Premiere Pro · Projects and workflow
How to make a highlight reel in Premiere Pro
Short answer
Watch the footage and make subclips of the best moments into a Selects bin, put the music on the timeline, then assemble the selects to the beat, opening and closing on your two strongest shots.
In Premiere Pro
01
Pull selects
Watch everything once and make subclips (Cmd+U or Ctrl+U) of each strong moment into a Selects bin.
02
Pick the music
Choose a track and decide the length, often 60 to 90 seconds.
03
Mark the beats
Press M on the beats where cuts should land.
04
Assemble
Drop the selects onto the beats, using Automate to Sequence or by hand. Lead with a strong shot and end on the best one.
05
Tighten
Cut each shot to the moment it peaks. Most highlight shots run 1 to 3 seconds.
Eddie AI
Do it in Eddie
Ask Eddie for a highlight reel with a length, and it picks the moments.
Say, for example, "Cut a 60-second highlight reel of the best moments, set to upbeat music." Length changes how Eddie cuts, and every prompt revises the same edit. Ask Eddie to snap the cuts to the beat. Then render the MP4 or send it to Premiere to finish.
Back to Premiere
Open the edit, click Export and choose Premiere. You get a Premiere project (.prproj) or the older Premiere XML. In the desktop app, Send to Premiere Pro builds the edit inside Premiere through Eddie's panel, which the app installs for you.
If you imported the footage through the desktop app, the timeline points at your original camera files, so Premiere relinks to them. If you uploaded on the web or pulled from cloud storage, it points at Eddie's proxy media; relink to those, not to the camera originals.
From the help center
Questions
- How long should a highlight reel be?
- 60 to 90 seconds for most uses; 15 to 30 seconds for social.
- Should every cut be on the beat?
- Most, not all. Holding a strong shot across a beat adds rhythm.