Learn how to assemble subclips into a cohesive timeline as we explore essential editing techniques in this article. Understand the importance of having a well-organized project and timeline to streamline the editing process and enhance narrative flow.
Key Insights
- Utilize the hover scrub feature in Premiere Pro to preview video clips without audio, allowing for quick identification and selection of subclips for timeline assembly.
- Maintain an organized project structure by using subclip bins and carefully managing media files, ensuring efficient workflow and easy navigation.
- Implement various methods to add clips to the timeline, such as dragging files, using keyboard shortcuts, and leveraging the program panel for precise clip insertion, to enhance narrative construction and editing flexibility.
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In this lesson, we take our carefully organized subclips and start placing them onto a timeline (the first stage of what's called an assembly edit). This is where your raw footage begins to tell a story.
Opening the Starter Project & Relinking Media
For this lesson, there's a starter file to work from. Go to File > Open Project, navigate to your finished projects folder inside the restaurant scene directory, and open the file called All Subclips.
If the project opens with missing media, don't panic. This happens when a project file has been moved. Click Locate, and Premiere will ask you to find one of the missing files (in this case, credits.txt). Once you point it to that single file, it will automatically track down and relink the rest.
If the automatic search doesn't find it, use the left-side file browser in the locate window to navigate to your class project folder, then click Search. It will find the file and relink everything at once.
Browsing Subclips with Hover Scrub
Open your video bin in the Project panel. You should see several subclip bins. Double-click on the one called Main Shot Sub Clips; it will open as its own tab. Press the ~ (tilde) key to expand it to full screen, then switch to icon view using the controls at the bottom of the panel.
Use the scroll bar to increase the icon size until you can comfortably read the slates on each clip. Then try hovering your mouse over a clip; this is called hover scrub, and it gives you a silent video preview of the clip's content without needing to load it into the Source panel. To hear audio, click the clip and press the L key to play it.
When you're done browsing, press ~ again to return to normal view, then close the panel with Cmd+W (Mac) or Ctrl+W (Windows), or use the panel's menu and choose Close Panel.
Resetting Subclip Timecode to Zero
When you load a subclip into the Source panel, you may notice the timecode doesn't start at zero; it reflects where that clip lives within its original source file. For easier navigation, it helps to reset this. Here's how:
- On Mac, go to Premiere Pro > Settings > Media. On Windows, go to Edit > Preferences > Media.
- Find the Timecode option and change it from Use Media Source to Reset to Zero when clip is loaded into Source panel.
- Click OK. Your clips will now always start counting from 00:00:00 in the Source panel.
Building the Assembly Edit
An assembly edit is your first rough pass: getting the right clips onto the timeline in the right order to check if the narrative structure works. Precision doesn't matter yet; you're thinking about story, not timing.
It helps enormously to have notes on which takes you liked before you start. Go through the script, watch the relevant subclips, jot down which take you want for each scene, and then build the timeline from those notes. The more familiar you are with the footage, the faster this goes.
Creating a New Sequence from a Clip
Find the first clip you want to use (in this example, it's Main Shot Entrance, Take 2). Load it into the Source panel and set an in-point around the moment you want to start (a few seconds before she's sitting alone, giving yourself some extra "handle" for later trimming). Set an out-point before he enters the frame.
Now drag that clip directly into the empty timeline area. Premiere will automatically create a new sequence matched to the clip's settings (resolution, frame rate, etc.) and place the clip as the first item. It will also name the sequence after the clip (which can be confusing), so rename it right away in the Project panel. Something like Breakup-Main-V1 works well. The V1 indicates version one, useful since you'll likely cut multiple versions.
Adding Clips to the Timeline
There are several ways to add clips to your timeline, and each has its place:
- Drag directly into the timeline: Simple and visual. Drop it wherever you want it on the track.
- Drag into the Program panel: Gives you overlay options. The Insert After command places the clip after the playhead position without splitting any existing clips. Insert Before works the same way in the opposite direction.
- Keyboard shortcuts: With the playhead positioned where you want the clip (or with in/out points set on the timeline), use the insert and overwrite commands. It's the fastest method once you're comfortable with it.
The Clip Order for This Scene
For this restaurant breakup scene, the clips are assembled in the following order to establish the story:
- Main Shot Entrance, Take 2. Wide shot. She's alone at the booth. Gives us the establishing location.
- Woman Close-Up, Take 1. Cuts to a close-up of her just before she looks up. A quiet moment before he arrives.
- Man Entrance, Take 2. He walks in. Cut just before he fully enters frame.
- MS (Medium Shot) Entrance, Take 1. He walks over to the table. Catches the line: "Sorry I'm late."
- Woman Close-Up, Take 2. Her reaction after he sits down. "It's okay."
- Man Close-Up, Take 2. His close-up. The line: "What's good here?"
- Woman Close-Up, Take 1 (later section). Her response: "We need to talk."
For each clip, set in and out points generously; give yourself extra seconds on either end. You can always trim later, but you can't retrieve footage you didn't include in the first place.
Reviewing the Assembly Edit
Once your clips are on the timeline, use the \ (backslash) key to zoom the timeline out and see everything at once. Press it multiple times or combine with the - key to zoom further.
Play through what you've got. You'll immediately notice a few things: the director calling "Action" before takes, dialogue lines that repeat (like "Sorry I'm late" appearing twice as you cut between angles), and clips that overlap in ways that don't quite work yet. All of this is normal and expected at this stage.
"Editing is very often like polishing something. You start off really rough and you make it neater and neater and neater as you go along."
The assembly edit is just asking one question: does this narrative structure work? Does the story make sense in this order? If yes, you move on to refining. The next step (trimming, tightening, removing the overlaps and the director's calls) is covered in the following lesson.
