YouTube In The Classroom: Adobe Premier Rush

How It All Started

Since the fall of 2020 I have been trying to create a consistent vlog and blog creation and post content cycle. When we first went into lockdown, I was using a HP Chromebook 11 C5. It was usable and frustrating to say the least. Most of videos were made using a combination of Screencastify and Google Meet recordings.

Then my wife surprised me with a Macbook Pro M1 and I shifted almost all of my video production into the screen recording tools in MacOS and the iMovie app. I built my graphics in what was called Adobe Spark then and loaded it all to YouTube.

How it’s going

This year I have migrated my video creation tools over to Adobe Premiere Rush and the jump in production quality and assets is amazing. I feel like the quality of my work is more professional and I have tried to focus on elements from YT creators I admire that post and make tutorial videos for students and educators.

What I Do Now: Screen Recording

I still use the screen recording software in MacOS and have a dedicated desktop screen with a black background to record on. I don’t do a full screen recording in case a pop-up remind happens while I’m recording.

What I Do Now: Video Template

To start a tutorial project I make a copy of the base project I currently use. This includes a 10sec intro graphic that is made from a template in Adobe Express and then voiced over for each video. I then have a combination of five 44sec background graphics and audio music loops ened to end. The outro bumper is a static graphic with the same voiceover each time. I do this to make it easy to add video cards and a Subscribe graphic when inload the video up to YT.

My intros have stayed mostly the same over the past two years.

After the new year I’ll be shifting my outros to be the same as my intros.

This is my current outro but it can be a bit crowded with the video previews and promo cards.

What I Do Now: Each Tutorial

I learned from Claudio Zavala to use the background graphics to place your recorded screen on in case you want to show the same tutorial on a mobile app or a desktop screen. Also this creates space on the edge of the video for video graphics to remind viewers to subscribe to the channel or hit the like and share buttons. I add these graphics to the tutorial section at about 45sec intervals. The background graphics also allows for space in the top right corner for added Info Cards once you load the video to YT. Lastly transition graphics are a great way to convey personality. Most of the graphics have customizable colors to match your brand and help more the video from the intro to the main video and then to the outro.

Here you can see multiple parts of the layout and the transition graphics.

This is my current background for videos.

Here the mobile version for when I makeup a YT short or one of the video collage of challenge examples.

This is one that I worked up but never really liked the way it looked as a video background.

This was the first one I developed after seeing some of the other videos.

What I Do Now: Sound

Adobe Rush has a treasure trove of audio clips and loops. Many of the different background music loops can be directed into separate parts and then layered how you like. The one hold back is that you only get three audio channels that are separate from the videos. I highly recommend dubbing your main tutorial section as a separate file to give you more options for sounds and layers. My personal favorite right now is “Iridescent Soul” instrumental only. You can find just about any music choice you could want. Students would have so much fun building sound layers to help with any video project.