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“Choose fields in the Source and Program Monitors” on page 126

Duration and speed

View the total duration of selected clips

1Make sure that the Info panel is visible. If it is not, choose Window > Info.

2In either the Project panel or Timeline panel, select the clips for which you want to know the total duration. The Info panel displays the number of items selected and the total duration of those items. This information is useful if you want to paste clips into a specific area and need to know the exact duration of the target area or of the source clips.

Note: If you select contiguous clips in the Project panel, the Info panel displays the total duration of all the clips you select. However, if you select noncontiguous clips in a sequence, the Info panel displays the duration as a range, from In point of the first clip you selected, to the Out point of the last clip you selected. For the purpose of copying and pasting, the duration of a particular range is more important than the sum of all the clips’ durations. If you copy and paste a noncontiguous group of sequence clips, the pasted clips will occupy the range noted on the Info panel and the areas that you did not select will be empty.

Change the default duration for still images

1Choose Edit > Preferences > General (Windows) or Premiere Pro > Preferences > General (Mac OS).

2For Still Image Default Duration, specify the number of frames you want as a default duration for a still image.

Note: Changing the default duration of still images does not affect the duration of still images that are already part of a sequence or that have already been imported. You will have to re-import the images after you change the default duration to get a different duration for the images.

Change speed and duration for one or more clips

The speed of a clip is the playback rate compared to the rate at which it was recorded. Initially, a clip plays back at its normal, 100% speed. (Even if the frame rate of the source footage doesn’t match that of the sequence, the sequence automatically reconciles the difference. It plays back the clip at its proper speed.)

In a Timeline panel, clips with speed changes are indicated with a percentage of the original speed.

Changing clip speed omits or repeats the source frames during playback, thereby making the clip play faster or slower. A change in speed results in a corresponding change in duration, unless the clip is simultaneously trimmed. You can, for example, ungang speed from duration in the Clip Speed/Duration dialog box. Then, when you increase the speed, Premiere Pro uses more of the clip to fill the duration between the In point and the Out point. When you decrease the speed, Premiere Pro uses less of the clip to fill the duration.

You can ungang speed and duration with more than one clip selected. Then, you can change the duration of the clips. For example, you can change the speeds only enough to make all the clips last the same duration.

When you change the speed of a clip containing interlaced fields, you can adjust how Premiere Pro treats the fields. Consider making this adjustment especially when the speed drops below 100% of the original speed. (See “Create interlaced or non-interlaced clips” on page 310.)

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You can use frame blending to smooth the appearance of a speed effect that changes the time or frame rate of a clip. To enable frame blending, choose Clip > Video Options > Frame Blend. For more information about frame blending, see “Blend frames for smooth motion” on page 306.

The duration of a clip is the length of time it takes to play from the In point to the Out point. You can set a duration for video or audio clips, letting them speed up or slow down to fill the duration. You can do the same for still-image clips, but without the changes in speed.

You can change the speed and duration for one or more clips at a time.

You can also set clip speed to fill a duration by performing a four-point edit.

1In a Timeline panel or Project panel, select one or more clips. Shift-click to select clips in a Timeline panel or a contiguous group in a Project panel. Ctrl-click (Windows) or Command-click (Mac OS) clips to select a noncontiguous group of clips in a Project panel. To change speed or duration of all the clips in a bin in the Project panel and its nested bins, select the bin. The change does not affect non-media clips, such as Sequences and offline clips, in the bin.

2Choose Clip > Speed/Duration.

3Do any of the following:

•To change the duration without changing the speed of the selected clips, click the gang button so that it shows a broken link . Unganging also allows you to change the speed without changing the duration.

The speed remains at the percentage set while you trim the clip or clips. Alternatively, the duration remains at the percentage set while you change the speed of the clip or clips.

•To play the clips backward, check Reverse Speed.

•To keep the audio at its current pitch while the speed or duration changes, check Maintain Audio Pitch.

•To keep the clips following the changing clips adjacent to them, click Ripple Edit, Shifting Trailing Clips. (This option is available only when changing the speed or duration of clips in a Timeline panel.)

4 Click OK.

Chad Perkins and Lynda.com provides a video tutorial detailing how to change the speed of a clip in Premiere Pro CS5.

Change clip speed and duration with the Rate Stretch tool

You can change a clip’s speed to fit a duration.

Select the Rate Stretch tool , and drag either edge of a clip in a Timeline panel.

Changing clip speed using the Rate Stretch tool

See this video tutorial by Andrew Devis on the razor and rate stretch tools.

Author Phil Hawkins also shows how to use the Rate Stretch tool in this Premiere CS5 tutorial video at Infinite Skills.

Last updated 1/16/2012

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Change clip speed and duration with Time Remapping

You can change the speed of the video portion of a whole clip. You can use Time Remapping to create slow motion and fast motion effects in which the rate of speed varies.

1In the track header of the video track containing the desired clip, click the Show Keyframes button. If it is not selected, select Show Keyframes.

2Click the Clip Effect menu triangle, and choose Time Remapping > Speed. (The Clip Effect menu triangle appears next to the filename of every clip in a video track. If it is hard to see, zoom in to make enough room in the clip to display it.)

A horizontal rubber band that controls the speed of the clip appears across the center of the clip.

3Drag the rubber band upward or downward to increase or decrease the speed of the clip. A tool tip appears showing the change in speed as a percentage of the original speed.

The playback speed of the video portion of the clip changes and its duration expands or contracts depending on whether its speed is increased or decreased. The audio portion of the clip remains unchanged by Time Remapping, although it remains linked to the video portion.

Note: When you lengthen a clip in a sequence by slowing its speed, it will not overwrite an adjacent clip. Instead, the clip expands until it touches the edge of the adjacent clip. Adobe Premiere Pro then pushes remaining frames into the tail of the lengthened clip. To recover these frames, create a gap after the clip and trim its right edge to reveal them.

Franklin McMahon provides a video tutorial demonstrating time remapping on the Layers Magazine website.

Vary changes to speed or direction with Time Remapping

You can speed up, slow down, play backward, or freeze video portions of a clip using the Time Remapping effect. Using speed keyframes, you can change speed numerous times within the same clip. Take a clip of a man walking, for example. You can show him moving forward quickly, slowing suddenly, stopping mid-step, and even walking backward, before resuming his forward motion. Unlike Clip Speed/Duration which applies a constant speed across the entire clip, Time Remapping allows you to vary the speed throughout the clip. Also, you can ease in or ease out speed changes.

You can apply time remapping only to instances of clips in a Timeline panel, not to master clips.

When you vary the speed of a clip with linked audio and video, the audio remains linked to the video, but remains at 100% speed. The audio does not remain synchronized with the video.

You create variable speed changes by applying speed keyframes. You can apply speed keyframes in the Effect Controls panel, or in a clip in a Timeline panel. Applying speed keyframes in either location is like keyframing Motion, Opacity, or any other keyframe effect, with one notable difference: a speed keyframe can be split to create a transition between two different playback speeds. When first applied to a track item, any change in playback speed on either side of a speed keyframe is instantaneous at that frame. When the speed keyframe is dragged apart and spread out beyond one frame, the halves form a speed change transition. Here, you can apply linear or smooth curves to ease in or ease out the change between playback speeds.

For a video tutorial about variable speed changes, see the Adobe website.

For a video tutorial about time remapping, see the Creative COW website.

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Footage is displayed at constant speed in one direction.

Time-remapping distorts time for range of frames within clip.

Note: It is best to apply time remapping controls to a clip in its own video track, or at least one not followed immediately by other clips. Slowing any portion of a clip makes the duration of that clip longer. If a second clip immediately follows the lengthened clip in the video track, the lengthened clip is automatically trimmed where the second clip begins. To recover the frames trimmed from the lengthened clip, click the Track Select tool, Then Shift-drag the second clip toward the right to make room. All clips lying to the right move to the right. Click the Selection Tool, then drag the right edge of the lengthened clip to the right, exposing its trimmed frames.

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Effects and transitions

More Help topics

Slow motion and time remapping

“Add markers” on page 210

Creative COW: Time Remapping In Premiere Pro CS3

Vary change to clip speed

1In a Timeline panel, click the Clip Effect menu and choose Time Remapping > Speed. (The Clip Effect menu appears next to the filename of every clip in a video track. Zoom in, if necessary, to make enough room in the clip to display the menu.)

A horizontal rubber band that controls the speed of the clip appears across the center of the clip. The clip is shaded in contrasting colors above and below the 100% speed demarcation. A white speed-control track appears in the upper portion of the clip, just below the clip title bar.

Choosing Time Remapping > Speed from a video effect control

2Ctrl-click (Windows) or Command-click (Mac OS) at least one point on the rubber band to set a keyframe. Speed keyframes appear near the top of the clip, above the rubber band in the white speed-control track. Speed keyframes can be split in half, acting as two keyframes for marking the beginning and end of a speed-change transition.

Adjustment handles also appear on the rubber band, in the middle of the speed-change transition.

A B

Moving a speed keyframe up or down. Note its separable halves.

A. Speed keyframe B. Rubber band

3 Do one of the following:

•Drag the rubber band on either side of the speed keyframe up or down to increase or decrease the playback speed of that portion. (Optional) Press Shift while dragging to limit the speed change values to 5% increments.

•Shift-drag the speed keyframe to the left or right to change the speed of the portion to the left of the speed keyframe.

Both the speed and duration of the segment change. Speeding up a segment of a clip makes the segment shorter, and slowing down a segment makes it longer.

4 (Optional) To create a speed transition, drag the right half of the speed keyframe to the right, or the left half to the left.

A gray area appears between the halves of the speed keyframe, indicating the length of the speed transition. The rubber band forms a ramp between the two halves, indicating a gradual change in speed occurring between them. A blue curve control appears in the gray area. If the blue curve control does not appear automatically, click in the gray area.

Note: If the blue curve control does not appear, click in the gray area.

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Blue curve control in gray area between halves of a speed keyframe

5(Optional) To change the acceleration or deceleration of the speed change, drag either of the handles on the curve control.

The change of speed eases in or eases out according to the curvature of the speed ramp.

Dragging a curve control handle to ease in a speed change

6 (Optional) To revert a transition speed change, select the unwanted half of the speed keyframe, and press Delete.

Note: Speed and Velocity values for the Time Remapping effect are shown in the Effect Controls panel for reference only. You cannot edit these values directly there.

Move an unsplit speed keyframe

In a Timeline, Alt-click (Windows) or Option-click (Mac OS) the unsplit speed keyframe, and drag it into its new position.

Move a split speed keyframe

In the white control track area of the clip, drag the grey-shaded area of the speed transition into its new position.

Play a clip backward, then forward

1In a Timeline panel, click the Clip Effect menu and choose Time Remapping > Speed. (The Clip Effect menu appears next to the filename of every clip in a video track. Zoom in, if necessary, to make enough room in the clip to display the menu.)

A horizontal rubber band that controls the speed of the clip appears across the center of the clip. The clip is shaded in contrasting colors above and below the 100% speed demarcation. A white speed control track appears in the upper portion of the clip, just below the clip title bar.

2 Ctrl-click (Windows) or Command-click (Mac OS) on the rubber band to create a speed keyframe .

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Effects and transitions

3Ctrl-drag (Windows) or Command-drag (Mac OS) a speed keyframe (both halves) to the place where you want the backward motion to end. A tool tip shows the speed as a negative percentage of the original speed. The Program monitor displays two panes: the static frame where you initiated the drag, and a dynamically updating frame that reverse playback returns to before switching to forward speed. When you release the mouse button to end the drag, an additional segment is added for the forward playback portion. The new segment has the same duration as the segment you created. An additional speed keyframe is placed at the end of this second segment. Left-pointing angle brackets appear in the speed-control track, indicating the section of the clip playing in reverse.

The segment plays backward at full speed from the first keyframe to the second. Then, it plays forward at full speed from the second to the third keyframe. Finally, it returns to the frame at which the backward motion began. This effect is called a palindrome reverse.

You can create a segment that plays in reverse and doesn't return to forward playback. Use the Razor tool or the Trim tool to remove the segment of the clip with the forward playback section.

Keyframes, left-pointing angle brackets, and rubber band in a palindrome reverse

4(Optional) You can create a speed transition for any part of the change in direction. Drag the right half of a speed keyframe to the right, or the left half to the left.

A gray area appears between the halves of the speed keyframe, indicating the length of the speed transition. The rubber band forms a ramp between the two halves, indicating a gradual change in speed occurring between them. A blue curve control appears in the gray area.

Blue curve control in gray area between the halves of a speed keyframe

5(Optional) To change the acceleration or deceleration of any part of the directional change, drag either of the handles on the curve control.

The change of speed eases in or eases out according to the curvature of the speed ramp.

Last updated 1/16/2012