The Basics

[garywi01]

I organized a bunch of clips, dropped them the timeline and saved the project.

Before I start editing, I want to see how long this movie will be with all my clips.  I don't see anything that tells me how long in minutes my movie will be?

Also, the Render prompt keeps telling me to render.  What is this for.  Do I do this now, or when I am done with editing?

Does Adobe Premiere make any changes to the original video clip files in any way as I am editing?

I will want to export this to DVD when done to play on TV.

Anything else on the checklist I should do to make a simple movie?

Thanks!

[Steve Grisetti]

Have you checked out my free 8 part Basic Training tutorial series for Premiere Elements?

*** Premiere Elements Basic Training ***

There is no simple answer to a question like if Premiere Elements changes your video. But a basic understanding of how the program works could help you see the answers yourself.

For instance, if you had AVCHD or smartphone video to a project and you output a DVD, the video will have gone from high-def resolution 1920x1080 to DVD resolution 720x480. So it certainly has changed in that your final product won't be high-def. However, beyond that, the video should look every bit as good as the original.

So it's really all about what you put into your project and what you output from it.

[garywi01]

Thanks Steve.  I meant, does me editing a video clip in Premier make any changes to the original file stored on my computer in C:\user\video

Also, I don't see anything that tells me how long in minutes my movie will be?  This will tell me how much editing I want to take on..

Thanks

[Bill Sprague]

garywi01 wrote:

Thanks Steve. I meant, does me editing a video clip in Premier make any changes to the original file stored on my computer in C:\user\video

Also, I don't see anything that tells me how long in minutes my movie will be? This will tell me how much editing I want to take on..

Thanks

I'm not Steve.  He is a busy guy!

Click on "Expert" at the top of your screen and you will see a different style of the timeline that shows the time.  You can switch from Quck to Expert at will.

Premiere Elements does not alter or change your source files.  Video editing is about setting what parts of your source files will be read and used to make an entirely new file at final output.  Most people still keep a good backup system of all source files.  Usually they keep two copies of anything important from documents and photos to video clips.

Bill

[garywi01]

Thank you Bill.  I still don't see time on the Expert view.  There is a scale with numbers.  What do they mean?  00;10;40;18

Also, notification "for smooth high quality playback, render your timeline".  What is this for and when shall I do it?

Thanks!

[Peru Bob]

I'm not either Bill or Steve.

garywi01 wrote:

Thank you Bill. I still don't see time on the Expert view. There is a scale with numbers. What do they mean? 00;10;40;18

Hours;minutes,seconds;frames

garywi01 wrote:

Also, notification "for smooth high quality playback, render your timeline". What is this for and when shall I do it?

If your playback of the timeline while editing is not smooth, then rendering creates previews that can be used by Premiere Elements to be able to "fill in the gaps" to make the playback run smoothly.  If you can edit without rendering, you don't need to render.