The Adobe Premiere Pro timeline for Final Cut Pro users

the EDITBLOG on PVC by Scott Simmons

Editors spend so much time in the timeline it’s worth an in-depth look

When working in a non-linear editing application the editor spends many, many hours working in the timeline. Boy do we spend a lot of hours working in the timeline. If you’re moving from Final Cut Pro 7 to Adobe Premiere Pro 5.5 then you won’t be totally lost as there are a lot of similarities between the two application’s timelines. But there are some important differences as well. Let’s take a closer look at the Premiere Pro timeline if you’re moving from FCP 7. Did I mention how much time editors spend working in the timeline?

A few timeline basics.

The first thing you’ll probably notice is that they look similar in that both are track based. There are video and audio tracks just waiting for media. Both applications have a “patch bay” on the left for routing source media into the desired tracks. In PPro the source side media patches don’t disconnect or break like they do in FCP7 but rather you turn them on and off with a click, which highlights when the tracks are on.

Drag the source patches on the left (that is the V or the A) up or down to route the source media to the desired destination tracks in the timeline. Or right+click on a track name and choose Assign Source video or audio. It’s important to note that on the Program side (or in the timeline itself) PPro doesn’t have the tiny Toggle Auto Select indicators that FCP7 has to toggle tracks on and off for things like IN to OUT selections. Instead click the Video 1, Video 2 button itself to turn a track on or off. Active tracks are highlighted in a lighter gray. read more...