This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Insert and Overwrite Edits
Let’s look at the difference between insert and overwrite edits from the perspective of a common problem. As you can see in 
, the “Moscow tour – take 2” sequence starts with the Day 1 title, and then has multiple clips from Red Square. After inserting these clips I realized that I had forgotten to start with a shot of Red Square’s entrance gate. I want to insert that clip and push all the subsequent clips on V1 back by the length of the inserted clip. This is a classic insert edit, where the inserted footage pushes all footage located after the insertion point to the right for the duration of the inserted footage.
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I need to add the clip in the Source Monitor to V1 after the Day 1 title. I want to push all clips on V1 back, but I don’t want to move the Red Square title on V2.
Just to complicate things, I want the Red Square title on V2 to stay in place—a perfect opportunity to use the Sync Lock feature.
To perform an insert edit by dragging
- If there are any clips that you don’t want to move with the inserted clip, disable Sync Lock
for those tracks 
(see the tips for a keyboard shortcut for this).
Disabling Sync Lock for tracks that I don’t want to adjust. - Drag the clip from the Source Monitor to the target location and track in the Timeline
. Notice that once you drag the clip to the tracks, the pointer turns to the overwrite pointer 
and a vertical line appears at the insert point .
When you drag the clip to a track with content, this content appears in the Program Monitor. The last frame before the inserted file is shown on the left, and the first frame after the inserted file is shown on the right.
- Press the Control (Windows) or Command (Mac OS) key
. The overwrite pointer changes to the insert pointer 
and the vertical line shows arrows pointing to the right.
Press Control (Windows) or Command (Mac OS) to convert the overwrite pointer to the insert pointer. - Release your pointer. Premiere Pro inserts the clip, pushing back all subsequent clips on that track, and any other track on which Sync Lock was not disabled
.
Mission accomplished: clip inserted, all clips on V1 pushed back, title on V2 stays in place.
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TIP
If you press Control+Alt (Windows) or Command+Option (Mac OS) when you drag the clip into the Timeline, the pointer changes to the insert target tracks pointer 
and Premiere Pro performs the insert edit solely on the target track, obviating the need to disable Sync Lock for tracks that you do not want to adjust for the insert edit.
To perform an insert edit via button controls or keyboard shortcuts
- Drag the source track indicators to the desired track
.
Setting up for the insert edit: tracks targeted, playhead in the desired position, ready to click the Insert button. - Navigate the playhead to the desired location. Use the Up and Down Arrow keys to move the playhead to the precise intersection between the two clips.
- In the Source Monitor’s Tools panel, click the Insert button
, or press, (the comma key).
Premiere Pro inserts the clip at the selected location.
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Overwrite edits
In contrast to insert edits, overwrite edits push no content back on the track on which they replace footage. We can use the same basic setup as the insert edit task, with a different goal: to replace footage on V1 rather than push it back. Note that because an overwrite edit doesn’t push any tracks back, there’s no need to worry about Sync Lock.
To perform an overwrite edit by dragging
- Drag the clip from the Source Monitor to the target location and track in the Timeline
. Notice that once you drag the clip to the tracks, the pointer turns to the overwrite pointer and a vertical line appears at the insertion point.
When you drag the clip to a track with content, this content appears in the Program Monitor. The last frame before the inserted file is shown on the left, and the first frame after the inserted file is shown on the right.
- Release your pointer.
Premiere Pro overwrites content on the target track up to the duration of the clip in the Source Monitor
. No other tracks are affected.
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To perform an overwrite edit via button controls or keyboard shortcuts
- Drag the source track indicators to the desired track
.
Setting up for the overwrite edit: tracks targeted, playhead in the desired position, ready to press the Overwrite button. - Navigate the playhead to the desired location. Use the Up and Down Arrow keys to move the playhead to the precise intersection between the two clips.
- In the Source Monitor’s Tools panel, press the Overwrite button
, or press. (the period key).
Premiere Pro inserts the clip at the selected location, overwriting the existing content.
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Overwrite Edits in Practice
When I first started editing (pre-Premiere Pro), many editing tools offered only one Timeline track for video. With these tools, if you wanted to replace existing footage on the Timeline, you had to use an overwrite edit or the equivalent.
Today, Premiere Pro has 99 tracks, and many projects never exceed four or five tracks. Rather than perform an overwrite edit in these instances, I typically insert the clip on a track above the clip that I want to overwrite 
.
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This edit produces the same effect as the overwrite edit but has several benefits.
This produces the same result, but it has several positives, at least for the types of projects that I produce. First, it makes the edit point very visible in case I need to find it again. Second, having the clips on separate tracks makes it easier to adjust the placement and content of the inserted clip. Third, it leaves the original clip in place in case I later change my mind, though it’s typically easy enough to retrieve the overwritten portion.
The negatives are that if you meant to replace the audio on the overwritten track, you’ll have to do so manually. It also can be complicated to insert transitions when the edges of the two clips are adjacent to another clip, as the clips in V1 and V2 are adjacent to the Day 1 Title clip 
. Specifically, with some dissolve transitions, the clip on V1 will appear during the transition. If this becomes a problem, you can drag the top clip directly down into the bottom clip 
, with the overwrite pointer letting you know that you’re about to overwrite the bottom clip. Note that the yellow timecode box lets you know if you’re shifting the location to the left or right. At 00:00:00:00, the edit is perfectly in place.
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You can perform an overwrite edit on the Timeline by dragging one track onto another.