Reporters, even those at newspapers, are increasingly being asked to produce video news segments for websites. This includes shooting digital video footage, editing the footage and then uploading it to the website.

The problem is, video editing software, especially the kind used by professional videographers, can seem daunting at first. Such programs offer seemingly an infinite array of capabilities and options, which can make mastering the software tricky.


But the good news is that journalists doing 90-second or two-minute news reports aren't looking to become the next Steven Spielberg, and so they don't need to learn how to use everything such software offers. All they really need is to use such programs in a basic way. That's why I've created these easy, bare-bones instructions for Adobe Premiere Pro, one of the most popular professional-grade video editing programs. (Note: You can finds more detailed instructions at About.com's Digital Video site.)

Opening the Program and Importing Files

Open the program and click "new project."

Give the project a name and click "OK."

The next window will show "sequence one." Click "OK" again.

Go to "file" at the top menu and click "import" on the drop-down menu.

Navigate to the video and audio files you want to use for your project. Click on the ones you want and click "open." You can use the control key to click on all the files at once.

The files you imported should be in the square in the lower left-hand corner of your screen.

On the bottom right you will see the timeline that you will use to edit your video. At the top left is a screen that you can use to watch the original files. At the top right is a screen that shows what's on your editing timeline.

Drag the clips that you want to use over to your timeline. You will see that there are numbered channels for both video and audio. To keep things simple, you can drag your first clip into the "video one" and "audio one" channels. Your second clip can be dragged into the "video two" and "audio two" channels and so on. These can be moved and rearranged later.

Once your clips are in the timeline, you can look at what you have by clicking the play button under the timeline monitor or by dragging the sliding red stick across the clips to pinpoint the area you want to edit.

Editing Clips

The simplest way to edit a clip is to hit "C" on your keyboard (for cut). When you do that you'll notice that your cursor turns into a razor blade. Once that happens, click on the beginning part of the clip you want to cut, then click again at the end of the part that you want to cut. Then they hit "V" on your keyboard to revert back to your selection tool. Click on the section of the clip that you've just cut with the razor blade, and hit "delete." Now you will have a space on the timeline where the deleted clip was. You can just drag the clips together on the timeline, making sure that your cursor is in selection mode instead of cut mode.

Creating Titles

Navigate to the part of your clip where you want your title to be. Then click "title" in the top menu and then click "new title" and "default still." You will get a pop-up screen that gives the title a number. Click "OK." A pop-up box will show your video clip. Click the area (within the defined boxes) where you want your title to go. Generally speaking, if you are identifying a person who is speaking in your video, the title with their name should go at the bottom of the screen. Click that area and a blinking box will appear. You can type the name or the title in that box, then adjust the size and the style of the font you want to use.

Once the title looks the way you want it to, close the title box and the title should appear in the lower left-hand box that contains the rest of your clips. You can now drag your title over to the timeline and position it where you want it to go. If you want the title to be superimposed over the video clip, then it needs to go into its own channel. So if your main video is in channel 1, the title should go into channel two. Once your title is in your editing timeline, you can shorten it or lengthen it by dragging it from the side.

Overlapping Video Clips

Sometimes you will want to have video clips overlap one another. For instance, if you have a long clip of someone being interviewed, you may want to overlap part of that interview with some B-roll (background footage). So if your interview footage is in  video channel 1, place your b-roll in video channel 2 at the part of the interview you want to overlap. Now when you watch the clip you will see the video switch from the person being interviewed to the B-roll footage.

Note: when you have two video clips overlapping one another, you may have to adjust your audio levels (see below) so that the sound from your b-roll doesn't overwhelm the sound of your interview.

Adjusting Audio Levels

To adjust the volume of the audio on your clips, click the arrow just to the left of where it says "audio 1," "audio 2," and so on. When you click that arrow the audio track will expand to reveal the soundwaves within that track. In the middle of the soundwave you will see a yellow bar running through the middle of the clip. Click on that bar and drag it up to make the audio louder, or down to make it quieter.

Deleting the Audio From a Video Clip

Sometimes you may want to delete the audio entirely from a video clip. To do this, right click the video clip, then click "unlink" on the menu that pops up. This will separate the audio and video tracks of that clip. Then just click on the audio clip and hit "delete." The audio will now be eliminated from that video clip.

Exporting Your Finished Video

Go to "file" at the top menu, then click "export" and "media." Click the "export" button on the lower right corner of the pop-up box, and the program will begin to encode your video. This may take several minutes, depending on the length of your video. But once this process is complete, your video is done and ready to upload.

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