12 Weeks
Level 2
3-Credit Tuition
$1,545Non-Credit Tuition
$1,290Visuals are an intrinsic part of modern music. Whether you’re at a live show, watching music videos online, or browsing streaming platforms, it’s rare that you don’t see some kind of moving image associated with the music you’re hearing. From traditional music videos and lyric videos, to VJ loops, visualizers, and short-format videos for social media, this course covers creative editing techniques to help you tell your story.
In this course, you’ll be using Adobe Premiere, an industry-standard editing tool for creating video content for film, television, and the web. You’ll learn how to organize and manage all your digital video assets, work in a timeline editor, and export finished products in a variety of formats. Approaching video production with a musical mindset, you’ll navigate through these processes much like music creators do when working with digital audio in a DAW.
As part of the course, you’ll also learn about fundamental technical aspects of working on video, such as resolutions, aspect ratios, and codecs, as well as advanced techniques like compositing, keying, and color correction. You’ll also dip your toes into Adobe After Effects, part of the Adobe Creative Suite, to explore effects and motion graphics that you can add to your video edits.
By the end of the course, you will be able to:
- Identify different types of video files and codecs
- Import media into an Adobe Premiere project and file structure
- Creatively edit footage into a polished-looking final product
- Add creative effects and motion graphics to your video edits
- Add music and sound effects to your videos
- Finalize your projects and apply color-correction
- Export finished videos for various formats
- Create artistic videos for YouTube and other top social media platforms
Syllabus
Lesson 1: Diving into Adobe Premiere Pro
- Practical Information: Footage, Software, and Final Project
- Installing Creative Cloud and Opening Adobe Premiere Pro
- Practice Exercise: Building a Project File
- A Look at Different Panels and Layouts
- Practice Exercise: Importing Footage and Starting an Edit
- Practice Exercise: Exporting a Video
- Relinking Lost Media
- Assignment 1: Work Inside Premiere
Lesson 2: Managing Digital Media
- Resolutions and Aspect Ratios
- Video Codecs
- Practice Exercise: Video File Information
- Using Adobe Media Encoder
- Creating Bins inside Adobe Premiere Pro
- Working with Audio Clips
- Assignment 2: Editing Practice
Lesson 3: Working with the Timeline
- Sequences and Clips in Your Project File
- Sequence Settings
- Timeline’s Essential Editing Tools
- In and Out Points
- Layering Footage and Blend Modes
- The Program Monitor Panel
- Assignment 3: 'One Second Per Day'–Style Video
Lesson 4: Getting Creative with the Timeline
- Changing a Clip’s Speed and Duration
- Transitions
- Creating Text
- Keyframing
- Assignment 4: Create a Title Sequence
Lesson 5: Working with Audio
- Review of Common Audio File Formats
- Bringing and Syncing Audio in Your Timeline
- The Audio Clip Mixer
- Adding Effects and the Audio Track Mixer
- Assignment 5: Cut Some Video, and Audio!
Lesson 6: Basic Motion Graphics
- The Effects Workspace
- Essential Graphics
- Additional Video Sources
- Still Images
- Looping Animations
- Assignment 6: Let’s Loop!
Lesson 7: Creative Effects and Utilities
- Masking
- Copy and Paste Attributes
- Adjustment Layers
- Keyframe Interpolation
- Assignment 7: Loops for Building a Sequence
Lesson 8: Creative Effects, Part 2
- Lumetri Color
- Combining Effects and Saving Presets
- Track Matte Key
- Adobe After Effects
- Assignment 8: Final Project Proposal
Lesson 9: Multicam Editing
- Syncing Multicam Footage with Audio
- Nesting a Sequence
- Enabling Multi-Camera Editing
- Analysis: NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts
- Assignment 9: Create a Multicam Edit
Lesson 10: Keying
- What is Keying?
- Alpha Channels
- Ultra Key
- Luma Key
- Exporting with Alpha
- Assignment 10: Final Project Source Material
Lesson 11: Color Correction
- Color and Light
- The Color Workspace
- Color Correction: Balancing Your Footage
- Color Curves and Wheels: Stylization and LUTs
- Using Creative Overlays
- Assignment 11: Final Project Rough Cut
Lesson 12: Finalizing Your Video for Different Contexts
- Formats and Presets
- Changing an Export Preset
- Queueing Multiple Exports
- Assignment 12: Final Project Submission
Requirements
Prerequisites and Course-Specific Requirements
Prerequisite Courses, Knowledge, and/or Skills
Students should have a basic understanding of working with media files including movies that can play in QuickTime or Windows Media Player, and audio files like WAV and MP3.
Software
- Adobe Creative Cloud subscription
- Recommended: Envato Elements subscription
Hardware
- Recommended: Camera capable of recording 1080p videos. Options include DSLR, mirrorless, cinema camera, camcorder, or smartphone.
Important Technical/System Considerations
- A minimum of 500 GB of unused storage space (an external SSD is recommended)
Student Deals
After enrolling, be sure to check out our Student Deals page for various offers on software, hardware, and more. Please contact support@online.berklee.edu with any questions.
General Course Requirements
Below are the minimum requirements to access the course environment and participate in Live Classes. Please make sure to also check the Prerequisites and Course-Specific Requirements section above, and ensure your computer meets or exceeds the minimum system requirements for all software needed for your course.
Mac Users
PC Users
All Users
- Latest version of Google Chrome
- Zoom meeting software
- Webcam
- Speakers or headphones
- External or internal microphone
- Broadband Internet connection
Instructors
Author
Known to many by his old DJ name (Ghostdad), Ryan Sciaino’s practice centers around combining music and the moving image. He has spent more than a decade touring with DJs, rappers, and bands, creating impactful video experiences for audiences worldwide. You can see his work annually at festivals like Coachella, Bonnaroo, EDC, and Ultra.
To create his art, Ryan uses a variety of time-based software along with real-time game engines and patching environments. He is passionate about art direction, performance, and generative methods of music and art-making. In 2021 Ryan joined the faculty of BerkleeNYC in their Live Music Production and Design department housed in the historic Power Station studios in Manhattan. Read Less
Instructor
Maria Gabriela Torres is a Venezuelan documentary editor and filmmaker with a background in journalism and TV production. She has a BA in journalism and began her career on TV as a content producer for a free-to-air radio and tv network in Colombia. In 2017 she obtained a graduate certificate in Documentary Studies from The New School and homed in on her editing skills at The Edit Center under editors like Kate Sanford (Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) and Amy Foote (All The Beauty and The Bloodshed). Maria Gabriela has been an assistant editor for several Emmy-winning films like True Justice: Bryan Stevenson's Fight for Equality (2019) and The Rescue (2021). Her debut as a feature film editor was Endless Calls for Fame, the story of a rock band that was born at the end of the grunge era and failed at their attempts to ride the post brit-pop wave, and she's currently editing a feature film to be broadcast by PBS in Fall 2025.
What's Next?
When taken for credit, Creative Video Editing with Adobe Premiere can be applied towards the completion of these related programs:
Related Certificate Programs
Related Degree Majors
Questions?
Contact our Academic Advisors by phone at 1-866-BERKLEE (U.S.), 1-617-747-2146 (INT'L), or by email at advisors@online.berklee.edu.
