How to Edit 4K Single-Camera Interview Video in Premiere Pro

In this Premiere Pro tutorial from David Bode’s free Ultimate Premiere FAQ course, you’ll learn how to create and edit multiple cameras from a single camera shot. This is a fast and fun way to edit interviews, especially.

Advantages of High-Resolution Files

These days, cameras can record at very high resolutions, like Cinema 4K, but outputs that high are typically not needed because most end users are only using 1080p screens. This makes it possible to shoot at a very high resolution like 4K and then arrange files in Premiere to get two different camera shots—one wide and the other a more close-up view—without loss of quality in the final output. Let’s look at how to edit 4K interview footage to achieve this result.

Set Up the Wide Frame

To create two or more shots from your high-resolution footage, first create a new sequence. In the sequence settings, change the Resolution to 1920 x 1080. If the original is a 4K file, that is 4096 x 2160 at a 100% scale with the new dimensions, giving us a lot of room to play with to reposition the image.

Set up your wider shot first: right-click on the file and choose Set to Frame Size. That’ll set the width to the frame size. You’ll see black bars at the top and bottom of the footage. To eliminate these and fill the frame, go to the Effects Control Panel and scale to something like 50%, which should leave you a bit of room on the right and the left to recenter the image.

Turn on Safe Margins from the toolbar to help you with recentering. If you need to adjust where the headspace is, bump things up to something like 52%.

Set Up the Closer Frame

To make a pretty convincing second shot out of this one-camera shot, click Alt and drag the video up onto a second video layer. This is going to be your tighter composition. Go to the Effects Control Panel and scale to something like 85–90% or more if you like. Now that you’ve chosen your views, here is where you would sync your audio if needed.

Multi-Cam View and Editing

Select both your clips, right-click and go to Menu > Clip and select Nest. This is going to nest the sequence. Now rename your sequence Multi Cam to keep things clear. You will notice the sequence is now green.

Now that the nest is made, right-click the sequence and go to Multi Cam > Enable. Make sure you have your view in the Program panel set to Multi Cam View. If you don’t, click the wrench and go to Multi Cam View.

Now you will be able to switch back and forth between the two views—wide-angle and close-up—while the sequence is playing, using the numbers on the keyboard to make your edits. In the example here, there are only two camera shots being used. That would mean that the first shot is 1, and the second is 2.

As your sequence is playing, toggle either 1 or 2 to select the camera view you want in your final video. The bounding box turns red when it is recording what you are doing, but as soon as you stop, it turns yellow.

If you make a mistake or change your mind about a cut, place your playhead at the front part of the cut wherever you want to make a change, and then press whatever number you want, and that will overwrite your previous choice.