Learn video editing with Premiere Gal and Pulenaz

Start with one small sequence

Kelsey Brannan, the host and founder of Premiere Gal, teaches video editing through tutorials. Her first-project guide is a useful place to start in Premiere Pro: its chapter list moves from importing media and creating a timeline through editing and export. The tutorial page offers more free lessons when you want to return to a particular skill.

References: Premiere Gal · Premiere Gal · Premiere Gal

A timeline is the strip where you arrange clips in the order they will play. Importing brings your recordings into the project; trimming chooses where each clip begins and ends. Exporting makes a separate video file from the sequence. Those three ideas are enough to begin a short family film before trying titles or elaborate transitions.

Start with just a few clips of one occasion. Put a wide view first so a viewer knows where they are, then a closer action, then a reaction or result. Play it back once without music. If a moment needs an explanation, look for a shot that supplies it before adding text.

Pulenaz finds a story in the footage

Pulenaz opens a handful of clips from a meal: a table being prepared, hands placing food on it, a dish arriving, and people reacting. At first she puts them in the order they were recorded. On playback the long preparation delays the moment she likes most, when the dish reaches the table and everyone looks up.

She moves a brief shot of the finished table to the beginning, follows it with the preparation and keeps the reaction for the end. On camera she explains that the new opening shows the destination, while the middle lets the viewer see how the table came together. She trims a shaky start and leaves a little room after the reaction instead of cutting the moment off as soon as it happens.

The difference is a story decision, not a special effect. The first order was a record of when the camera ran; the second gives the viewer a question and a small payoff. Pulenaz watches the result, notices that two nearly identical table shots repeat the same information and removes one. Her hesitations are useful to follow if you are learning to choose rather than simply learning which button to press.

Make the first cut and watch it back

Brannan demonstrates the next step on a small project: she selects a few clips of a walk, sets a wide shot before a close detail and cuts on a movement that continues into the next view. She tries the two shots in reverse, then returns to the first order because it establishes the place before asking the viewer to notice the detail. Her timeline stays visible while she explains the choice.

Try the same exercise with three clips you already have. Put them on the timeline, trim the start and end of each, and play them in two different orders. Keep the version that makes sense without explanation. Then listen to the joins: if the sound jumps, lower it or choose a quieter cut point before adding any music.

For a second small project, make a short before-and-after sequence of setting a table or finishing a garden pot. Choose a starting view and an ending view, then add one shot of the action between them. Export a copy and watch it once away from the timeline. Pulenaz’s meal edit is the gentler example to follow for finding a moment; Brannan’s walk is a useful exercise in making the order of shots clear.

Sources and attribution

1. Premiere Gal

   About Gal Media CreativePublication date not listed · Recorded Oct 30, 2026

2. Premiere Gal

   How to Install Premiere Pro and Setup Your First ProjectPublished Jan 3, 2022 · Recorded Oct 30, 2026

3. Premiere Gal

   Premiere Gal TutorialsPublication date not listed · Recorded Oct 30, 2026