’ to video clip when moved around on the timeline

Undo/Redo Edits

  • On the top right there are arrow keys pointing left and right

    • Left undoes an edit and right redoes an edit

  • Can use Keyboard shortcuts such as Command/Ctrl+Z (undo) or Command/Ctrl+Shift+Z (redo)

Graphics

  • Select Add Graphic

  • Under Browse All, choose between titles, transition graphics, or overlays

    • Titles: used to display the title/name of the video or of people, some have backgrounds and some will display over the other media on the timeline

      • Lower thirds are typically used for people, displayed in the lower left of the screen and contain the person’s name and profession

    • Transition Graphics: used to transition from one video clip to another by filling the screen with a background and then minimizing it

      • This is popular in sports to shift between live shots and a replay

    • Overlays: small graphics that can be added on top of a video clip

  • To add graphic, either double click or select and click add at the bottom

    • Graphic will appear on timeline wherever playhead is placed, above any other video clips that are already in the timeline

  • With graphic selected in timeline, tools to adjust various parts of graphic appear on the right side

    • Adjust for graphic Shape

      • Color: adjust the color of the background or text

        • Eliminate color background by unchecking the box

      • Outline: add a border to the graphic and adjust the color and/or thickness of it

      • Shadow: add a drop shadow to the graphic to add some depth

        • Can adjust opacity (how visible it is), blur (how pixelated it is), distance (how close or far from the graphic it is), and angle (where it appears behind the graphic)

      • Adjustments for graphic Text

        • Can make the same adjustments as the graphic Shape above

        • Can adjust the font, font style (bold, italic, etc.), font size, character spacing (how far the different letters are from each other), line spacing (how far each line of text is away from each other), and baseline shift (how far away the line of text is from the top or bottom of the character box)

  • Graphics can be cut and deleted in the same way as any other video clip

  • Graphics can be sped up or slowed down by dragging the end of the clip either closer (speeding up) or farther away (slowing down) from the beginning of the clip

  • Graphics can be resized and repositioned in the way they appear in the video

Effects

  • Transitions

    • With two clips next to each other in the timeline, a transition can be added between the two of them

      • Any transition can be used for video clips

      • Only the ‘dissolve’ transition can be used for audio clips

    • To add a transition, select the clip in the timeline and select the transition (will add the transition to both the beginning and end of the clip) OR click and drag the transition from the transition box to the clip on the timeline

    • From there the duration of the transition can be adjusted (maximum 3 seconds)

      • Can adjust in the effects tab or by dragging the transition box on the clip in the timeline

    • To delete, select the transition box in the timeline and click delete on keyboard

    • Can add transitions between audio clips as well

      • Used often when wanting to increase or decrease the volume of certain audio clips

  • Pan and Zoom

    • Can only be used for photos/stills to give movement

    • To enable, select clip in timeline and then toggle the pan and zoom tab

    • Two boxes labeled Start and End appear

    • Resize and reposition the boxes where the start and end of the clip should be by selecting and dragging the edges closer (to make the view smaller) or larger (to make the view bigger) and then select and drag each box (start and end) to a specific place on the image

  • Auto Reframe

    • Used when the aspect ratio of the clip doesn’t match the aspect ratio of the timeline, automatically selects the most import portion of the clip and tracks

    • Best for a 9x16 timeline with a 16x9 video clip

    • Toggle the auto reframe on, adjust the selected portion of the clip, and/or adjust the speed

Color

  • Presets Tab

    • Select a color preset and adjust intensity at bottom

  • Edits Tab

    • Adjust everything with the slider bars

    • Basic

    • Exposure: adjusts the amount of light overall in the clip

    • Contrast: adjusts the clip by making the clip more vivid or the tones more muted for a more subdued feel

    • Highlights: adjusts the brightness of the light areas in the clip

    • Shadows: adjusts the darkness of the darker areas in the clip

    • Temperature: adjusts the white balance when moving the slider to the left to make the video appear cooler, and to the right for warmer colors

    • Tint: adjusts the white balance when moving the slider to the left to add a green tint, and when moving it to the right to add a magenta tint

    • Vibrance: adjust the intensity of the more muted colors in the clip with less effect on the higher-saturated colors

    • Saturation: adjust the saturation of all colors in the clip equally from 0 (monochrome) to 200 (double the saturation)

  • Advanced

    • Faded Film: adds a white sheen over the clip for a faded look

    • Sharpening: adjusts edge definition to create a sharper-looking video

    • Vignette

      • Amount: adjusts the amount of lightening or darkening along the edges of an image

      • Feather: defines the edge of the vignette

        • A smaller value creates a harder, sharper edge, whereas, a larger value indicates a softer, thicker edge

  • At the top, can select button to:

    • Apply color effect to all clips

    • Reset color adjustments back to default (erases all changes made)

    • Turn off color settings (to view clips without color adjustments but not erase them)

Speed

  • Select clip in timeline

  • Select which part of clip needs to be adjusted in speed (either in the timeline with the blue toggles or in the range tab), can be entire clip or a portion of a clip

  • In the range speed tab, adjust the percentage of speed

    • Higher percentage creates a faster clip and lower percentage creates a slower clip

  • If the entire clip (not just the selected range) needs to be a specific length, set that length in the clip duration and it will adjust the select range of the clip’s speed

  • Ramp: allows for a smooth transition from the regular speed clip to the adjusted speed clip, can adjust the length of time the transition occurs

  • Maintain audio pitch: this is selected to preserve the original pitch of the audio

    • If the clip contains audio, playing the clip more slowly lowers the pitch of the audio, and playing the clip faster raises the pitch (will sound like an animated chipmunk if not selected)

Audio

  • Select Browse and add pre-recorded audio tracks

    • Soundtracks, Sound Effects, and Loops are available to add to the timeline by selecting and clicking add at the bottom

  • Basic

    • Adjust the volume of the clip selected, higher number will produce a louder clip

    • Can also mute the clip if needed

  • Advanced

    • Select what type of audio the clip is: voice, music, or other (gives different adjustment options)

      • Voice: auto volume (sets the clip’s volume to what the software thinks is the best level), balance sound (make quiet sounds louder and loud sounds quieter), reduce background noise (enhances the voice while eliminating other noises), reduce echo, and enhance speech

      • Music: auto volume and auto duck (automatically reduce the volume of music clips when voice clips are present in the timeline and are layered on top of each other)

      • Other: auto volume

  • Channels

    • If the audio channels are separated between left and right, this gives the ability to remove one side and mono out the audio (send the same audio to both left and right)

Transform/Crop & Rotate

  • Top layer in timeline always displays in final product above bottom layer

  • Basic

    • Adjust with slider bars: horizontal position, vertical position, rotation, and opacity

    • Select: Horizontal or Vertical flip

    • Scale: adjust width and height, check ‘maintain proportions’ to maintain aspect ratio

  • Advanced

    • Crop: top, bottom, left, and right

    • Appearance: edge feather percentage for clip

  • Transformation possibilities

    • Split Screen: crop and move to have multiple clips showing side by side

    • Picture in Picture: shrink one clip to be placed on top of another

Exporting a File

  • Select Share at the top left

  • To create a digital .mp4 file, select local on the left

  • Name the file and select where the file should be saved to

  • The automatic preset will copy the timeline settings set when creating the project

    • Adjust resolution, frame rate (standard in America is 29.97), audio channels, and quality if needed

  • Play through video on the right to preview final product

  • Select Export on the bottom right and find the clip in the saved destination!

  • Note that Adobe Premiere Rush does not support exporting solely audio files, video will always be attached (even just a black screen if there weren’t any images included in the timeline)