How to make a velocity edit in Premiere Pro

What makes it a velocity edit

Fast between the beats, slow on the hits, and smooth ramps in between. The music decides where the speed changes; the ramps decide how good it feels.

Step by step

1. Mark the beats. Play the music and press M on each hit you want to land on. Markers on the music clip move with it.
2. Turn on Time Remapping. Make the video track taller, right-click the clip's fx badge and choose Time Remapping, Speed. A speed line appears across the clip.
3. Add speed keyframes on the beats. With the playhead on a marker, Ctrl-click (Cmd-click on macOS) the speed line to add a keyframe.
4. Speed up and slow down. Drag the line up between hits to speed the footage up, and down around the hits to slow it.
5. Turn the steps into ramps. Drag one half of a speed keyframe away from the other. The gap becomes a ramp; drag its blue handle to bend it into a smooth curve.
6. Smooth the slow parts. For slow sections, set Clip, Video Options, Time Interpolation to Optical Flow, then render the preview. Footage shot at a higher frame rate slows down cleanest.
7. Hit the drops. Add a short zoom or shake on the biggest hits so the motion lands with the music.

Tips that make it look pro

• Pick clips with a lot of motion in them; speed changes are invisible on static shots.
• Keep ramps short around the hit and long in the fast parts.
• Fewer, bigger hits feel stronger than a change on every beat.
• Check the edit at full speed with sound; ramps that look right in the timeline can feel late.

Do the repetitive part faster

The slow parts of a velocity edit are finding the hits and adding the punches. Velocity does both inside Premiere: Beat Detect places markers on the hits of the music, and Beat Punch adds a zoom pop on each one. For any other keyframes, such as scale or position, it applies real ease and spring curves in one click.