Generate a Sequence Automatically
Of all filmmaking tools, few are as useful as the storyboard. Before you shoot, a storyboard helps you visualize and plan your project. During production--when you're acquiring shots out of sequence, sometimes days apart--a storyboard can preserve your sense of continuity. So once the shots are complete, it only seems natural to arrange them into storyboard form before committing them to a rough cut. With Adobe® Premiere® Pro, you can organize clips in the Project window in storyboard fashion, then generate a sequence automatically with video and audio transitions.
1. Set up the Project window.
In the Project window's pop-up menu, choose View > Icon to display your clips in a storyboard-style grid. Go to the Project window's pop-up menu again and choose Thumbnails > Off to uncheck the option and make the clips appear as thumbnail images. To change the size of the thumbnails, choose Thumbnails and select the size you prefer. Resize the Project window to show all of your clips if necessary.
2. Set each clip's thumbnail image.
Select a clip to view it in the preview area at the top of the Project window. Press the Play button next to the preview image, or drag the scroll bar under the preview image to cue the clip to a representative frame. When you've found an image that best signifies the clip's contents, click the Poster Frame button to set the clip's thumbnail image.
If you do not set the poster frame, each clip's In point (initially, a clip's first frame) is used as the thumbnail image. Even if you change the In point later for editing, it may not make the best representative frame in a storyboard.
3. Arrange the clips into a storyboard.
In the Project window, drag the clips into the order you want them to appear in the sequence. Arrange them from left to right, top to bottom, in storyboard fashion. You can drag a marquee to select a group of clips or Ctrl-click to add or subtract from your selection. Clips shift forward in the storyboard to make room for clips you drop into an occupied space in the grid. To quickly move clips back into view that have shifted outside the Project window, and to eliminate empty spaces between clips, choose Clean Up from the Project window's pop-up menu.
4. Edit your clips as needed.
You can double-click a clip to open it in the Source view of the Monitor window and use the Source view's playback controls to watch the clip. Define the first frame you want to include in the sequence by clicking the Set In Point button in Source view, and define the last frame you want to include by clicking the Set Out Point button.
You should set In and Out points to define the parts of the clips you want to use, especially when the source clips include more footage than you plan to include in the final sequence. However, you don't need to be too meticulous: Many editors use the storyboard method to create a quick rough cut and refine the sequence later.
5. Create duplicate clips as needed.
If you want to use parts of a clip more than once in a storyboard, you can create a duplicate clip. Select a clip and choose Edit > Duplicate. With the duplicate clip selected, choose Clip > Rename and give the clip a unique name. Repeat steps 2 through 4 for duplicate clips.
It's important to understand that you can add a source clip to a sequence as many times as you want without creating a duplicate clip. However, duplicate clips can come in handy when you want parts of the same media to appear in different places in a storyboard. Similarly, you might create one or more duplicate clips from a very lengthy and unwieldy clip. This way, you could treat each portion of the shot as a different clip.
6. Select the clips to add to the sequence.
Once you've completed your storyboard, select the shots you want to include in the sequence. To select all the shots in the Project window, choose Edit > Select All. If you don't want to include everything in the storyboard, you can drag a marquee to select a group of shots or Ctrl-click to add and subtract shots from your selection.
The whole idea of a storyboard is to put your shots in sequential order. Nevertheless, you can have Adobe Premiere Pro place them in the sequence according to the order you select the clips instead.
7. Add clips to a sequence.
Click the Automate To Sequence button at the bottom of the Project window. Specify the options you want in the Automate To Sequence dialog box. For Ordering, you can choose Sort Order, because you've arranged your clips into a storyboard. For Placement, choose Sequentially; because you're creating a rough cut, you can place the clips one after the other rather than at predefined points in the sequence. It does not matter what you choose for Method--Insert Edit or Overlay Edit--because in this case, there aren't any clips in the sequence already. If you want a specific transition between each clip, check the appropriate box or boxes to apply the default audio or video transition. Specify the duration of the transitions by entering a value for Clip Overlap. To exclude either the video or audio tracks, select the appropriate Ignore option.
When you click OK, the clips in your storyboard are instantly assembled into a sequence according to the options you specified.
