Markers are how a timeline talks to the next person. When you cut alone they are a nice habit. When the edit moves to a colorist, a VFX artist or a second editor, they are how that person learns which shots were resized, sped up or faded without clicking through every clip.
This guide covers how to add, color and export markers in Premiere Pro by hand. Then it shows the Markers tab in Editor, which scans the timeline and marks every changed clip for you.
This video may reference an older version of Editor. Features and UI may have changed since recording.
How do you add and export markers in Premiere Pro?
Press M to add one, double-click it to name and color it, and export the list from the File menu. Those three steps cover most of what a handoff needs.
- Add the marker. Park the playhead and press M. With nothing selected, the marker lands on the sequence ruler. With a clip selected in the timeline, it goes on that clip.
- Name it and write the note. Double-click the marker to open it. Give it a name and put the instruction in Comments, in words the next person can act on.
- Pick a color. Choose one of the color swatches in the same dialog. Agree what each color means before the project starts, or the colors mean nothing.
- Give it a length if it covers a range. Set a duration in the dialog so the marker spans the whole section the note is about.
- Review them in the Markers panel. Open it from the Window menu. It lists every marker with its timecode, name and comment, and clicking one moves the playhead there.
- Export the list. Choose File, Export, Markers, and save a CSV, a text file or a web page with a thumbnail for each marker.
Adding a marker is quick. The slow part of a handoff is finding what needs one. To list every clip that was scaled, repositioned, sped up, faded or given an effect, you click through the timeline with Effect Controls open and type each note yourself. The clip you miss is the one the colorist finds for you later.
What do you need before you start?
- Premiere Pro. Editor runs as a panel inside it.
- Filmit Studio. The desktop app installs it into Premiere Pro, on Mac or Windows, and Editor comes with it.
- A Filmit account. Editor is part of Filmit Studio, and there is a free trial.
Once it is installed, open it in Premiere Pro from Window, Extensions, Filmit Studio, then open Editor from the panel.
How does Editor mark a timeline for a handoff?
It scans the video tracks you choose, finds the clips that were changed, and drops a color-coded marker on each one. Then it exports the same list as a CSV.
- Open Editor and go to Markers. In Premiere Pro, go to Window, Extensions, Filmit Studio, click Editor, and open the Markers tab.
- Choose the tracks. Editor lists the video tracks in the sequence. In the demo the footage is on V1 and V2, so the empty tracks are unticked. If you add a track, refresh and it shows up in the list.
- Choose what to mark. Motion, applied effects, speed, opacity, gaps and offline media.
- Give each kind a color. In the demo gaps are yellow, offline media is red, motion is green, opacity is orange, applied effects are purple and speed is blue.
- Click Add markers. Editor goes through the tracks and places the markers on the sequence.
- Read the timeline. In the demo the markers pick out a clip with a blend mode, the point where a keyframed move ends, an opacity fade from 100 down to zero, and a gap in the footage.
- Export the CSV. Max opens the file in Excel. It lists the markers and where each one sits in the timeline.
As Max says in the video, a solo editor may never need this. On a large project that passes between people, or a job that has to be rebuilt in another editing app, a written list of what was done to each shot saves a lot of questions.
Pro Tip: Give each kind of change its own color before you add the markers. The timeline then reads at a glance, and whoever picks up the project can look for one color to find every speed change or every applied effect.
Where does it stop?
Editor reports what was done to the clips. It leaves the judgment to you.
- It does not know what matters. A marker says a clip was scaled or sped up. Whether the next person needs to act on it is your call, so add your own notes with M where the reason matters.
- It reads the tracks you tick. A video track you leave unticked gets no markers. Check the list before you run it on a tall timeline.
- The CSV is a reference. It tells someone what was done and where. It does not rebuild an effect in another app, so the look still has to be recreated or rendered.
Getting started
Markers is a tab in Editor, which comes with Filmit Studio, and there is a free trial. If the handoff includes the project and its media as well as the list, read how to package a Premiere Pro project next.
