How to pick the best takes in Premiere Pro
Premiere Pro has no single rating system like Final Cut's, but there are tools for choosing takes: markers with comments, subclips, the Good column and similar-frame search. Here's how to combine them, and where Rescanzo saves time.
Markers and subclips
The quickest way to flag a good moment is a marker, and the good part of a long take is easy to keep as a subclip.
- In the Source Monitor or on the timeline, press M (Markers › Add Marker) at the good moment.
- Double-click the marker and add a name and comment, such as "best answer, no stumbles". Window › Markers lists them all, and the Search panel finds markers by name, comment and color.
- To keep a good section, set In (I) and Out (O) in the Source Monitor and choose Clip › Make Subclip (Ctrl+U or Cmd+U).
The Good column and labels
The Project panel can show a Good column: panel menu › Metadata Display › Premiere Pro Project Metadata › Good. It's a checkbox for marking preferred clips, and a search bin with a Good condition gathers them in one place. Label colors help too: the Search panel can filter results by label color.
Similar takes and repeated lines
For visually similar takes there's Search Similar Frames: right-click a frame in the Program Monitor. If a subject repeated a line, find it with transcript search in the Search panel and you'll land on every attempt, as long as the clips are transcribed.
The same in Rescanzo
Rescanzo gathers every take of one line across the whole footage folder, not just transcribed clips in the project. It understands Russian and English speech.
- Add your footage folder to Rescanzo and switch to Pro mode.
- Type the line the subject repeated.
- Watch the matches back to back and add the ones worth comparing to a collection.
- Export the collection to Premiere Pro (XML), bring it in with File › Import, and mark the best take there with a marker or the Good checkbox.
Putting them together
A routine that works for interviews: Rescanzo gathers every attempt at answering one question into one collection, and Premiere keeps the decision. The best take gets the Good checkbox and a marker comment saying why, and a month later that comment in the Search panel brings back your reasoning.
Questions and answers
What does a search like this cost in Rescanzo?
A Pro speech search costs 2 tokens plus 1 for every started minute the cloud checks. The app shows the price up front, and a new account starts with 50 tokens.
Can I find takes if the clips aren't transcribed?
Not with Premiere alone: its speech search only works on transcripts. Rescanzo searches speech on its own, no Premiere transcript needed.
Try it on your own footage
A new account gets 50 tokens: that's 25 searches in Mid mode.