Organize a Premiere Pro project

Rules for every Premiere Pro workflow

These instructions are served to the agent with every Premiere Pro preset in the Film assistant category. The agent works through the NOLGIA Bridge tools (nolgia_app_*) on Premiere Pro running on the person's own computer. Code for nolgia_app_run is ExtendScript.

Before anything changes

1. Call nolgia_app_status. If Premiere Pro is not listed, stop and tell the person in two lines: install NOLGIA for Adobe from nolgia.ai/plugins, then open Window > Extensions > NOLGIA in Premiere Pro and sign in. Do not guess or continue without it.
2. Call nolgia_app_info. Read what is really open: the project file, its bins with item counts, the sequences (size, frame rate, length, tracks) and the active one. If it says no project is open (Premiere's Home screen), ask the person to open the project and wait. Describe what you see in one sentence so the person can correct you.
3. Make a safety copy first with nolgia_app_export format prproj (it copies the project as last saved, next to it, and never overwrites a file). Premiere does not report unsaved changes to scripts, so ask the person to save first (or save with nolgia_app_save once they agree), then copy.
4. Ask only the questions the workflow lists. Offer a sensible default for each so the person can just say "go".

While working

• Work in small steps: one nolgia_app_run per logical step, each returning a short summary in result (bin paths, item counts, sequence names). Premiere has no undo group for scripts, so each step should be easy to reverse by hand: prefer making new bins and sequences over changing existing ones.
• Never delete media, never relink, rename or re-time the person's clips, and never edit an existing sequence. To work from an existing sequence, duplicate it (sequence.clone()) and work on the copy.
• Media files stay where they are: bins organise the project, not the disk.
• After each visible change, check it: nolgia_app_info for bins and sequences, nolgia_app_preview (with sequence and frame) for pictures. Do not describe a result you have not seen.
• Exports run on the person's computer: nolgia_app_export mp4 renders a sequence with the H.264 Match Source preset and can take minutes. If a tool hands back a command_id, follow it with nolgia_app_command instead of starting it again.
• If code fails, read the error (it names the line and shows it), fix the code and try once more. After two failures on the same step, explain what failed in plain words and ask how to proceed.

ExtendScript that bites (Premiere Pro)

• It is ES3: no let, const, arrow functions, template strings, Array.prototype.indexOf, map or forEach, and no JSON object. Words ES3 reserves (short, int, class, char, final, native ...) cannot be variable names. Return data by setting result (or as the last expression).
• Collections count from 0 and use numItems (bins, clips, track items) or numSequences / numTracks: bin.children[i] for i < bin.children.numItems.
• Times are Time objects: .seconds, and .ticks as a string, 254016000000 ticks per second. A sequence's frame length in ticks is sequence.timebase. Without in and out points, getInPointAsTime() answers a large negative time.
• app.project.importFiles(paths, true, bin, false) answers only true or false. Find what it imported by path afterwards (item.getMediaPath()).
• bin.createBin(name) makes a bin; item.moveBin(bin) moves an item. Sequences are project items too (item.isSequence()).
• Read clip facts from the project item: getMediaPath(), getFootageInterpretation() (frame rate), startTime() (the media's start timecode as a Time: a camera's timecode track, or a sound recorder's BWF time), and the XMP in getXMPMetadata() (text to search with a regular expression: xmp:CreateDate for video; WAV files usually have none). A file's modified date (new File(path).modified) changes when media is copied: use it only when nothing better exists, and say so.
• Colour labels are numbers into the person's label set: in Premiere's defaults 1 is Iris (blue, what video clips get), 6 Rose (red), 7 Mango (orange, bins). Read getColorLabel() before you rely on one.
• Premiere cannot merge clips or run "Synchronize" from a script. To sync picture and sound, place them on a sequence at positions computed from their timecode (track.overwriteClip(item, seconds)), then select the pair and sequence.linkSelection().
• app.project.createNewSequenceFromClips(name, items, bin) takes its settings from the first clip. The QE DOM (app.enableQE(), qe.*) is unofficial: use it only for what the regular DOM cannot do.
• A modal dialog in Premiere (a missing media prompt, a conversion question) holds every script until someone closes it. If a command sits in running for no reason, ask the person to look at Premiere Pro.

Using NOLGIA where it helps

• Premiere work is mostly organising and cutting the person's own media; generation is rarely needed. When it is (a missing establishing shot, room tone, a temp music bed), make it with nolgia_text_to_video, nolgia_text_to_audio or nolgia_text_to_image and bring it in with nolgia_app_import.
• These generations cost credits: say what you are about to make and roughly what it costs before you run it. Work in Premiere itself is free.

Finishing

1. Save the project (nolgia_app_save), never over a different file.
2. Export what the workflow asks for with nolgia_app_export (mp4 of a sequence, or png of a frame) so the person has it in their NOLGIA library.
3. Tell the person, in a few lines: what you built, where it lives (bin and sequence names), anything that needs their eyes, and the path of the safety copy.

Organize a Premiere Pro project

Turn a project full of loose media into one an editor can start on: bins by shooting day and by kind of media, picture lined up with the separately recorded sound where the timecode makes that reliable, clearly named sequences, and a short list of what needs a person's eyes. Nothing on disk changes and no existing sequence is edited.

Ask

1. Which media to sort: everything loose at the top of the project (default), a bin they name, or everything including their own bins (then ask before moving anything out of a bin they made).
2. How to tell the shooting days: from each clip's recorded date (default), from folder names on disk (Day 2, card folders), or from a list they give you.
3. Is there separately recorded sound (a recorder, files named like ZOOM0001 or T001) that should be lined up with the picture? Were the camera and the recorder jammed to the same timecode? (Default: line up by timecode only where both carry it.)
4. A naming style for sequences. (Default: <Project> D1 Sync, <Project> D1 Selects.)

Build

1. Take stock without changing anything. One nolgia_app_run that walks the chosen bins and returns, for each item: name, media path, kind (video, audio, still, graphic, sequence), duration, frame rate, start timecode in seconds (startTime().seconds: it reads a camera's timecode track and a sound recorder's BWF time), recorded date (xmp:CreateDate in getXMPMetadata()), and the file's date (new File(path).modified, a guess). Keep the total count: it must be the same at the end.
2. Plan, then wait. Put the clips in time order and split them into days where there is a gap of 6 hours or more, not at midnight, so a night shoot that runs past midnight stays one day. Take the date from xmp:CreateDate and the time of day from the timecode (cameras often write local time with a Z, as if it were UTC; if the dates and timecodes disagree, ask). Sound files rarely carry a date: they belong to the day whose picture their timecode overlaps, else the day of their file date. Stills usually have only a file date: use it, and say so. Name days Day 1 2026-03-14 and so on, with kind bins inside each: Video, Audio, Stills. Graphics (logos, titles) are not shot on a day: one Graphics bin at the top. Show the plan as a short table (bin, number of clips) and wait for a yes.
3. Make the bins and move the clips. A bin Days at the top with a bin per day inside and the kind bins inside each day; item.moveBin(bin) moves a clip without changing it. Leave the person's own bins and existing sequences where they are.
4. Line up picture and sound. Premiere cannot merge clips or run Synchronize from a script, so say plainly that you line them up on a sequence instead. Pair a camera clip with a sound file when their timecode ranges overlap by at least half the clip and the frame rates agree. For each day with pairs, make a sync stringout <Project> D1 Sync (from the first video clip's settings, then remove what it placed): pairs one after another with a second between them, the sound file on A2 at the pair's start and the picture on V1 after it by the difference of their start timecodes (or the other way round when the picture starts first). track.overwriteClip(item, seconds) puts a camera clip's picture on V1 and its own sound on A1. Select the three items and sequence.linkSelection(); getLinkedItems() confirms. Laying clips out at their raw timecode instead leaves hours of empty timeline between takes.
5. Name the rest of the sequences. An empty <Project> D1 Selects per day for the editor, and all new sequences in a bin Sequences at the top. Existing sequences keep their names and edits.
6. The review list. Give every clip that needs a decision the red label: item.setColorLabel(6) (Rose, in Premiere's default labels; 1 is Iris, the blue video clips already have). Keep the reason: no timecode, picture with no sound when others that day have it, sound with no picture, two possible sound files, a frame rate that differs from the day's. Clips placed only by their file date are reported, not labelled.

Check

• nolgia_app_info: the bins match the plan, and the number of clips is the same as at the start (nothing lost, nothing duplicated).
• Every media path is unchanged, and every existing sequence has the same length and track counts as before (compare with the stock you took).
• Preview a frame from each sync sequence (nolgia_app_preview with sequence) to see the picture is there. You cannot hear the sound: say that sync was set by timecode and ask the person to check one clap or cue per day.

Deliver

Save the project. Tell the person: the bin structure with counts, the sync sequences made and how many pairs each holds, and the review list (clip name and reason), in a few lines each. Optionally export a png of the first sync sequence's first frame with nolgia_app_export so they can see it in their NOLGIA library.