Chapter 2. Import Your Clips
Before you can create a movie that will entertain friends and family, you need to move your raw video clips from your video recorder to your computer. These days, you shoot video with a slew of gadgets, including camcorders, digital cameras, and cellphones. The technique for transferring raw footage to your computer varies by device, but fortunately Premiere simplifies the process. Best of all, after you import video a few times, it becomes second nature. This chapter is your roadmap to importing clips.
Chances are your finished masterpiece will include more than just video clips. You may add music, narration, still photos, and other images. You need to import all these media “assets,” but this chapter focuses on video. For details on importing other media, see Chapter 3.
Video Camera Storage Methods
Digital video files are big, so big that storage and processing power have always been issues when it comes to editing video on a PC. The good news is that personal computers keep improving, sporting bigger hard drives and faster processors. If you bought a computer in the last five years (stripped-down netbooks aside), odds are it’ll run Premiere (see Get Ready for Installation for Premiere’s system requirements).
At the same time, camcorders have evolved, too. Like all electronic gadgets, the trend is toward smaller devices that hold more. New camcorders benefit from better memory chips and advanced hard drive technology. As a result, video cameras are smaller ...
Get Premiere Elements 8: The Missing Manual now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
