How to pull interview selects in Premiere Pro

Interview selects are the usable moments pulled out of an interview before the story is ordered. In Premiere Pro the fastest way to pull them is from the transcript: open the clip in the Source Monitor, select the words you want in the Text panel, and Insert them into a selects sequence. Subclips and markers work too, and suit editors who'd rather not trust a transcript. Here are all three, and how to hand selects to a producer.

Method 1: from the transcript (fastest)

Premiere can transcribe interviews itself (Speech to Text), with each word timed.

1. Transcribe the interview: select it in the Project panel, open Window > Text, and choose Transcribe in the Transcript tab.
2. Make an empty sequence for this interview's selects, named something like Maria selects.
3. Open the interview in the Source Monitor. The Text panel now shows its transcript.
4. Select the words you want. The selection sets the clip's In and Out points.
5. Press Insert (or ,) to add the selection to the end of the selects sequence. Repeat down the transcript.

Because each select starts and ends on a word, it's cut tighter than In and Out points set by ear. Transcripts from Rev or Otter can be brought in the same way; see how to get a Rev or Otter transcript into Premiere.

Method 2: subclips

1. Open the interview in the Source Monitor and play through it.
2. At a good moment, mark In (I) and Out (O).
3. Choose Clip > Make Subclip (Cmd+U on Mac, Ctrl+U on Windows) and name it after what's said.
4. Keep subclips in a Selects bin per interviewee, and use label colours for strength (green for the must-haves, for example).

Subclips survive into every sequence and are easy to search by name, but naming each one takes time.

Method 3: markers

Play the interview and press M to drop a marker at each good moment, adding a note or colour in the Markers panel. Markers are quick while watching, and fine for a first pass, but they mark a point, not a range: someone still has to decide where each select starts and ends.

Selects sequence or string-out?

A selects sequence holds one interview's best moments in the order they were said. Once selects from several interviews are combined and put in story order, it's usually called a string-out; see how to make an interview string-out. The written version of that order is a paper edit.

When a producer picks the selects

If the producer or director is choosing the lines, they usually don't have Premiere or the footage. Two ways to keep them out of your timeline but in the decision:

• [PaperEdit](/paperedit): send the producer a link to the interview transcripts. They highlight the lines they want, put them in order and press Send; you download the sequence for Premiere, already cut. The interviews are transcribed on your computer and the footage never leaves it.
• A written paper edit: if they've already written their picks in a document, paste it in with the transcripts and download the sequence.

Working alone works the same way: in PaperEdit, click the passages you want in each transcript, put them in order, and download the sequence. A Transcript Selects project file (.cutselects.json) opens there with its passages in place.

FAQ

How do I make a selects sequence in Premiere Pro? Create an empty sequence for the interview, then open the interview in the Source Monitor, mark each good moment (In and Out, or by selecting words in the Text panel), and press Insert to add it to the end of the sequence.

What's the shortcut for a subclip in Premiere? Cmd+U on Mac or Ctrl+U on Windows (Clip > Make Subclip), after marking In and Out in the Source Monitor.

Can I pull selects from a transcript in Premiere? Yes. Transcribe the clip in the Text panel, open it in the Source Monitor, select the words and press Insert or Overwrite. The selection becomes the clip's In and Out points.

Should selects be subclips or a sequence? Both work. A sequence is faster to build and play through; subclips are easier to search and reuse across sequences. Many editors make a selects sequence per interview and subclip only the strongest moments.

How do I share interview selects with a producer who doesn't have Premiere? Share the transcripts instead of the footage. In PaperEdit the producer picks and orders the lines from a link in their browser, and you download the result as a Premiere sequence.