Beginner’s Step-by-Step Guide to Creating a Professional Video for Free

9 min readJun 18, 2019

Windows 10 Screen Recorder & Adobe Premiere Pro 2019 (Trial Version)

INTRODUCTION

While creating a pro-looking video for the very first time for my website, I was frustrated with the lack of good online tutorials and found most Youtube videos for using Premiere Pro (PP) either outdated or unclear.

I therefore learned most of it on the go and in the process, made this tutorial to help others. So whether you’re looking to create a video for an upcoming presentation; an aspiring Youtube star; or simply curious about video editing; this article is for you!

Hard & Software used:

Adobe Premiere Pro’s 7-day trial period with unlimited access to the entire video editing suite
Pre-installed Windows 10 (X-box) Screen Recorder (Mac users can use Quicktime Player)
Headset with microphone for narration (Any crap mike will do, but get a $50 mike for optimum sound)
Free background music tracks (NOT royalty-free tracks) can be found on Youtube
Free Stock Videos can be found at Pexels, Stock Footage for Free, Pixabay, Videezy, Videvo
Your own videos (Smartphone videos are good enough)
Free Stock Photos can be found at Pixabay, Pexels, Unsplash

Note: Royalty-free videos/photos/music are NOT free. Royalty-free simply means you do not need to pay the owner every time you use the footage, but you have to pay a one-time fee to download or use it.

RECORDING VIDEOS

First off, you obviously need some video material. I used the Windows 10 X-box Screen Recorder (Officially the Game Bar), which is free and easy to use.

To activate the Game Bar, you must have an app (or any web page) open. Press <Windows Key + G> simultaneously. The below prompt will appear:

Click the box “Yes, this is a game.” This opens the Game Bar at the bottom of your screen:

You can either click the ⚫ recording button or press <Windows Key + Alt + R> simultaneously to begin recording. A small recording bar will appear at the top right of your screen:

To stop recording, click the stop button or press <Windows Key + Alt + R> simultaneously.

Tip: The <Windows Key + Alt + R> method is much better as you can remotely start/stop the recording without moving your mouse, which will look distracting on your video.

Tip: It’s generally better to do recordings a bit slower (You can always speed it up later during editing but slowing it down is harder).

Your screen recordings are saved in mp4 format. Open “This PC”, “Videos” folder, and “Captures” to view them.

LAUNCHING PREMIERE PRO

Now that you’ve got some material, it’s time to slap it together. If you haven’t already, download Premiere Pro. You will need to create an Adobe account if you haven’t one, but a quick sign-in via FB or Google is available:

Open the Creative Cloud Launcher and click on “Premiere Pro” to open the app. Then click “New Project”.

PREMIERE PRO WORKSPACE & PANEL LAYOUT

The Menu bar at the very top shows some core functions, like saving your project and exporting to MP4 format.

Below the Menu bar are your standard Preset Workspaces (PW). The two more important PWs are “Effects” and “Essential Graphics”.

Below these are the four main Workspace Panels. Those on the right (Program & Timeline) are most important:

The Program panel is where your audio or video clip will play and where you can edit the clip itself, whether by moving the position, scaling the clip size, adding text, and more.
The Timeline panel is where you compile your entire video, such as adding or removing clips, trimming clip length, adding audio or video tracks, ensuring everything syncs up nicely, etc.

The Toolbar panel contains tools for editing your clips. The four essential tools are Selection (default), Ripple Edit, Razor, and Text.

All panels can be shifted around, merged, undocked and other more advanced options, but at this stage it’s best to keep to this default layout.

Tip: If your panels get messed up and you want to return to default layout, click “Window”, then “Revert to saved layout”, as below:

PREMIERE PRO BASICS

Now let’s begin. Select your first image/video from an existing folder and drag it to the Timeline panel (Multiple selections have to be dragged or copy-pasted to the Project panel.)

You can now see default tracks in the Timeline (Video is V1–3; Audio A1–3).

Use V1 as your main video track (V2 onwards are for supporting visuals, such as text overlays).
Click and drag clips across the timeline to rearrange them.
Adjust the Timeline view by expanding, contracting or moving the slider at the bottom of the panel.
To trim a clip, move your cursor to the left or right end of a clip. A Trim symbol will appear; simply click and drag to trim the clip.

Use the Razor Tool to cut a clip into two or more clips.

Use the Ripple Tool to adjust an edit point and simultaneously move other clips in the timeline. (This may sometimes not work due to overlaying clip(s) causing a system conflict)
Hit “Backspace” or “Delete” to delete a clip.
Made an error? Simply click “Edit” on the top of the app and “Undo”.

Add audio clips (e.g. background music) to an audio track by dragging and dropping. Editing audio clips is similar to video.

To expand a track view, click on the track at the left side of the Timeline panel.

To adjust the vertical track view, expand, contract or move the slider at the right of the Timeline panel.

RESIZE, RE-POSITION, OR SCALE CLIPS

To resize, reposition or scale a clip, first ensure the Timeline Marker (blue line) is over the clip in the Timeline panel.

Then select the clip, go to the Program panel, and double-click the image to allow you to drag or resize as you wish.

INCREASE OR DECREASE CLIP SPEED

Right-click the clip and select “Speed/Duration” then adjust the % levels: Increasing the % will speed up the clip. Decreasing it will slow down (or even sorta ‘pause’) the clip.

Tip: Use the Razor Tool to cut up a clip to further allow you to speed up/slow-down /pause specific portions.

ADDING & EDITING TEXT/SHAPES WITHIN A CLIP

To add text within a clip, select the Text Tool from the toolbar. Double click the video in the Program Panel and type the text.

To edit the text, click on “Effects”, “Essential Graphics”, and “Edit” tab. Here you can change the size, alignments, fonts, colors and much more.

To create vertical text or add simple shapes such as a rectangle or ellipse (circle/oval), click on the “New Layer” and select the text/shape.

Change the appearance by tweaking the Fill, Stroke & Color options.
Change the thickness using “Stroke Width”.

VOICE RECORDING

Ensure your mike or headset is setup. Most will auto-connect (plug & play) but if you encounter problems, go to “Edit”, “Preferences” and click “Audio Hardware” to view or change your mike input.

Expand a blank Audio track (A3 in this case) and click the Recording button to start a 3 second countdown to your voice recording.

Stop the recording by pressing the Recording button again. Your voice recording now appears as an audio file which you can edit and shift same as any other clip.

Tip: Record your voice a bit slower and leave ample pauses between sentences to facilitate editing and cutting. You can keep recording the same lines over and over in one sitting then later choose the best one and discard the rest.

ADJUSTING VOLUME

To finely adjust the volume, ensure the audio track is enlarged. Then select the audio clip in the timeline and drag the sound bar up or down.

To do smooth volume transitions between audio clips of different volumes, go to “Effects”, “Audio Transitions”, “Crossfade” and select “Exponential Fade”. Drag and drop this between the audio clips, as below:

INSERTING CLIPS BETWEEN EXISTING CLIPS

Need to insert a clip? Click and drag the new clip to the desired place, then hold <Ctrl> to enable insertion of this clip and automatically shift the later ones forward (You may need to adjust any audio clips which have also been moved).

CONVERTING TO MP4

Once you’ve finished editing, it’s time to convert your video to a proper media file format (usually MP4):

Go to “File”, then “Export”.
Select “Media” and an Output window will pop up. Under Format, select “H264”. Click “Export” to complete the conversion.

All PP & converted files (MP4) can be found in the Premiere Pro folder (C:\This PC\Documents\Adobe\Premiere Pro\13.0)

THAT’S IT!

You’re all set. Tinker around to learn more tools and features, and enjoy creating your very own video! I’ve barely scratched the surface myself, having had only 2 weeks worth of PP experience (Bought a 1 month subscription to complete this tutorial), and I enjoyed it!

EXTRA INFORMATION

ERRORS, BUGS & SYSTEM GLITCHES

If you encounter errors like unresponsive buttons or items not displaying properly, it could be due to a random system glitch (Happens a few times). One solution is to save your project and close PP, then restart. If the error persists, it could be due to a system conflict with the clips; Try deleting some and redoing.

PP exports your clips directly from source locations on your computer, so shifting or renaming these source clips will cause an error on your video. You can rectify this error by redirecting PP to the correct source file.

Multiple actions such as several voice recordings may cause the Timeline panel to inexplicably freeze up. A solution that worked for me was changing the Project panel to “List” display and/or just opening and closing a Preset Workspace.

SIMPLE VIDEO TRANSITION EFFECTS

Go to “Video Transitions”, choose a file such as “Immersive Video”, then drag and drop an effect such as “VR Chrome Leaks” in between two clips.

MARKERS

Markers are useful for ‘marking’ specific portions of your clips for later editing, especially if you are working on a lengthy video. Select the “Add Marker” button to add the marker. Click the marker to show the options bar.