There’s probably been times when you recorded special or random moments from your life or the lives of people you care about. If you want to make an extended reel or video out of these memories to evoke certain emotions, send a message, or make them easier to share, you’ll need to combine multiple clips together to create a compelling narrative.
The same holds true, whether you’re a marketer, social media manager, content creator, filmmaker, or professional videographer. Occasions will arise when you need to join two or more videos together because you have a lot of footage to work with or because you shot some scenes with a different camera.
Whatever your reason, merging videos saves you a lot of time and allows you to piece together pieces of content to create a cohesive story rather than throwing it all away and shooting from scratch.
To merge videos, you’d need to use a tool.
Adobe Premiere Pro is the industry leader of video editing software and it offers tons of creative solutions to help both professionals and novices create and edit videos without trouble.
In this article, we are going to show you how to combine clips in Premiere Pro, what to keep in mind when merging video clips, and other alternative methods you can use to join video files together.
How to merge video clips in Premiere Pro using a nested sequence
Adobe Premiere Pro works seamlessly on both Windows and Mac and is compatible with a wide variety of video/audio codecs and formats. The process for merging videos within the platform is called creating a nested sequence.
Here are the basic steps that you need to follow to combine two or more video clips with Premiere Pro. If you don't have the app already, you'll need to download and install it on your device. You can try out all the features for free for 7 days, after which you'll start getting billed monthly for your subscription unless you cancel before the trial period ends.
1. Launch the Adobe Premiere Pro app, scroll to the top menu bar, click on File, then select New to create a new project.
2. Import the video clips you want to merge into the tool by clicking the File menu and selecting Import from the dropdown list of options.
3. The videos you imported will be loaded into the Project panel. Drag and drop the clips into the timeline.
4. Select the videos you want to merge. Or press and hold the shift key, then click on each of the clips to select them.
5. Right-click on one of the selected videos and choose Nest from the dropdown menu that pops out. Keep in mind that no matter the number of videos that you want to combine, you only need to click on one of them to reveal the dropdown menu.
6. A window for the Nested Sequence Name will pop up. Type in a band for the sequence and click OK.
7. The background of the selected videos will change to green which means that the videos have successfully been merged. Now you can add effects, filters, and whatever you want to the nested sequence and it'll automatically be applied to the videos you combined.
If you want to see the merged clips individually, double click your nested sequence. A new tab will be opened showing the contents of the sequence. If you want to make changes to individual clips that you don't want applied to all the videos in the sequence, you can do it from here.
Essentially, the nested sequence acts like a container that stores your clips so you can choose to make changes to the entire container or open it and make changes to each of the clips it's housing. Once you finish editing your nested sequence, you can return to your timeline by clicking the timeline tab.
How to combine clips in Premiere Pro with the subsequence method
Another way you can merge video clips in Adobe Premiere Pro is to:
1. Import the clips you want to combine and drop them into the timeline.
2. Now select the videos you wish to merge, right-click on one of them, scroll through the dropdown menu and select Make Subsequence.
3. This method is similar to nested sequence technique, but it leaves your original videos untouched in the timeline and creates a new subsequence containing the merged videos in the Project panel instead.
4. You can drag the subsequence over to your timeline and apply changes to it or open it up just like you would with a nested sequence.
Can you merge clips with different frame rates in Premiere Pro?
The short answer is Yes.
Although it can be challenging to work with footage from different cameras when editing a project, you can still get it done with Adobe Premiere Pro. The tool allows you to combine conflicting assets with different frame rates, aspect ratios, resolutions, and more.
However you might notice a slight difference in quality between the disparate videos you joined together. There might also be playback, motion, and lag issues with the final clip.
To avoid all this, it's best to use the same resolution and frame rate or an approximation when shooting with different cameras. But if you must combine video clips with different frame rates you can do this by creating a sequence that matches most of your footage.
- Click on the Window menu, select Your Work > Editing, then choose a clip in the Project panel that best embodies the frame rate of your footage.
- Drag the clip to the New Item button at the bottom of the panel to create a sequence that's an exact match of the video's properties. When you add any video or photo to that sequence, Premiere Pro will position it on the timeline at 100% without applying any alterations.
Merging audio and video clips in Premiere Pro
Most video and DSLR cameras do not offer high quality audio recording so using your camera mic to record your audio can cause you a lot of pain come editing time.
It's always best to use external microphones or other audio recording devices to capture your audio, then use an editing tool like Premiere Pro to sync the audio files to your footage.
So how do you combine audio files with video in Premiere?
There are two ways you can go about it.
1. Merge clips in Project Panel
You can merge multiple audio clips (with a maximum of 16) to no more than one video clip. Here's how:
- Start by selecting the video clip, then hold the shift or control key for Windows or the command key for Mac Os to select the audio files you want merged with the video.
- Scroll to the top menu bar and click Clip, then select Merge Clips from the dropdown menu. Or right/control click and choose Merge Clips from the menu.
- From the Merge Clips dialog box, select the appropriate setting. The easiest one to use is Audio. It allows Premiere to analyze the separately recorded sound and in-camera audio in the video, and automatically match them up. Also, check the Remove Audio from AV Clip box to ensure you only select the best quality audio from the mic in the video.
- Click OK to apply the changes. Your merged clip will be in the Project panel and the file name will have "-Merged" at the end.
Pro tip: This method can also be used to merge multiple audio only files together.
2. Synchronize clips in Timeline
- Edit the audio and video files in the timeline panel.
- Select both clips and choose Clip > Synchronize.
- The Synchronize dialog box will open. Select the synchronization point from the list of options: Clip Start, Clip End, Timecode, Clip Marker, and Audio.
- Click OK to synchronize the selected files.
Tips for merging video clips
Joining video clips together and getting great results requires critical and creative thinking. You need to make the right choices to complete the project efficiently and ensure your final video is something to be proud of. Here are a few things to consider when embarking on a new video project.
1. Pay attention to your video dimensions
Before you start shooting, editing, and merging videos, check out the specs for the platform you intend to share it on. For example, vertical videos are the preferred dimensions for Instagram while horizontal videos work well for YouTube.
2. Build a storyboard
Don't go in blind. If you have a lot of footage and images that you need to combine, create a storyboard mapping out how you'll merge the files and what you want the final video to look like.
3. Use standard video codecs and formats
As we mentioned earlier, different cameras will produce different videos. Although it's possible to combine videos in different formats, try to stick to a single format and always choose a common format like MP4 or MOV. Stick to a standard video codec like H.264 and audio codec like AAC. You can always consult the file information for your video to see its specifications.
4. Mind the quality of your source videos
What you feed your video editor will determine what it churns out. The quality of your merged video rests on the shoulders of the original clips. If the quality of each clip or some of the clips you want to merge is poor, the combined file will suffer too. Reducing the size of the final video will also impact its quality.
5. Make use of transitions
A good transition will not only join your video clips together, it'll also create a more compelling narrative. It'll force people to pay attention and make your videos fun to watch. But don't get carried away with them or you'll end up distracting viewers from the main content.
6. Trim and cut where necessary
If you've got unwanted footage at the beginning or end of your clip, trim it off. Use the cut function in Premiere Pro or your editing tool of choice to slice off unwanted sections from the middle of your clip and keep only the parts you want to use.
7. Adjust color and lighting
When joining your files together you may notice that the clips have different brightness, temperature, contrasts, tone, etc. This is likely because they weren't all filmed in the same conditions. To create a more consistent appearance, tweak the color, temperature, and lighting in your clips. You can even use filters to get the job done.
8. Add a music or audio track
Background music can enrich the video experience for your viewers and capture their attention faster. Make sure the sounds or music you choose aligns with the content of the video and be mindful of the volume.
9. Incorporate text into your video
Adding text like titles, captions, and subtitles to your videos will help people follow and understand them better even when the sound is off. This is especially important if you intend to share the video on social media where people tend to consume content without sound on.
10. Keep your files organized
Before you begin combining video files or merging audio clips with video, make sure all the clips you need are ready, properly named, and stored in a folder on your device so you can easily locate them when needed.
Conclusion
Adobe Premiere Pro can perform all kinds of video creation and editing tasks, both simple and complex. It's a professional tool and it might take some time for you to get a hang of it so don't be afraid to play around and make mistakes.
Creating beautiful and compelling videos is not something you master in a day, but with the right knowledge and tools on your side you can learn how to whip up professional quality videos and improve your editing skills in no time.
If your final video doesn't come out looking perfect the first time, that's alright. Keep working at it, applying new tricks, and discovering what's possible in the world of video editing.
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