Premiere Pro Tricks

Adobe Premiere Pro Tricks, Tips, and Hacks

Premiere Pro Tricks

Discover the Best Books for Video Editors: A Guide to Inspiring and Elevating Your Craft

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As a video editor, you have a unique perspective on storytelling and the power of visual media. However, it’s important to never stop learning and expanding your skill set. One way to do this is through reading books that delve into the art and technique of filmmaking. Books can provide fresh perspectives, new ideas, and innovative approaches to your work. Whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned professional, there’s always something new to discover in the pages of a good book. In this post, we’ve compiled a list of some of the best books for video editors. These books cover a range of topics, from technical guides to creative inspiration, and will help you take your work to the next level. So, pour yourself a cup of coffee, sit back, and get ready to dive into some truly incredible reads that will inspire and elevate your video editing game.

In the Blink of an Eye: A Perspective on Film Editing

“In the Blink of an Eye” by Walter Murch explores the art of film editing, delving into the practical considerations and aesthetic choices involved in cutting film. The second edition of the book features a complete revision of Murch’s musings on digital editing in response to recent technological advancements.

Available on Amazon

Cutting Rhythms: Intuitive Film Editing

“Cutting Rhythms: Shaping the Film Edit” by Karen Pearlman offers a unique examination of the creative decision-making process of film editing, focusing on the rhythmic creativity and intuition involved in shaping films. This fully revised and updated edition includes new chapters on collaboration and editing thinking, tips on audience engagement, and a companion website with video examples to further illustrate the book’s principles.

Available on Amazon

The Conversations: Walter Murch and the Art of Editing Film

“The Conversations: Walter Murch and the Art of Editing Film” is a revealing look into the worlds of film and literature, offering insights into the craft of editing, writing, music and sound, and the making of some of the most influential movies of the last thirty years. Based on the two-year conversation between Michael Ondaatje and master film editor Walter Murch, this book is a must-read for anyone passionate about film and storytelling.

Available on Amazon

The Technique of Film and Video Editing: History, Theory, and Practice

“The Technique of Film and Video Editing,” by Ken Dancyger provides a comprehensive guide to the artistic and aesthetic principles of picture and sound editing, exploring a range of genres including action, comedy, drama, and documentary. With new chapters on the influence of other media and the importance of surprise in editing, expanded coverage of technology, creative sound, and the long take, and case studies of contemporary and classic films, this book is an essential resource for aspiring and professional editors alike.

Available on Amazon

A Long Time Ago in a Cutting Room Far, Far Away

“A Long Time Ago in a Cutting Room Far, Far Away” provides an intimate look into the life and work of Paul Hirsch, the Oscar-winning film editor. From the making of Star Wars to Taylor Hackford’s Ray, Hirsch offers a behind-the-scenes perspective on some of the most influential films of the last 50 years, breaking down his work movie by movie and providing insight into casting, directing, and scoring while offering intimate portraits of directors, producers, composers, and stars.

Available on Amazon

Art of the Cut: Conversations with Film and TV Editors

“Art of the Cut” provides an in-depth look into the art and technique of contemporary film and television editing through a virtual roundtable discussion with over 50 of the world’s top editors. The book covers a range of topics, including rhythm, pacing, structure, storytelling and collaboration, and includes a glossary of editing terminology and in-depth interviews with influential editors like Margaret Sixel and Tom Cross.

Available on Amazon

Cut to the Monkey: A Hollywood Editor’s Behind-the-Scenes Secrets to Making Hit Comedies

“Cut to the Monkey” shares the techniques for finding humor in projects through anecdotes and experiences in film and television. It includes tips on editing comedy, contributions from big names in the industry, and inspiring stories of overcoming challenges in the field.

Available on Amazon

From Footage to Film: Intimate Insights on Film Editing

In “Footage to Film”, veteran film editor Arik Leibovich shares his personal and professional insights on the crucial role of editing in modern cinema. He provides humor, anecdotes, and guidance on the transformation of raw footage into film, describing what it feels like to sit as the director’s co-pilot.

Available on Amazon

There is no shortage of books for video editors that can help them develop their skills and understanding of the craft. Whether you’re a beginner looking for a comprehensive guide to editing or an experienced professional searching for new techniques, there’s a book out there for you. From “In the Blink of an Eye” by Walter Murch to “Art of the Cut” by Steve Hullfish, these resources offer valuable insights and advice from industry experts. So, whether you’re looking to improve your craft or gain a deeper appreciation for the art of film and television editing, be sure to add these books to your collection.

The BEST way to add a stroke around your video in Premiere Pro

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Once I learned this trick, I had to go slap myself. Seriously. Ignore my earlier post about this topic because this one is much better.

Let’s get started.

Once you have your photo or video adequately sized and placed, you do this.

Add the Drop Shadow effect from the Effects Panel to the clip you want a border around.

First, change your shadow color to what you want. I picked yellow. Then make the Direction 0, and make the Opacity 100%. Finally, change the distance to something like 10.

Now copy and paste that drop shadow effect three times. So you should have four drop shadow effects.

Next, change the Direction in each of the effects to 0, 90, 180, and 270.

Here’s a screenshot that shows the settings for each effect.

Once you get this effect stack set up, you can save it as a preset. And use it in so many different ways.

I also made a video tutorial walking you through the steps and added more information about how versatile this can be for adding a border to your clips in Premiere Pro.

How to Add a Border to a Video Clip in Premiere Pro

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I’ll be first to admit that this should be way easier than it is. And perhaps I’ve missed something along the way. But it should be easy to add a border around a video clip or a still image in Premiere Pro.


So here are two Premiere Pro tips that will show you how to add a border to a video clip. The first one is using a video effect called Grid. The second is using the Essential Graphics Panel.


As always, you’ll need to be working inside a project and have some footage. My project setting is 1920×1080, and my footage is also 1920×1080. I’m also working in Premiere Pro 2021.

Adding a Border to a Video Clip Using the Grid Effect


Find the video clip you want to add a border to in your sequence timeline and then go to your Effects Panel (Shift+7) and locate the Grid effect in the Video Effects folder > Obsolete folder. By the way, you can search “Grid” in the search field next to the eye-glass, and it should pop up.


I know this is an obsolete effect, but let’s live dangerously, shall we.

Drop that effect on your clip.

Open up your Effect Controls panel (Shift+5)

In the Grid effect change the Anchor to 1920.0, 1080.0 (Note: This needs to be the same size as your video clip)
Set Corner to 0.0, 0.0
Set Border to what thickness you want
Set the color to what you want
And change the Blending Mode from None to Normal.

And now you have a border attached to your video clip. If you scale and change the position of the clip, the border should follow and size dynamically.

I learned that this doesn’t work great for clips where the project settings are different from clip settings. For example, if you are working with a 1920×1080 project but using a clip that’s 1280×720.

Adding a Border to a Video Clip Using The Essential Graphics Panel

Now I’ll show you the second way you can add a border to a video clip.

I’ll skip the setup stuff because I know you have your smarty pants on.

It might be slightly helpful to turn on “Snap in Program Monitor,” which you can find by clicking the wrench icon in the program monitor.

Open your Essential Graphics panel

Add a rectangle shape. Turn off fill and then turn on stroke. Give some more width to your liking and color it as you wish.

Change the Anchor Points of the rectangle shape to -5.0, -5.0

Change the position to 0.0, 0.0, and now your rectangle should be at the top left corner.

Now drag the lower right corner of your rectangle down to the bottom right corner of Program Monitor. You don’t need to be exact just yet; we will zoom in and place it just right.

Zoom your Program monitor into something like 200% and use the position bars on the bottom and right side of the program monitor so you can see the bottom right corner.

And now click and drag that corner of your rectangle into place.

Ok, you are nearing the end.

Reset the zoom level of your Program Monitor.

Make sure your essential graphic layer is the length of the clip you are using.

To make this stick to the video layer, if you want to change the scale or something like for a picture in picture effect, we need to nest the clips together.

Select both clips. Right-click and choose Nest…

And now, if you scale down the nested sequence that you just created the video and the border should scale nicely together.

There you have it. I hope that helps you.

Scaling Your Work Area Window

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Every once in a while I see someone post that their Premiere Pro work area is above their OS menu bar and they can’t adjust the window to pull it down. Because when you scale the window by clicking and dragging a corner the top of the Premiere Pro work area window stays anchored in place. You can see how that looks in the GIF below.

So, imagine if that top of your window was someplace above your top dropdown menu and out of reach of your mouse pointer. Pretty frustrating. This literally happened to me today.

I have a fix for you. Just hold down the OPTION key (or the ALT key for Windows) and then click and drag the work area. And now the whole window scales from the center. When my Premiere Pro work area was stuck up above I did this and was able to make it small enough that I then could access the top bar of the work area to reset it into place.

Here’s a GIF of what it looks like when you hold the OPTION (ALT) key and scale your work area window.


Adobe Premiere Pro Best Practices

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Just wanted to make as many people aware that Adobe has posted a Premiere Pro User Guide Best Practices on their site and it’s chockfull of great information that can benefit the beginner and the experienced Premiere Pro video editor.

Adobe Premiere Pro Best Practices

I’m posting this here so I’ll remember it too. Because it’s a great resource for making sure you Premiere Pro editing is fast and efficient.

External Headphones Plugged in but Audio Plays Through Speakers?

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So you want to edit in Premiere Pro with your headphones plugged in, but after you plug them in the audio still plays out of your speakers?

So you go to your Premiere Pro Preferences and then to Audio Hardware and change your default Audio Output to External Headphones. But then 30 minutes later you want to listen to your audio through your speakers and you have to go through the process again?

Or perhaps you remember how it once use to be when it just worked automatically?

Here’s how I fixed this problem on my Apple Mackbook Pro, running MacOS Mojave 10.14.5. If you’re on Windows OS I’m sorry but I can’t help you right now.

Step 1: Plug in your headphones into your computer.

Step 2: Open “Audio Midi Setup app” This is found in your Applications Folder inside the Utilities folder.

Step 3. Once that is open click the “+” button on the lower left hand of the app window and choose “Create Aggregate Device.”

Step 4: After creating the Aggregate Device go to the lower right-hand panel and click the box next to “External Headphones”, then click the box next to “Macbook Pro Speakers”, and finally you’ll probably want to select any audio inputs you want. You get the idea. I believe it may be important that you select your headphones first in the order. If you don’t you can rearrange in the grey window above by dragging the colored rectangles.

Step 5: Closeout of the Audio Midi app and open up Premiere Pro.

Step 6: Go to Preferences, Audio Hardware, and in the “Default Output” choose “Aggregate Device”. You can also set “Default Input” to what you want too. Click Ok and you’re done!

Now if you open up your Audio Hardware preferences again in Premiere Pro and unplug your headphones and then plug them back in you should see your Output Mapping change at the bottom of your window.