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As editors, we make thousands of choices that will shape the story into the final piece. Which shot to include, and which clips do or don’t serve the story. Answering these questions we very often end up with a project with a lot of imported clips that didn't find its way to the final cut.
Project Manager in Premiere Pro helps you to archive a project or export only the sections of clips that have been used in a sequence. Let’s dive into what it can actually do.
Collect Files and Copy to New Location
Using this option Premiere will collect all assets used in selected sequences and will copy those files to a new location creating a project file with only those sequences.
You want to use that approach if you want to gather all original media that has been used in the project in one destination folder. Great for archiving. Nothing is being transcoded and you still have the entire content of clips used in the timeline to your disposal.
Consolidate and Transcode
This option is very similar to the first one but it involves transcoding to a new format and/or codec which allows to trim video clips to duration that has been actually used in the selected sequence(s).
I've seen many people ask if it's possible to export all of the clips in a sequence as individual video files. If you expect to find the solution in Export Media dialog then you’ll be disappointed. That’s why many people think that it’s not possible to accomplish in a fully automated way.
But actually this is the solution to the problem. Here's the video where I explain how it works.
Basically, we just go to File - Project Manager, we choose to Consolidate and Transcode and we make sure the sequence we want is selected at the top and that Source is set to Individual Clips. Then we choose a format and codec that clips will be transcoded into.
If you want the clips to have the same duration like on the timeline we should uncheck Include Handles option. If however, we choose for example 50 frames, Premiere will add them to the beginning and to the ending of each clip. After we hit OK (and after some waiting) you have successfully exported our clips as individual files.
Two important notes here
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No effects are being applied to the clips. So if you have, for example, Lumetri color added to the clips, it won’t be applied to output files.
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You cannot use master effects. If you do, Consolidate and Transcode option will not work as intended.
However, if you want to export clips from the timeline with all effects applied, there's a workaround you can use. It's not fully automated, it will take some time and I'd personally do it on a duplicated Premiere Pro project file, but it's still worth knowing. After all the day may come when you’ll need it :) Here it goes:
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Create a copy of a project with a sequence you need
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Nest all clips on the timeline that you want to save as individual files
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Select all nested sequences in the Project panel
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Send all of them to Adobe Media Encoder and use a right encoding preset
Last but not least let’s talk about some additional options you may choose:
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Exclude Unused Clips
Selected by default and in most cases you want to keep it this way. It will exclude any clips you haven't used in the selected sequences from the resulting project. -
Convert Image Sequences to Clips
If you’re using image sequences (for example for timelapses) this option will convert them to video clips as well. -
Convert After Effects Compositions to Clips
It will render any After Effects compositions you have on the timeline and will replace them in the resulting project. -
Preserve Alpha
Preserves transparency informations. Just be sure to use a codec that supports alpha channel like for example Apple ProRes 4444. -
Include Preview Files and Include Audio Conform Files
If these options are available to you, it means that these files has been generated and you may decide to include them in the resulting project. Basically it will copy them to the new location and will preserver the link between these files and final Premiere Pro project file.
Now you’re ready to harness the power of Project Manager in Premiere Pro. Will you use it on your next project? Let us know down in the comments!
