Adobe Premiere Pro: Basic Film Cutting for Beginners

This tutorial provides the very basics of cutting video in Adobe Premiere Pro. Check out our other Adobe Premiere Pro , opens a new windowblogs for more information.

Getting Started with Adobe Premiere Pro

• Click on the Adobe Creative Cloud (CC) icon. 

• Locate Premiere in the list of Adobe CC apps. Click on the Open button to the right of the app.

•  Adobe Premiere Pro will start to load. 

• The Premiere Home page will open. Click on the blue Create New Project button. 

• On the next page, you can name your project (red circle).  Use the left-side menu to locate your video file. Mine was in Movies (yellow circle).
• The movies in the Movies folder will appear. I only have one movie called Mexico Trip 1949 (circled in green).  

• Click on your video(s) and it will highlight in blue, as seen in the image below.

• Then click on the blue Create button in the bottom right corner of the screen.

NOTE: When Premiere imports your video, it imports a copy of your video file. Your original file will not be changed in any way by anything you do in Premiere. 

• This is how my page opened and is likely similar to how yours will open. Everything looks good except I want to close the My Learning panel of images on the left.

• I can do that by clicking on the small horizontal lines (circled in red) next to the word Learn. Then, in the drop down options, click on Close Panel (circled in yellow).

• That panel goes away and you then have the Premiere interface.

The following diagram shows a breakdown of the other Panels on the Premiere interface.

Here's my screen (below) after closing that Learning panel.

You can see my Mexico Trip 1949 file is still in the Panel Dock (bottom left) and in the Timeline sections (bottom right). I can press the Play button just under the black screen (aka Program Monitor) in the top right to play my video. Another option, or shortcut, is to tap the Space Bar on your keyboard to start the video and tap the space bar again to stop the video.  

Making a Cut

Now I want to cut out a middle section of my video.

• In the Timeline panel I can either drag the blue vertical bar on the left of the Timeline OR

• Click on spot in the Timeline (click slightly above the yellow horizontal line) and the blue bar will appear there. You'll also notice that the video in the Monitor Panel moves as well. 

• Once you have chosen the spot where you want to make your first cut, click on the Razor icon to the left of the Timeline (circled in red).

• • When you move your mouse back to your Timeline over your video (the purple portion), you'll see it turns into a razor.
  • Place the razor where the vertical blue line is and then click.
  • Next, mouse up to the top of the vertical blue bar, to the thick portion above the yellow horizontal line, and drag that bar to the next spot you want to make a cut.
    • Once you find the spot, move the mouse back down to the purple portion of the video and the razor will reappear.
  • Select your spot and then click to make the cut. 

• • • Move your mouse back to the area with the Razor Tool, then click the Selection Tool (circled in green).

• • • Move your mouse to the Timeline and locate the middle section you want to remove.
    • Click the middle section. A highlighted border will appear around it.

• • • Press the Delete key on your keyboard to remove the selected section.

• • • Drag the video clip on the right to the left until it connects with the clip on the left.

Exporting Edited Video

Now you’re ready to export your edited video.

• • • Click File in the top-left corner (circled in red), then select Export (circled in yellow).

• • • From the Export menu, choose Media (circled in red).

• • • Rename your file if desired (circled in red).
    • Select where to save the file by clicking the Location link (circled in yellow), such as the Desktop or an external drive.
    • Click Export (circled in green) to export the video.

• • • The encoding process will begin. This may take some time.

• • • When the progress reaches 100%, a message will briefly appear confirming the video was exported successfully.
    • Go to the location where you saved the file and confirm the video is there.

• • • Click the video file to make sure it plays correctly.

Close or Exit Out of Premiere

When you’re finished, you can close Adobe Premiere.

• • • Click File in the top-left corner (circled in red), then select Exit (circled in yellow).

• • • You may see a confirmation message.
    • Select No to close Premiere.

That’s it — you’re all done!