premiere

Every new video you create should have its own project file which will appear in your hardrive with .ppj file extension.

The project file contains all of the information about how your video is put together but does NOT contain the actual video and audio files. The media files themselves are saved in a separate folder, which you will setup in the next step.

The project and media files are kept seperate so that you can edit your video together in the proect file without messing with your original media clips. This is known as non-destructive editing and it is one of the most powerful features of digital video editing.

Back to business, start a new project in Premiere:

File...New Project

This will bring up the project settings wizard. Select DV-NTSC...Standard 48kHz. Then click OK.

Click image for larger version.

Next Save your project. Select File...Save. Create or select a project folder to store all of the files for your project and save the project file in that folder.

Set Scratch Disks

You need to configure Premiere so it will find the drive and the project folder where you will be capturing your video clips and creating your Premiere movie.

This is a crucial step in the video capture process. Without directing the computer to your file location, you will not be able to edit your video.

The drive and project folder are called your "scratch disk," which could be a portable firewire drive on which you are storing all your video files.

Note: when using a firewire drive, the drive must be turned on and mounted before opening Premiere.

Start Premiere.

In the menu at the top click on Edit...Preferences...Scratch Disks and Device Control. Select Same as Project File in the Captured Movies dropdown menu

Do the same with Video previews and Audio previews.