Anyone else make their own templates?

Posted October 28, 2021 in
Video Video

Megan Lang

Changing the world with video

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I've found making templates for folders in Finder, and Premiere/AE templates have saved me a lot of set up time. 

I have a template folder that has all the parts of post production I need, along with a premiere file already loaded with commonly used assets.

Do you guys have any other tricks for templates/repetitive tasks for post-production?
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Megan Lang
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I also have a Finder setup that's very useful! 
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Zach Basner
This isn't necessarily a "template" hack, but this one simple thing has definitely saved me HOURS if not DAYS of time.

Have a folder of background music ready to rock. Music stays in there (not in the project folder) so it never gets unlinked which saves time in itself.

I used to spend at least 15-20 mins per video finding music and that kinda stressed me out.

Instead, I took like 4 hours one day and just downloaded a bunch of music and now it takes me 2 minutes.


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Michael Berg
I have a template folder with a Premiere project file set up with all our custom gfx, bins, music etc. When I create a new video I copy the files/folders to the new project folder. This way, everything is preloaded into pp including music, graphics, lower thirds, layers, logo bumper etc. With this setup and a simple video, I have cut and proofed 3 videos in one day from start to finish. Not saying it was easy, but with the right template, you can save an incredible amount of time.
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Megan Lang
YES and sound effects. I do that too!
Sami Ahmad
I usually have a LUT ready to go and sound presets for any spoken audio. I made it a while ago and just tweak the EQ and gain for each speaker. The LUT I just downloaded from Panasonic’s website. I’m still building my SFX library out though. 

I also make proxies beforehand. It usually takes up all my computer’s processing power. While that happens I usually write scripts, make a rough animation, etc. 

This is more of an editing style, but I always make a stringout sequence and then make highlighted selections from that. Then I take those into a select sequence, delete everything that isn't a select, parse that down more. I use the J and L keys to fast forward and rewind in Premiere. Then I add music, motion graphics. It saves more time that way instead of building a video from scratch. 
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Megan Lang
Yessss totally! I do the same! I will definitely check out those LUTs tho! Idk if you guys are using built in captions, but Premiere has a really good captions addon for like $20/mo that you can also set a style for. We use it for our social posts mostly. I've been collecting useful sounds from envato marketplace for a while, can recommend! 
Sami Ahmad
Whichever camera system you all use(I'm assuming Sony since Alex filmed with those at our office) will have LUTS for Slog2/3. Good luck with those skin tones though ;) . Do you mean their transcription service? I think it's free for us. It'll automatically transcribe and caption and is generally accurate. 
Megan Lang
Haha yes we do... thinking about switching back to Canon or something though cuz even with both Sonys on the factory settings they still dont match :l And maybe that is it? I thought I remembered signing up for something you had to pay for, but regardless, the captions are awesome, I can't believe they even do the grammar of it! 
Blake Cormier
Similar idea... In DaVinci Resolve, I set up a Power Bin with our slidein, title card, lower third, logo, and other reusable assets. This shows up across all projects for easy drag n' drop onto the timeline.
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Megan Lang
Oh nice! Do you like DaVinci? I've never really played around with it, always just stuck with Adobe despite my many gripes with it haha
Blake Cormier
I'll be honest, I only started using DaVinci because of the very attractive price point of free, lol. I've never used Premiere, but from what I can see online most people find them comparable, just each with their own set of quirks that you have to learn.

That being said, we did end up buying the Speed Editor, which is a neat little control surface that can save a ton of time on quick-turnaround projects, if you learn how to take advantage of it. It's only $300, and includes a copy of the Studio version of DaVinci, which is normally $300 by itself.
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Jorge Escamilla
I'm an automation nerd so the answer is most definitely! We use Asana to track projects, and have tweaked rules/workflows to the point where a Google Drive folder is created when a project comes in, and necessary parties notified via Slack.
In terms of templates, I made a "Social Ad" template which consists of a big 1920x1920 comp where we do the animation, taking into consideration the borders of different output resolutions (wide, square, vertical) so the critical content always remains within the visible area. This has allowed us to export different resolutions without having to reformat the content significantly.
I also used expression controls to guide where our logo is positioned (or if it's hidden), thumbnail selection (gets exported as a single frame at the beginning of the video), and exporting stills to go with the social post :)
Looking forward to hearing other template stories, and happy to share further info with anyone who is interested.
Pamela Pierce
I've spent the last 6 months creating my template for Premiere Pro.  I've gathered music, video, photos, and sound effects and created the file structure of the template and have written down the workflow, in general at the moment, with more detail coming soon.  Now I'm working on templates for specific portions of my YouTube videos for my channel and deciding on the look I want it to have, plus the look of the titles and lower thirds, and the transitions.  I think my biggest worry is going overboard.  I want to use particle effects, transparency, and light effects - so I'm probably going to be using After Effects.  

I want my YouTube videos to make the viewer feel good and look forward to my next video, and feel expanded and inspired.  I'm not sure how I'm going to deal with LUTs yet, but I know color grading is going to be important to me.  My guess is that the music and LUTs will pull things together into a cohesive unit.  

This is a brand new YouTube channel, and I'm really looking forward to creating the best template that I can so that I can quickly and easily create videos for frequent posting.  So, yes, a well-defined template and workflow is very important to me... before I even start to create videos.  Once I start, I won't have time to create videos from scratch, the template is a must.   

Plus, you should be able to look at any of my videos and realize that you know the channel that the video came from, because of the template, and yet still be a bit surprised and amazed at each individual video.  

As far as on-going, I'm using Clickup to handle project management of the YouTube channel.  I chose it above Asana and others because I can make it do more and it is inexpensive.  It will especially be helpful once I have the money to hire others.


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