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Create and play clips

  1. Adobe Premiere Pro User Guide
  2. Beta releases
    1. Beta Program Overview
    2. Premiere Pro Beta Home
    3. Beta features
      1. Generative extend overview 
      2. Generative extend FAQs
      3. Color management system
  3. Getting started
    1. Get started with Adobe Premiere Pro
    2. What's new in Premiere Pro
    3. Best practices for updating Premiere Pro
    4. Keyboard shortcuts in Premiere Pro
    5. Accessibility in Premiere Pro
    6. Frequently asked questions
    7. Release notes
  4. Hardware and operating system requirements
    1. Hardware recommendations
    2. System requirements
    3. GPU and GPU Driver requirements
    4. GPU Accelerated Rendering & Hardware Encoding/Decoding
  5. Creating projects
    1. Start a new project
    2. Open projects
    3. Move and delete projects
    4. Work with multiple open projects
    5. Work with Project Shortcuts
    6. Backward compatibility of Premiere Pro projects
    7. Open and edit Premiere Rush projects in Premiere Pro
    8. Best Practices: Create your own project templates
  6. Workspaces and workflows
    1. Workspaces
    2. Import and export FAQs
    3. Working with Panels
    4. Windows touch and gesture controls
    5. Use Premiere Pro in a dual-monitor setup
  7. Frame.io
    1. Install and activate Frame.io
    2. Use Frame.io with Premiere Pro and After Effects
    3. Integrate Adobe Workfront and Frame.io
    4. Share for review with Frame.io
    5. Invite collaborators to co-edit a project
    6. Frequently asked questions
  8. Import media
    1. Importing
      1. Transfer files
      2. Importing still images
      3. Importing digital audio
    2. Importing from Avid or Final Cut
      1. Importing AAF project files from Avid Media Composer
      2. Importing XML project files from Final Cut Pro 7 and Final Cut Pro X
    3. File formats
      1. Supported file formats
      2. Support for Blackmagic RAW
    4. Working with timecode
  9. Editing
    1. Edit video
    2. Sequences
      1. Create and change sequences
      2. Set In and Out points in the Source Monitor
      3. Add clips to sequences
      4. Rearrange and move clips
      5. Find, select, and group clips in a sequence
      6. Remove clips from a sequence
      7. Change sequence settings
      8. Edit from sequences loaded into the Source Monitor
      9. Simplify sequences
      10. Rendering and previewing sequences
      11. Working with markers
      12. Add markers to clips
      13. Create markers in Effect Controls panel
      14. Set default marker colors
      15. Find, move, and delete markers
      16. Show or hide markers by color
      17. View marker comments
      18. Copy and paste sequence markers
      19. Sharing markers with After Effects
      20. Source patching and track targeting
      21. Scene edit detection
    3. Cut and trim clips
      1. Split or cut clips
      2. Trim clips
      3. Edit in Trim mode
      4. Perform J cuts and L cuts
      5. Create and play clips
      6. Adjust Trimming and Playback preferences
    4. Video
      1. Synchronizing audio and video with Merge Clips
      2. Render and replace media
      3. Undo, history, and events
      4. Freeze and hold frames
      5. Working with aspect ratios
    5. Audio
      1. Overview of audio in Premiere Pro
      2. Edit audio clips in the Source Monitor
      3. Audio Track Mixer
      4. Adjusting volume levels
      5. Edit, repair, and improve audio using Essential Sound panel
      6. Enhance Speech
      7. Enhance Speech FAQs
      8. Audio Category Tagging
      9. Automatically duck audio
      10. Remix audio
      11. Monitor clip volume and pan using Audio Clip Mixer
      12. Audio balancing and panning
      13. Advanced Audio - Submixes, downmixing, and routing
      14. Audio effects and transitions
      15. Working with audio transitions
      16. Apply effects to audio
      17. Measure audio using the Loudness Radar effect
      18. Recording audio mixes
      19. Editing audio in the timeline
      20. Audio channel mapping in Premiere Pro
      21. Use Adobe Stock audio in Premiere Pro
    6. Text-Based Editing
      1. Text-Based Editing
      2. Text-Based Editing FAQs
    7. Advanced editing
      1. Multi-camera editing workflow
      2. Editing VR
    8. Best Practices
      1. Best Practices: Mix audio faster
      2. Best Practices: Editing efficiently
      3. Editing workflows for feature films
  10. Video Effects and Transitions
    1. Overview of video effects and transitions
    2. Effects
      1. Types of effects in Premiere Pro
      2. Apply and remove effects
      3. Use FX badges
      4. Effect presets
      5. Metadata effect in Premiere Pro
      6. Automatically reframe video for different social media channels
      7. Color correction effects
      8. Effects Manager
      9. Change duration and speed of clips
      10. Adjustment Layers
      11. Stabilize footage
    3. Transitions
      1. Applying transitions in Premiere Pro
      2. Modifying and customizing transitions
      3. Morph Cut
  11. Titles, Graphics, and Captions
    1. Properties panel
      1. About Properties panel
      2. Edit text
      3. Edit shapes
      4. Edit audio
      5. Edit video
      6. Mask with shape
      7. Create, apply, and redefine text styles
    2. Essential Graphics panel (24.x and earlier) 
      1. Overview of the Essential Graphics panel
      2. Create a title
      3. Linked and Track Styles
      4. Working with style browser
      5. Create a shape
      6. Draw with the Pen tool
      7. Align and distribute objects
      8. Change the appearance of text and shapes
      9. Apply gradients
      10. Add Responsive Design features to your graphics
      11. Speech to Text
      12. Download language packs for transcription
      13. Working with captions
      14. Check spelling and Find and Replace
      15. Export text
      16. Speech to Text FAQs
    3. Motion Graphics panel (24.x and earlier)
      1. Install and use Motion Graphics templates
      2. Replace images or videos in Motion Graphics templates
      3. Use data-driven Motion Graphics templates
    4. Best Practices: Faster graphics workflows
    5. Retiring the Legacy Titler FAQs
    6. Upgrade Legacy titles to Source Graphics
  12. Fonts and emojis
    1. Color fonts
    2. Emojis
  13. Animation and Keyframing
    1. Adding, navigating, and setting keyframes
    2. Animating effects
    3. Use Motion effect to edit and animate clips
    4. Optimize keyframe automation
    5. Moving and copying keyframes
    6. Viewing and adjusting effects and keyframes
  14. Compositing
    1. Compositing, alpha channels, and adjusting clip opacity
    2. Masking and tracking
    3. Blending modes
  15. Color Correction and Grading
    1. Overview: Color workflows in Premiere Pro
    2. Color Settings
    3. Auto Color
    4. Get creative with color using Lumetri looks
    5. Adjust color using RGB and Hue Saturation Curves
    6. Correct and match colors between shots
    7. Using HSL Secondary controls in the Lumetri Color panel
    8. Create vignettes
    9. Looks and LUTs
    10. Lumetri scopes
    11. Display Color Management
    12. Timeline tone mapping
    13. HDR for broadcasters
    14. Enable DirectX HDR support
  16. Exporting media
    1. Export video
    2. Export Preset Manager
    3. Workflow and overview for exporting
    4. Quick export
    5. Exporting for the Web and mobile devices
    6. Export a still image
    7. Exporting projects for other applications
    8. Exporting OMF files for Pro Tools
    9. Export to Panasonic P2 format
    10. Export settings
      1. Export settings reference
      2. Basic Video Settings
      3. Encoding Settings
    11. Best Practices: Export faster
  17. Collaborative editing
    1. Collaboration in Premiere Pro
    2. Get started with collaborative video editing
    3. Create Team Projects
    4. Add and manage media in Team Projects
    5. Invite and manage collaborators
    6. Share and manage changes with collaborators
    7. View auto saves and versions of Team Projects
    8. Manage Team Projects
    9. Linked Team Projects
    10. Frequently asked questions
  18. Long form and Episodic workflows
    1. Long Form and Episodic Workflow Guide
    2. Using Productions
    3. How clips work across projects in a Production
    4. Best Practices: Working with Productions
  19. Working with other Adobe applications
    1. After Effects and Photoshop
    2. Dynamic Link
    3. Audition
    4. Prelude
  20. Organizing and Managing Assets
    1. Working in the Project panel
    2. Organize assets in the Project panel
    3. Playing assets
    4. Search assets
    5. Creative Cloud Libraries
    6. Sync Settings in Premiere Pro
    7. Consolidate, transcode, and archive projects
    8. Managing metadata
    9. Best Practices
      1. Best Practices: Learning from broadcast production
      2. Best Practices: Working with native formats
  21. Improving Performance and Troubleshooting
    1. Set preferences
    2. Reset and restore preferences
    3. Recovery Mode
    4. Working with Proxies
      1. Proxy overview
      2. Ingest and Proxy Workflow
    5. Check if your system is compatible with Premiere Pro
    6. Premiere Pro for Apple silicon
    7. Eliminate flicker
    8. Interlacing and field order
    9. Smart rendering
    10. Control surface support
    11. Best Practices: Working with native formats
    12. Knowledge Base
      1. Known issues
      2. Fixed issues
      3. Fix Premiere Pro crash issues
      4. Unable to migrate settings after updating Premiere Pro
      5. Green and pink video in Premiere Pro or Premiere Rush
      6. How do I manage the Media Cache in Premiere Pro?
      7. Fix errors when rendering or exporting
      8. Troubleshoot issues related to playback and performance in Premiere Pro
  22. Extensions and plugins
    1. Installing plugins and extensions in Premiere Pro
    2. Latest plugins from third-party developers
  23. Video and audio streaming
    1. Secure Reliable Transport (SRT)
  24. Monitoring Assets and Offline Media
    1. Monitoring assets
      1. Using the Source Monitor and Program Monitor
      2. Using the Reference Monitor
    2. Offline media
      1. Working with offline clips
      2. Creating clips for offline editing
      3. Relinking offline media

In Premiere Pro, you create clips by importing files, duplicating clips, or making subclips. You create a clip instance by using a clip in a sequence.

Source clips, clip instances, subclips, and duplicate clips

In Premiere Pro, a clip points to a source file. Trimming a clip, or editing it in any way, does not affect the source file. For example, if you import a 30-minute file into Premiere Pro, you create a 30-minute clip that points to that source file. If you trim the clip to a five-minute duration, the 30-minute source file remains on your hard disk, but the clip refers only to a five-minute section of it. Premiere Pro stores information about clips in clip metadata fields in project files, but stores information about source files in XMP metadata fields.

You can trim source clips, clip instances, subclips, or duplicate clips. You can trim all types of clips in sequences in much the same way. The clip types differ in the following ways:

Source (master) clip

The clip originally imported into the Project panel. It is listed in the Project panel only once by default. If you delete a source clip from the Project panel, all of its instances are also deleted.

 

Clip instance

A dependent reference to a source clip, used in a sequence. Each time you add a clip to a sequence, you create another instance of the clip. A clip instance uses the name and source file reference used by its source clip. While clip instances are not listed in the Project panel, they are differentiated in the Source Monitor menu if you open instances there. The Source Monitor menu lists instances by name, sequence name, and In point.

 

Subclip

A section of a master clip that references the master clip’s media file. Use subclips to reference discreet sections of long master clips. (See Creating subclips.)

 

Duplicate clip

An independent copy of a source clip, which you create manually using the Edit > Duplicate command. You can also create a duplicate clip by importing the same file more than once. Unlike a clip instance, a duplicate clip maintains its own reference to the original clip’s source file on disk and exists as an additional clip in the Project panel. Premiere Pro does not delete a duplicate clip when you delete its original from the Project panel. Master and duplicate clips can be renamed independently.

 

 

Franklin McMahon explains how to use subclips in this video from Layers Magazine.

For more details, see Andrew Devis’ tutorial, “Subclips: What? Why? How?”

See also Andrew Devis’ tutorials, “Understanding the Source Panel tools.”

Duplicate a clip

  1. In the Project panel, select a clip, and choose Edit > Duplicate.
  2. To rename the duplicate clip, select it, choose Clip > Rename, and type a new name for the clip.
    Note:

    You can also create a duplicate clip by copying and pasting it in the Project panel (or its folders), by Ctrl-dragging (Windows) or Command-dragging (Mac OS) a clip in the Project panel.

Create subclips

A subclip is a section of a master (source) clip that you want to edit and manage separately in your project. You can use subclips to organize long media files.

You work with subclips in a Timeline panel as you do with master clips. Trimming and editing a subclip is constrained by its start and end points. However, you can set new In and Out points for a subclip, as long as they fall between the original In and Out points you set for the subclip when you create it from the master clip.

Subclips reference the master clip’s media file. If you delete a master clip or take it offline and keep its media on disk, the subclip and its instance remain online. If you take the original media off disk, the subclip and its instances go offline. If you relink a master clip, its subclips remain linked to the original media.

If you recapture or relink a subclip, it becomes a master clip, and all ties to the original media are broken. The recaptured media includes the subclip’s referenced portion of the media only. Any instances of the subclip are relinked to the recaptured media.

You cannot make the following types of clips into subclips:

  • Selections of multiple clips

  • Titles, still images, synthetic clips

  • Sequence clips

  • Grouped clips

Note:

To use a master clip and its subclips in another project, import the project that contains the clips.

You can create a subclip from any merged clip in the same way you would any other subclip. The Master Clip Start timecode is the earliest timecode of the component clips. The Master Clip End timecode is the latest timecode of the component clips. The Convert to Master Clip check box is disabled.

Create a subclip from the Project panel

You can create a subclip from source clips or other subclips that are made up from a single media file.

  1. Double-click a clip in the Project panel to open it in the Source Monitor.
  2. In the Source Monitor, set In and Out points for the subclip. Either or both the In point and Out point must differ from the source clip In point and Out point.
  3. Do one of the following:
    • Choose Clip > Make Subclip, enter a name for the subclip, and click OK.

    • Ctrl-drag (Windows) or Command-drag (Mac OS) the clip to the Project panel. Type a name for the subclip, and click OK.

    The subclip appears in the Project panel with a Subclip icon , , , . The icon varies depending on the media type.

  4. (Optional) To retain the original In and Out points in the master clip, reset them in the Source Monitor while previewing the master clip.
Note:

You can also convert a master clip into a subclip by selecting the source clip in the Project panel or Source Monitor, choosing Clip > Edit Subclip, and setting media start and end times for the subclip.

Create a subclip from a Timeline panel

You can create subclips from a Timeline panel.

  1. Do one of the following:
    • Ctrl-drag (Windows) or Command-drag (Mac OS) a clip instance from a sequence into an open bin in a Project panel. Type a name for the subclip, and click OK.

    • Right-click a clip instance in a sequence, and select Make Subclip. Type a name for the subclip, and click OK.

Adjust media start and end times of a subclip

  1. Select the subclip in the Project panel.
  2. Choose Clip > Edit Subclip.
  3. Edit the Subclip Start and End timecode fields.
Note:

If you select an instance of a subclip in the Project panel, you cannot set new Start and End points that lie within the instance Start and End points. This limit prevents losing frames that are used in the sequence.

Convert a subclip to a master clip

  1. Select the subclip in the Project panel.
  2. Choose Clip > Edit Subclip.

    The converted clip retains the master clip start and end times that are listed in the Edit Subclip dialog box.

  3. Select Convert To Master Clip, and then click OK.

Play back a clip in the Project panel

You can use the preview area at the top of a Project panel to preview individual clips.

  1. Select the clip.
  2. Press the Play button on the thumbnail viewer. The Play button becomes a Stop button. Press Stop to stop playback. (Playing the clip in the thumbnail viewer does not affect Source Monitor views.)

You can also play back clips in icon view in the Project panel. To do this:

  1. In the Project panel, click the Icon View button.

  2. Select the clip by clicking on it.

  3. To play, press L or the spacebar. (To stop, click the Stop button, or press K or the spacebar. The button and the spacebar toggle between Play and Stop.) To play in reverse, press J.

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