The editing moves below are not meant as a guide for creating a unified digital story or instructional asset, but rather are strategies or techniques for enhancing the practices you have already learned. They are meant to compliment and extend your capacities within Adobe Premiere Rush and are offered here as a starting place for leveling up your Rush skills and video making abilities. The 7-8 strategies included are:

• Visual Editing (Color)
• Visual Editing (Position, Scale, Crop)
• Audio Editing (Voice and Music)
• Track Management (Traditional and Overlay)
• Creating Custom Titles
• Effects (Fade In/Out & Pan/Zoom)
• Speed Control (Speed & Freeze Frame)

The assets used in this guide come from Todd Taylor and are the same assets used in the Adobe Rush Novice workshop: Click here to Access Assets.

Additional / complimentary assets can used in my live demonstration can be accessed here: Click for Additional Assets.

Visual Edit (Color)

Sometimes when we capture video, whether on Zoom (as a talking head) or with our cameras or phones, the lighting isn't always perfect. The video or even image captured may appear too orange or too blue, it may not have enough contrast or perhaps it feels washed out. One way to fix this is via color correction. While Rush comes with a number of Preset color correction options--many of which reflect commonly recognized visual styles (from black and white to cinema)--sometimes what we need is more subtle, which calls for a customized color correction. There are 8 basic color correction elements covered below from Adobe Premiere Rush

• Exposure - In photography, this refers to the amount of light that reaches the camera sensor or film, but in terms of function it designates how bright or dark the image feels.
• Contrast - This refers to the difference in brightness or color among elements in the same visual field: when manipulating contrast in a video or image, the higher the contrast, the greater degree of difference between the light and dark elements.
• Highlights - Adjusting the highlights in a video or image really only impacts the degree of brightness among the brighter/lighter elements.
• Shadows - While we typically think of shadows as being black in color, in visual editing the represent the areas that are devoid of light. So, as a kind of inversion of highlights, adjusting shadow levels impacts the darkness of the darker elements.
• Temperature - Adjusting temperature in an image allows you to make images appear cooler or warmer by adjusting the color spectrum between red/yellow and white/blue. In Rush, it operates primarily between blue and yellow. We use temperature adjustments when things like fluorescent lighting creates an overtly white (if not blue-white) color on a person; adjusting the temperature toward the yellow can bring things back in balance.
• Tint - Similar to temperature (and often used in conjunction with one another), adjusting the tint of an image allows you to address various color hues of an image along the green and magenta axis. This can be helpful for a variety of reasons (including when your own custom adjustments cause tint problems), but is primarily used when the image or video captured has taken on a specific off-axis tint due to non-standard lighting.
• Vibrance - Adjustments to vibrance increases or decreases the intensity of the more muted colors in the image while having little to no impact on the more saturated colors. Vibrance is often used complimentary to saturation adjustments (especially in relation to over or under saturated skin tones).
• Saturation - Increasing or decreasing the saturation impacts the colors in an image (i.e., a complete desaturation results in black and white imagery). The key with saturation is that adjustments on this scale impact all colors in the image, unlike vibrance which impacts primarily the more muted colors.

VISUAL / COLOR ADJUSTMENTS

To edit the visual color of a clip or image, first select the clip (indicated by the orange bounding box on the clip in the timeline) and then open Color Edit menu (red arrow). In the Color Edit menu you can choose either the Preset submenu or Edit submenu (green arrow). The Preset options are likely familiar to many of you (owing to their commonality on a variety of smartphone photo applications), but for more customized editing and color correcting, in the Edit submenu adjust the various sliders to create the desired visual look. When you have something you like, you can click the Three Dots icon (blue arrow) and save your visual adjustments as your own preset: click Create Preset (yellow arrow) and give your preset a unique name when prompted.

With the custom preset created, whenever you bring in any additional footage with a similar starting visual, you can just click clip in the timeline (again, it will be highlighted by the orange bounding box), go to Color Menu and then the Presets submenu (Green Arrow) and select your custom created preset (Blue Arrow).

Visual Edit (Position, Scale, & Crop)

Depending on your video design/layout, the kinds of graphics involved, and the overall appeal, you may need to manipulate the size of video, its location on the screen, or even crop the video (say to create size-by-side representations). In any case, the core visual transformations that one can make in Rush are Position, Rotation, Opacity, Scale, and Crop

• Position - One can adjust the position of the video based on horizontal and vertical position sliders. These determine the location on screen of the center point of the clip or element.
• Rotation - One can adjust the rotation of the element. This allows clips and images to not only be presented visually off balance (angled in various ways), but can even rotate video up to 180 degrees.
• Opacity - This determines the degree to which videos and images on Visual Tracks below an element can be seen through the element (i.e., an image on V2 with 50% opacity will allow viewers to see clips on V1 through the image -- allowing for palimpsest-like layers).
• Scale - This refers to the representational size of the video, based on width and height values. By default, Rush links width and height together so as to maintain visual proportions, but they can be manipulated individually.
• Crop - Cropping removes (or reduces) the visual plane of an element. One can crop the top, bottom, left, or right edges of a visual element using the sliders.

POSITION, SCALE, CROP ADJUSTMENTS

To adjust the position or scale or to crop the visual plane of a clip or image, first select the clip or element (indicated by the orange bounding box around the clip in the timeline) and then click the crop icon (red arrow) to open the Transform Menu.

In Transform Menu, one can adjust the position, rotation, or opacity by use the sliders (teal box). Scale (green arrow) can be adjusted from 1% to 200% of its original size and the clip can be cropped (yellow arrow) at the top, bottom, left, and right of the visual plane. Additionally, clicking on the selected clip on the preview monitor triggers the blue transform box around the clip on the monitor (white arrow). Using this transform controls on the preview monitor, one can manually adjust the scale, rotation, and location.

If at any point users want to revert to the original settings, just click the Reset to Default icon (blue arrow). Or, to do a quick comparison of the original versus the edited version, just toggle the Show Original/Show Edited button (purple arrow).

Audio Edit

• VOICE & MUSIC - Auto Volume - When selected or turned on, the tries to keep all the audio elements in your project at or near the same volume. Note, this only applies to those audio elements with this selected
• VOICE - Balance Sound - In audio mastering, balancing sound is a process by which sound engineers make quieter sounds louder and louder sounds quieter to keep the sound profile in relative balance.
• VOICE - Reduce Background Noise - The background sound profile (from hums to white noise) for an audio file can be distracting for listeners. This is especially true for things like voice over, talking interviews, and the like. As such, reducing background noise is an option to help minimize these sound elements within the fuller audio profile of a clip.
• VOICE - Reduce Echo - Similar to background sound, sometimes the acoustics of the recording space can create echo (especially true in voice over and talking head video work in the Zoom era). This audio manipulation is designed to pull some of that echo out of the audio profile of a clip.
• VOICE - Enhance Speech - This option is pretty straightforward in that it is designed to enhance the overall quality of a speaker. It does this by adjusting the audio profile to compliment the pitch of the speaker (with two options: enhance a higher pitch or enhance a lower pitch).
• MUSIC - Auto Ducking - Ducking is when the volume of one audio clip gradually lowers in order to allow another audio element to be more prominent in the soundscape. When the Auto-Ducking feature of Rush is selected, the program will automatically duck a Music audio element's volume below the volume/audio profile of any designated Voice audio element in the sequence and then raise it back up when no Voice elements are present.

VOICE AUDIO EDIT

To adjust the audio profile of a talking head video, click the Audio Menu icon (red arrow). In the Audio menu, you can adjust the overall clip volume (white arrow), change the audio type designation (green arrow), and turn on any number of advanced audio features (teal box). Additionally, if you wanted to have the sound only appear on one channel (right or left), you can click the L or R (yellow arrow) to turn mute the sound in either channel.

If at any point users want to revert to the original settings, just click the Reset to Default icon (blue arrow). Or, to do a quick comparison of the original versus the edited version, just toggle the Show Original/Show Edited button (purple arrow).

MUSIC AUDIO EDIT (Auto-Ducking)

While many of the audio editing features are the same for Voice or Music, the main difference is the auto-ducking. To turn this on, select a music element on the timeline (selected clip indicated by the orange bounding line), open the audio menu by clicking the audio icon (red arrow), and in the Advanced submenu click Auto duck (green arrow). When turned on, users will be able to visually see the volume duck (yellow arrow) in the timeline on the music audio element.

VOICEOVER RECORDING

To record Voiceover in Rush, click the Blue + button (red arrow) to open Add Media menu. Then click Voiceover (green arrow) to turn on recording feature of Audio Track 2. To record, click record button (blue arrow) on A2 and, once countdown is complete, begin recording. Click the stop button (yellow arrow) when you are finished recording Voiceover.

Track Management

As your skills advance and you start to build more complex representations (e.g., video sequences with multiple audio, visual, and graphical elements), it can be helpful to designate specific functions for each video and audio track. Of course, these designations are not set in stone and you can drag pieces and rearrange elements as needed, but beginning with an organizational plan can help streamline the process.

Below are two basic structural designations (traditional & overlay). In both the audio structures remain the same: Audio Track 1 for VoiceOver, Audio Track 2 for Music/Background Sound, and Audio Track 3 for Sound Effects or other sound additions/enhancements. There are, in truth, seven available audio tracks as each Video Track has the capacity to include video with synched (or native) audio elements. But for editing purposes here, we will focus primarily on the audio from the A-roll (as narrative backbone of the piece) and audio editing (i.e., soundscape manipulations and additions) taking place in the audio tracks.

TRADITIONAL ORIENTATION

• Video Track 1 is for A-roll - Primary footage goes here, with the editing of the A-roll (track 1) typically being done first and intended to serve as the backbone (or narrative through-line) of the video.
• Video Track 2 for Solid Background (i.e., letterboxing) - Imported clips or images (i.e., B-roll elements) may have different aspect ratios than our video, which means they may not fill the visual plane. To correct this, editors either need to resize the B-roll element (filling the visual plane) or use a solid background image (typically black) to mask the A-roll media.
• Video Track 3 for B-roll - B-roll is comprised of secondary visual elements to enrich the A-roll elements by interrupting the visual plane with media that extend, compliment, illuminate, or complicate the content of the A-roll. Also, by placing all B-roll elements on the same video track, then one can simply mute the track and not have to worry about native audio in a B-roll clip interfering with other audio.
• Video Track 4 for Text, Titles, Captions - I reserve this track primarily for texts, titles, and captions, as these elements are intended (in most cases) to sit on top of the other video elements (i.e., to be in front of any A-roll or B-roll elements). But note, this track could also be used for other graphical elements as well, especially if trying to layer (or stack) multiple B-roll elements .

OVERLAY ORIENTATION

• Video Track 1 is for A-roll - Primary footage goes here, with the editing of the A-roll (track 1) typically being done first and intended to serve as the backbone (or narrative through-line) of the video.
• Video Track 2 for B-roll - B-roll is comprised of secondary visual elements to enrich the A-roll elements by interrupting the visual plane with media that extend, compliment, illuminate, or complicate the content of the A-roll. Also, by placing all B-roll elements on the same video track, then one can simply mute the track and not have to worry about native audio in a B-roll clip interfering with other audio.
• Video Track 3 for Overlay - Overlay is essentially a visual element (motion graphic or still image) that is designed to sit over the primary media elements. The example above includes an overlay image created in Photoshop with "windows" cut out, background layer empty (turned off), and then saved as a .psd file. Media elements behind the Overlay can be resized (see guide further below) and relocated to fit the windows. [A similar visual effect can be created with a Background image placed on V1, and then just resize/relocate A-roll and B-roll on V2 and V3 respectively.]
• Video Track 4 for Text, Titles, Captions - I reserve this track primarily for texts, titles, and captions, as these elements are intended (in most cases) to sit on top of the other video elements (i.e., to be in front of any A-roll or B-roll elements). But note, this track could also be used for other graphical elements as well, especially if trying to layer (or stack) multiple B-roll elements .

Creating Custom Titles

Titles, transitions, and overlays are all types of graphic elements in Adobe Premiere Rush and they range from fairly static, traditional elements like a centered title and subtitle to vibrant transition animations like Sweeping Arrows Transition. There are, of course, a range of elements already available in Adobe Rush and users can add elements via Adobe Stock and by installing templates, but sometimes what we really need is simply to customize an existing title element with our branding (whether a personal, organizational, or institutional brand). Branding help viewers identify the work and is used to create consistency.

ADD A TITLE

To create a customized title element: move the playhead to where you want the title to appear on the timeline, click the Add Media button (red arrow) and then click Graphics (green arrow). In the Graphics menu, select Browse All (blue arrow) and select Titles. In Titles submenu, select your desired title (I chose Three Line Bold Title with Accent Lines), and click the Add button (yellow arrow).

MODIFY TITLE PRESETS

To modify the text of a preset title element, users simply need to click on the title element on the screen and type. But there is greater modifications that can be made. To access this more granular level of adjustment, select the title/graphic to be modified (selected clip indicated by the orange bounding box on the clip in the timeline) and then click the Graphics icon (red arrow). This will display all the manipulable elements in the title graphic (green arrow/teal box).

After typing in my preferred text (see image above) so that the words of the title are now what I want, I can begin to adjust each title element. As I may be creating this for a class I teach at Indiana University, I have chosen to use IU Branding elements (colors/fonts). To this end, I will change the font to Georgia or Benton Sans (green arrow), per branding guidelines, and alter the color of the text and other elements to match the IU Cream (RGB values of 237, 235, 235) and Crimson (RGB values of 169, 5, 51).

SAVE AS PRESET

Once I have the title modified as desired, I can then save this as a preset to use in future projects and sequences (handy if creating a series of videos for a course). To do this, in the Graphics menu select the three dots icon (red arrow) and in the drop down menu select "Save as" (green arrow). In the pop-up "Save as" dialogue box, give your preset a new name (I named mine IU-BOLDTitle) and click save. Then, click the blue plus Add Media button, go to graphics, and in the drop-down menu select Saved (blue arrow). Your latest preset should appear at the bottom of the saved list (yellow arrow).

Effects

Using effects in Rush allow you to add a bit more polish to the final project. Whether fading in a video clip at the beginning or fading out the audio at the end or just adding a bit of motion (pan/zoom) to a still image, you can create a more seamless viewing experience through a variety of subtle, yet important tweaks.

FADE IN/OUT

Fading in a visual clip or audio element is a fundamental move in video editing. However, there is no specific "fade" effect (transition or otherwise) in Rush. To create a Fade effect, then, one needs to use a work-around, using either the Dissolve or Black ("Dip to Black") transition.

To add a Fade effect, click the Effects icon (red arrow) to open the Effects menu. Then click and drag Dissolve (or Black) to the end of the clip you want to fade (orange arrow).

Once the effect is on the clip, you can then adjust its length using the click and drag edit method (hold the mouse arrow over the edge of the effect until the bracket appears, then click and drag).

PAN AND ZOOM

Pan and Zoom (commonly referred to as the Ken Burns effect) is a way of adding motion to a still image. It operates under a basic premise: set the starting point and ending point of the viewable area of the image. The smaller the degree of change between Start/End, the slower the motion.

To create a Pan/Zoom effect, select an image in the sequence (selection indicated by orange bounding box on element in timeline) and then click the Effects icon (red arrow). In the Effects menu, toggle on the Pan/Zoom button (green arrow). Once Pan/Zoom is activated, it will create a Start and End frame on the image in the Preview Monitor. Then, users need to simply adjust the Start frame (yellow arrow) or, if preferring to adjust the End Frame first, click the End button (purple arrow) to activate the End Frame and adjust it accordingly.

Speed Control

Speed control on video clips may not be a feature users play with often, but it can be a handy tool to create a dramatic effect in digital storytelling or, in the case of tutorials and training, can be used to slow down or speed up on screen demonstrations.

To manipulate video speed elements, select a video clip in the sequence (selection indicated by orange bounding box on element in timeline) and then click the Speed icon (red arrow). In the Speed Menu, users can:

• Adjust the range of the speed effect: making the speed change impact the full clip or just select parts of the clip
• Adjust the speed of the playback: increase/decrease the speed of the clip
• Manually set the clip duration, which adjusts the speed of the clip as needed to fill the set duration
• Toggle the Ramp effect (normal rate of speed at beginning and end, gradually ramped up to set speed rate and then ramped down to normal again)
• Check on/off the Maintain Audio Pitch: if adjusting the speed of a video with audio in it, the audio will be impacted as well unless one turns on the Maintain Audio Pitch function.

In addition to adjusting these elements in the Speed Menu, users can also just use the speed controls on the clip itself (yellow arrow) to make manual adjustments directly on the clip in the timeline.

FREEZE FRAME

Another element of speed manipulation is the use of a Freeze Frame to create a stoppage in the visual motion of the video and call attention to other elements (either key parts of the visual, a key audio moment, the addition of text, etc.). But there is no natural Freeze Frame capture in Adobe Rush, so any attempt at this effect requires a bit of a work-around.

First, move the playhead to the point in a clip you want to capture a still image (green arrow) and split the clip. Then, click the View/Exit Full Screen icon (red arrow) on the preview monitor.

In full screen view, use your computer's screen capture/screenshot function to capture an image of the video. The larger the image capture the better. Be sure to work with an exactness on the boundaries of the screen capture.

Once the image capture is complete, then import the image into your project by clicking the Add Media button (red arrow), selecting the image capture from your computer (yellow arrow), and clicking the Add button (purple arrow). Then select and drag the added still image so that it gets positioned between the split clip from the first step (green arrow). It may take some fine tuning to create a seamlessness to the freeze frame (adding dissolve transitions, very minor tweaks to size/position, etc.)

Conclusion

The strategies and tips and tricks above are really meant to add some depth to the kinds of digital video creations users can produce. But ultimately how these get deployed and their effective of use depend on the specific components and purpose of a given project. So these elements will require some notable elements of play, of trial and error, of happy accidents and unexpected ideas. Then, when users find themselves pushing beyond the limits of Rush and in needing of something more, they can turn to Adobe Premiere Pro, which opens up a much wider set of affordances for video making.