Creating clips for offline editing

For online editing, you edit clips to the quality required for the final version of the video program. This is the default way to work in Premiere. Online editing works well when the speed and storage capacity of the host computer are adequate to the demands of the video formats used. For example, most modern computers can handle the DV data rate at full resolution. They may, however, be challenged by the greater demands of, for example, HDV or HD footage. For many videographers, that’s where offline editing comes in.

In offline editing, after capturing high-resolution clips, you make low-resolution copies for editing. After editing, replace the low-resolution footage associated with the clips with the original high-quality footage. You can finish, render, and export your final product in high resolution. Editing low-resolution clips enables standard computers to handle excessively large assets, such as HDV or HD footage, without sacrificing performance. It also lets editors use laptop computers to edit—for example, while on location.

You may edit a project with the high-resolution footage remaining online throughout the project. On the other hand, you may edit in a two-phase workflow. You make your initial creative decisions with the high-resolution footage offline. Then you bring the high-resolution footage back online for fine-tuning, grading, and color correction.

You can complete an offline edit, for example, of an HD project in Premiere, and then export the project to an EDL for transfer to an editing system with more powerful hardware. You can then perform the final online edit and rendering, at full resolution, on the more powerful hardware.