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Adobe Premiere Pro CS3 is a real-time, timeline-based video editing software application. It has gained acceptance within the film and video industry and has been used in part in such films as Dust to Glory by Dana Brown and Superman Returns for the video capture process and so, as the name implies, it is a professional-level editing package.
In Premier Pro CS3 Essential Training, you will learn about each aspect of Premier Pro CS3, as well as standard film and video editing techniques. Covered here is how to create Web video, record directly to disc with OnLocation, key with Ultra, browse files with Bridge, export to mobile devices with Device Central, and author professional DVDs with Encore (all of these products are included with Premier Pro CS3; Ultra is available in Production Premium). Your trainer for this library is Chad Perkins, who is an Adobe Certified Video Specialist. This library is divided into 15 lessons and runs 6.5 hours.
Lesson 1, "Introduction" begins with describing what Premier Pro is, why you should use it, a brief welcome to Mac users since once again it is back on the Mac platform, and you will also find out what is new with the CS3 version. One other thing that is noted here is that the movies that you will be working with from the example files are from the public domain; i.e., movies whose copyrights have expired. One of those is the horror classic movie Night of the Living Dead. That’s right, you will get to work with clips from this and other real movies.
Lesson 2, "Getting Started with Premier Pro Projects" begins by setting you up with a basic summary of the entire Premier workflow. This is primarily to get used to your new environment. Here you will learn how to begin a project, walk through and understand the interface, customize your workspace and set up your preferences.
Lesson 3, "Importing and Organizing Footage" starts you off by showing you how to get all of your clips and footage into where Premier Pro can get to it and you can begin to put it together. Here you will see how to import, sort and organize files, storyboard your film, work with video layers and sequences, navigate the timeline, and work with the history panel and shortcuts.
Lesson 4, "Basic Editing" examines the fundamentals of video editing, the chopping up and getting into a usable form. This lesson works with the techniques of trim, overlay, and insert edits. You will see how to use the razor tool, how to replace clips, and work with ripple edit and ripple delete.
Lesson 5, "Making Good Edits (and Bad Edits)" will show you how to make good edits by showing you what bad edits are. Here you will see clips from the public domain movies. You will see things like jump cuts that make for bad footage, how to use establishing shots and dupe shots, cutaways, and in general, how to make good movies.
Lesson 6, "Animating" is going to show you the concepts of animation. Along with learning a little bit about the old days of animation, you will also learn about concepts such as keyframing, tweening, and other techniques of animation.
Lesson 7, "Playing with Time" has you working with changing the speed of a clip. In Premier Pro CS3 you will use a new technique called Time Remapping as well as older techniques.
Lesson 8, "Applying Video Effects" will add so much more to what you do with Premier. It is here that you will learn about things like adding lens flare, distortion effects, color corrections, as well as other techniques that will make your experience much more fun.
Lesson 9, "Applying Transitions" explains the best ways of transitioning from one clip to the next clip. In this lesson you will learn when you should use one type of transition versus another type depending on the kind of effect and mood that you are trying to create.
Lesson 10, "Working with Audio" shows you the importance of the sounds that are used within your video. Sound is one effect that can really make or break the connection with the audience. Here you will learn about working with the audio layers, the basics of mixing audio, and audio transitions.
Lesson 11, "Creating Titillating Titles" explains how even if you don't have Photoshop or After Effects, you can still create some great title works within Premier Pro CS3. Here you will see how to create and animate titles.
Lesson 12, "The 'Appendage' Programs" discusses the additional programs that come with Premier Pro CS3 and Production Premium such as:
- OnLocation for recording sound directly to disc
- Ultra for keying in alternate backgrounds to a green screen shot
- Bridge for managing assets
- Encore which is a standalone DVD authoring program
- Device Central, a new program that allows you to port your video to a portable device
Lesson 13, "Integration with Other Adobe Products" explains how to utilize your Premier Pro with other Adobe programs like Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects, Soundbooth, and Flash.
Lesson 14, "Export Concepts" now turns away from the creative aspect of video editing and focuses more on the technical details. Here you will learn about the export file format essentials, understanding codecs, and what the essential codecs are.
Finally in lesson 15, "Exporting" describes how to transfer your finished product to the medium that you will be using. Whether that is Flash, a social networking site, iPod, tape, DVD, or something else, you will get enough here to move on, on your own.
I really like Perkins' presentation in this video. His excitement is infectious and really makes you want to learn both about Premier Pro as well as video editing. His explanations make it easy to understand the concepts of video editing and what works, and even more, what doesn't. If you are interested in learning more about Premier Pro CS3, or more about video editing in general then I highly recommend Premier Pro CS3 Essential Training.
You can get Premier Pro CS3 Essential Training two ways. One is as a DVD training package Premier Pro CS3 Essential Training and the other is part of the online training experience at Lynda.com. The DVD Training Package is $149 USD and includes Premier Pro CS3 Essential Training as well as containing everything you need.
The online training Premier Pro CS3 Essential Training comes in three flavors. Paying $25 USD/month or $250 USD per year gets you all of the videos that are available online (approximately 21,811 videos on 318 topics at this time). Premium goes for $375 USD per year and you get all the videos as well as all of the exercise files. Take note that the exercise files are not included with the monthly or standard annual subscriptions. They are only included on the DVD version and with Premium subscriptions.
You can use Premier Pro CS3 Essential Training as a training program for the individual student, as well as the college or vocational teacher looking to supplement their educational materials. It is of benefit to anyone who needs help understanding Premier Pro CS3 Essential Training. You can also try out most of the first lesson and more for free at Lynda.com.
