Import media directly

For this tutorial, I'm using the Import Media Directly.prproj file.

You can find that project file with the media associated with this tutorial.

Just double click on the project file directly to open it in Premiere Pro CC.

Media files can be imported directly to Premiere Pro CC from Explorer in Windows or Finder in Mac OS.

Generally, you're going to want to use the Media Browser panel to import media.

Especially, if you're importing fragmented media file types like OP-Atom and MXF files.

But, if your media is self-contained like QuickTime Movie files or MP4 files, you can drag them directly from Explorer or Finder.

It's worth noting that by default Premiere Pro CC uses the file path and file name to connect clips in the project with the original media files in your storage rather than copying them to a unified project folder.

This makes it valuable to pre-organize your media files.

Here, for example, I've got some photos in a Photos folder.

I'll just go up one level here.

And I've got some video clips in a Video folder.

Some of these are set near a bridge, some in a lounge, some in a garden.

And I've got a P2 file drop.

That means I've got the contents of a P2 folder from a Panasonic camera.

I'm going to start out by creating some new folders just right clicking here in Windows.

On Mac OS I can right click and choose New Folder, and I'll call this folder Garden.

And just drag these garden clips in.

I’ll make another folder.

And call this Bridge.

Let's take all of these.

And another folder called Lounge.

Let's take these and drop them in there as well.

This is a very important part of the process.

If you are going to import media directly from your operating system into Premiere Pro CC, you really need to get the organizational system right first.

It's going to make it much easier for you to locate media later on.

It'll make it easier to archive and to manage the project in general.

Plus, there's a shortcut for creating bins which I'll show you in just a moment.

First of all, directly inside of Premiere Pro CC, I'm going to go to File, and I'm going to choose Import...

This is Control I on Windows or Command I on Mac OS.

Now you can see I'm already in my MEDIA folder I'm going to go into my Video folder, and let's just take this Bridge folder.

Notice that I am selecting the entire folder, and not the clips inside of it, or rather, more specifically, the media files inside of it.

Having selected the folder, I can either choose Open which will browse inside of it, or I can choose Import Folder.

On Mac OS this just comes up as an Import button.

I'm going to choose Import Folder.

And right away you can see what's happened.

I've got a bin inside of Premiere Pro CC that matches the folder name.

And if I expand the contents of that folder, you can see I've got those three clips imported.

These are MP4 files, so they're self-contained video and audio files.

Again, this will only work properly, if you're importing these kinds of self-contained files.

I'm going to get back into the same dialog box by double clicking on the background of the Project panel.

And now I'm going to navigate up a little, and I'm going to choose this P2 folder.

This is the contents of a P2 card.

And now I'm going to choose Import Folder again.

This time I get a couple of warning messages.

Premiere Pro CC has just been asked to import all of the sub folders inside of that P2 folder.

And that includes some XMP and XML files.

I'll click OK.

And I'll expand this new bin.

And you can see there I've got this 'Contents' folder that comes in a P2 card.

And inside of that there's AVCLIP folder, and all of these additional files.

Some of the items in that folder simply haven't been imported because they're not actually media.

This was the wrong type of folder to import directly into Premiere Pro CC I'll just collapse that for a second.

The Media Browser is always the right way to import that kind of fragmented media.

Now I'm going to toggle back to my media.

I'm going to browse inside this Garden folder.

And let's say I want to import this TAS_Garden_002.mp4 clip.

I'm just going to drag this straight into Premiere Pro CC.

And there it is imported.

This really is the same outcome as going to File, Import, or double clicking on the background of the Project panel.

I can, of course, also drag whole folders in.

I'm going to go back to this Video directory.

And take that whole Garden folder and drop it into Premiere Pro CC.

You can see in the background there is Premiere Pro CC imports.

And there's the Garden folder represented as a bin.

You'll notice that though the folder contains 3 items, only 2 appear inside this bin.

And that's because of a very interesting and useful user preference.

Here in Windows, I'm going to Edit, and Preferences, and Media...

This is under the Adobe Premiere Pro CC application menu in Mac OS.

And in this Preferences panel, I've got this option Allow duplicate media during project import.

With this option off which is the default, anytime you import a piece of media that's already in the project, well, it just won't appear.

You see I already imported that media file earlier on.

With this option on, I would have received all three clips.

Now is one option better or the other, it really comes down to how you like to work as an editor.

For now, though I'll Cancel.

And I'll go back to my MEDIA folder.

You can also drag files directly into the Timeline panel.

I'm going to go into this 'Lounge folder and drag one of these into Premiere Pro CC straight into the Timeline panel.

And let me just toggle back over to Premiere Pro CC.

Normally, inside of Premiere Pro CC, if you drag a clip into the Timeline panel when it's empty, a sequence will be created that matches the settings for the clip: the same frame rate, and frame size, and so on.

And importing directly from the file system is no different.

I've now got that clip in a sequence named after the clip TAS_Lounge_003.

There's the sequence in the Project panel.

And there's the clip that I've just imported.

There is a rule in Premiere Pro CC that any clip incorporated into a sequence must appear in the Project panel.

I'm just going to select this clip in the Project panel and hit the Delete key.

And I get a warning telling me that the clip I'm about to delete is incorporated into a sequence.

If I remove the clip, it's going to be removed from the sequence.

I'll just say No for now.

I'm just going to select all of these items in the Project panel and hit the Delete key to remove them.

I'm going to go back into my MEDIA folder.

And let's go up a couple of levels to show the Video and Photos folders.

I'll select them and drag them both into my Project panel.

I wanted to remove everything first of all because otherwise that preference we looked at is going to stop me getting all of the items imported.

When I toggle back over to Premiere Pro CC, I've got this File Import Failure dialog.

The same one we saw before because I've imported a P2 folder directly from the operating system rather than from the Media Browser.

And I'll click OK.

What's great about pre-organizing your media folders in your storage before you import is now if I expand my Video bin, you can see I've got each of these three locations already defined as bins.

And there, of course, is the contents of that P2 folder.

You can see it because this contents have been displayed the wrong way because I've imported directly.

It's probably not so helpful to incorporate fragmented file types into the same organizational system as your self-contained media file types.

I'm going to select that and remove it.

It's worth noting that the relationship between the bin names inside of Premiere Pro CC and the folder names in your storage is really a one-way trip.

I can change the names of these bins.

Let's say, I'll just call this New Name to make it really obvious.

And if I go back to my media folders and browse inside my Video folder, you can see that the folder name has not changed.

So, importing your media in such a way that it produces matching bin names is just a really useful shortcut and it makes it worthwhile pre-organizing and pre-naming your folders before you begin.