Every week, Frame.io Insider asks one of our expert contributors to share a tip, tool, or technique that they use all the time and couldn’t live without. This week, Jarle Leirpoll shares how to make your Premiere Pro rough cuts faster using top and tail editing.
There are basically two main ways to edit video. You either start with an empty timeline and add clips after setting in and out points in the source monitor. Or you throw several clips in the timeline, and trim off the unwanted parts using top and tail editing in the timeline.
Top and tail editing is faster, because you perform fewer operations on every clip.
How to top and tail edit in Premiere Pro
First, select the clips you need, and add them to the timeline. I recommend that you do this using the storyboarding technique I explained in another insider tip. (Link to the tip on storyboarding).
Place the playhead at the start of the first clip, and rest three fingers on your right hand on the J, K, and L keys, and two fingers on your left hand on the Q and W keys.
Play back and navigate your timeline using the J, K, and L keys. Park the playhead where you want the in point of a clip and hit Q to trim off the top. Park the playhead where you want the out point of a clip and hit W to trim off the tail. Just one keyboard hit per operation!
Rinse and repeat until all clips have been trimmed.
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