For those more inclined to read. Here’s the video transcription.

In this tutorial, I will show you how I organize my project folder before I start editing in Premiere Pro. These are the steps that I perform in preparation for every new project to help make it very easy for me when it comes time to back up or move my project around.

Let’s get started.

First, you need to understand the way Premiere Pro handles the imported files. Whenever you import a file into Premiere Pro, it does not move or copy that particular file anywhere. All Premiere Pro does is that it links to that file at its original location, which means if you delete or move that file to a different location, Premiere Pro will freak out and display a MEDIA OFFLINE error message.

One example of this is when you insert the memory card from your camera into the computer, import the files into Premiere Pro directly from the card, and start editing. When you’re done, you close Premiere Pro and remove the memory card from the computer. Now, the next time you open the same project in Premiere Pro, it will ask for all the missing files from the card since the memory card is no longer inserted into your computer.

So to avoid that dreaded error message, the way I like to work is I organize everything I need for a particular project into different folders. Then I put all these different folders into one main folder. This main folder will contain all the raw footage from the cameras, all the music tracks, all the photos, and all the video clips. Basically, everything and anything I need for this project. This way I know exactly where all my files are and I will not delete any file accidentally.

Let’s say you’re about to edit a music video for a band.

First, let’s create a folder. Right click on the desktop and choose New Folder. Let’s give it a unique name: Awesome Music Video Project

Inside this folder, let’s create 4 more folders: Photos & Graphics, Premiere Pro Project Files, Raw Footage, Sound & Music.

From now on, before I import any files into Premiere Pro, I will make sure to copy those files from wherever they are into one of these folders.

For example, let’s say I want to use this Music Track from one of my other projects. I’ll copy it and paste it into the Sound & Music folder of the Awesome Music Video Project. I will do the same for this Lower 3rd and this Photo since I know I will need them. So I’ll copy them and paste them into the Photos & Graphics folder. For the Raw Footage folder, this is where I put all the video clips from the camera’s memory cards. So if I shoot on multiple cards, I’ll create a folder for each card and name it card 1, card 2, card 3 so on and so forth.

OK! Now that I organized all the folders to my liking, I’m going to launch Premiere Pro. Since this is a new project, I go to File > New > New Project

A New Project window will pop up. Let’s give it a name: Awesome Music Video Edit. Then, I need to tell Premiere Pro where I want to save this project. Remember earlier we created a Premiere Pro Project Files folder in our Main Project folder. Let’s navigate there. Then hit Choose.

If I navigate back to my main project folder, I can drag all these 3 folders and drop them into the project window here. As you can see, the folder structure inside my Premiere Pro project window is now the same with the folder structure on my drive. This way I know exactly where all my files are.

So, what to do if I need to import more files midway through my project? Well, I just copy whichever files I need and paste them into one of these 3 folders according to the file types. Then, I go back to Premiere Pro and import the new files into the respective folders.

The goal here is to have all my files in one main folder, in which its folder structure is similar to the folder structure inside Premiere Pro.

Another great advantage of keeping all my files inside one main folder is that when it’s time to backup my project or move it to a different computer, all I have to do is copy or move one folder. In this case, this folder here and all my files are intact.

That’s it for today. If you like the video, hit like or subscribe. Also, feel free to let me know if you have any questions in the comment area. My name is Thien A. Pham and thanks for watching.

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