Project | Glenn Ward

Adobe Premiere Pro – Pause video in the timeline by creating a still frame

Unfortunately there is no means to simply pause a video on the first or last frame to get that still to motion effect you often see when multiple interviews are shown on screen at once.

I have found the simplest way to achieve this in Adobe Premiere Pro is to create stills by exporting a tiff then re importing it into you projects portfolio.

Begin by aligning and resizing your clips on the timeline (see how to scale video here) in the order you wish them to appear. At this stage you will see black before and after the clip. Place the playhead on the first frame of the video you would like to begin on a paused / still frame. Choose File > Export and select tiff, be sure on the next drop down to export the tiff in the aspect ratio you are working in. It will make lining the image up a lot easier later. Export as usual using Adobe Media Encoder to the correct folder in your project folder (see setting up a project here) import the file back into your project and place it on the timeline prior to your clip. Adjust the length and play through to see the effect. If you need to scale the tiff do so to complete a smooth still frame to motion effect.

Adobe Premiere Pro – Scratch disc options, Same as Project, Documents or [Custom]

When setting up a project on Adobe Premiere Pro, the second tab on the New Project window presents you with the option to set your Scratch Disc. This is where all your supporting files including your videos will be saved to your Hard Drive or external drive.

Saving to your Documents folder only seems to cause issues. If you know you will have multiple projects open the files will get lost very easily lost or even corrupted. If you use a machine with multiple log ins then projects will not open when signed in as a different user. I recommend using the Same as Project option or if you wish to be even tidier create a separate folder within your project folder to separate them further.

This also means that if you need to move your project onto a different machine to work you can. All the relevant files can be transferred by copying one project folder without breaking any links to supporting files.