[Video Editing 101] Cut Video in Premiere Pro Without Rendering

Show Me How Difficult It Is: How to Cut Clips in Premiere Pro CC 2019

Learning about how to cut a video in Adobe Premiere Pro is not your ultimate goal, handling the whole process and exporting a fine cut is.

There are basically two ways to cut a video in Adobe Premiere, namely, using the razor tool to split your footage into two parts or trimming the beginning or ending part of a clip (if you call this a cut as trimming gives you the needed sections from a clip).

These two ways can be utilized alternatively to suit your various cutting needs when dealing with different cutting scenarios.

Step 1: Launch Premiere Pro CC 2019 and select the path for your project and create a folder where you store everything you need for this project.

• It's essential to put everything under a folder (and possible subfolders) to better organize your resources, including videos, pictures, audios or any other files you need to produce a video.
• If your resources are scattered in different folders and you inadvertently move a file, say, a video clip, you will be prompted to manually locate the missing file.

Step 2: Click the folder icon at the bottom left to create bins to hold you various kinds of resources, and import or drag video clips into respective bins. You might not be able to import some videos shot by iPhone if your Premiere Pro lacks HEVC codec.

• If you accidentally messed up with the layout of your workspace, click "Edit" on the top bar so that you are in the edit mode with the desired layout, where projects and resources bin reside in the bottom left.

Step 3: Drag your clip(s) into timeline, and you might want to put multiple clips on different tracks for certain effects.

• If you feel like a rough cut before dragging clips into the timeline, you can double click the target footage and trim it in the source monitor (upper left panel). Click the bracket icon to select the in and the out point, and then drag this pre-cut clip into the timeline.
• If you throw at the timeline a clip whose parameters contradict with your current sequence preset, you will be prompted to decide whether you want to keep or change sequence settings.

Step 4: Click razor tool (shortcut C) and hover it to the position where you want a cut, left click and you will notice a cut through line that split the clip into two parts. You can repeat this to create a bunch of cuts.

• To cut more precisely on a frame-accurate basis, you can enlarge the timeline by dragging the knob on the horizontal scrollbar below timeline (shortcut Alt + mouse scroll).
• To cut right at the position where your playhead marker stays, press Ctrl/⌘ +K at the same time.
• If you unlink a video clip from its audio, press shift with razor tool to cut through both tracks.

Step 5: Delete unwanted fragment. Switch from the razor tool to the selection tool (shortcut V) and click on the part you want to remove from the whole clip, hit "delete" on your keyboard — this will leave a gap in the timeline — or right-click to select "ripple delete" if you want the remaining parts to auto-fill the gap and join in each other automatically.

Step 6: Save the project or export media. If you cannot finish editing footage at one time, go to File > Save to save your project (.prproj) for future editing from where you left. To export, go to File > Export > Media, manage export settings such as format, file name, and file location, then hit "Export". You can choose to export only audio or video using the checkbox.

If You Need an Easier Solution to Cut Any Video: Read this three-step tutorial made for immediate cutNovice Filmmaker Friendly

Let's enjoy a 3-step tutorial to nail your video editing.

Before we get started, first download and install VideoProc on our PC or Mac computer.

Step 1. Launch VideoProc, go to Video module, drag-n-drop your footage into working area.

Step 2. Click "cut" on the horizontal bar.

Note: you can perform other edits from this bar in a similar manner, such as crop and rotate video, add effect, watermark or subtitle.

Step 3. Drag the green handle to mark the in and out points, click "cut" so that fragment between these points will be retained.

Repeat the mark-cut process to keep multiple fragments and hit done (clips will be auto-merged upon exporting).

• Advanced tips: click "edit" to fine-tune each clip (fragment). Adjust the sequence of clips by hitting the little triangle icon.
• Export your video with the desired format. Target Format provides you with no-brainer hints of formats supported by various platforms and OS. Click "Run" to export your newly edited footage.

Final Words:

If the step-by-step tutorial on how to cut a video in Adobe Premiere Pro is wracking your brain, VideoProc will amaze you. Besides splitting videos, you can also cut out part of clips that you don't want. Its ability to process 4K videos with GPU acceleration also makes VideoProc an ideal tool for pre-editing before you dump rough cut videos into Premiere or other industrial level tools for further editing.

1. Download VideoProc on Windows
2. Download VideoProc on Mac