So Where Are These Files Kept, Anyway?

The best advice I can give you when starting a project in Premiere is to be neat and organized. After you save and name your files, you will have a much easier time locating the correct files. But where do they actually live? I suggest that you create a general project folder to keep all the project's contents (or as much as possible) in one area. You might do this for every unique storage drive you'll be using during the project. Here are a few ideas to stay organized:

• Create a folder on your internal hard drive for all your project settings and related files for that specific project.

• Create a folder on your media disks for each individual project in which to keep all your digitized audio, video, and graphic clips. Use a naming structure that is easily identifiable (such as ProjectName_MediaFiles), as shown in Figure 1.24.

  Figure 1.24. Create individual folders to organize every project you edit.

  

• Inside your media folder for each project, create subfolders to organize the various media categories, as shown in Figure 1.25.

  Figure 1.25. Create subfolders within a project folder to better sort various media types.

  

note

Remember, if you move, change, or delete media clips outside Premiere, you break the relationship with any of the clips that referenced those clips as soon as you go back into Premiere.