Introduction

The Reverse Action Effect is one of the easiest and quickest effects to do in Premiere Elements. (You can apply the effect in less time than it took you to read that last sentence.) Nonetheless, it has the potential to be one of the most powerful and dramatic effects in your effects arsenal, as well. This effect can be used to turn a perfectly fine, enjoyable clip into a comedy classic, as we'll demonstrate in this chapter.

You can use the Reverse Action Effect for dramatic and comic purposes, and you can apply it to virtually any clip with almost guaranteed interesting results. You've seen it used when a Jedi, having had his light saber dangerously knocked from his hand, uses the "force" to pull it back to him (actually what you're watching is the light saber rolling or falling away played back in reverse). Or a six-million-dollar man "leaping" up great heights (again, what you're seeing is the actor leaping down, played in reverse).

You can use this effect, too, to show your son leap "out" of a pool, your daughter slide "up" the slide, or a friend extract a candy bar out of his mouth and reassemble it back into its wrapper. Because the effect is found on the Time Stretch dialog box (which is used to speed up and slow down clips), reversing clips while at the same time changing their speed or duration are natural effect "companions."