• Adobe Premiere Pro

  multiple file types / codecs – workflow?

  Posted by Chris Li on February 21, 2011 at 10:48 pm

  Hey everyone,

  I’m in a real pickle here… I filmed a friends wedding last year as a favour and need to get on with the editing asap really. The end goal being to produce a HD-DVD.
  My big problem is… I don’t know where to start! Well, i’m not a stranger to working with large video projects and do plenty of after effects work too, but this is a different beast for me right now.

  The issue is that I had 4 cameras filming throughout the day, all HD, all with different file formats / codecs and crucially, frame rates…
  I need to figure out some kind of process to go with to ensure all the footage plays nicely together, and thought i’d reach out for some advice.
  I’ve been hunting around for weeks for converters, testing different work flows, different techniques, but just find myself getting more confused with it all.

  Here are the specs of the cameras used and their respective video/audio codecs (as told to me by quicktime/vlc/premiere info):

  Canon Legria S11
  Resolution: 1920×1080
  Frame Rate: 29.97fps
  File Type: mts
  Codec: AVCHD (mpeg movie)
  Audio: 48khz (this will be my primary audio source)

  Sony FX1E
  Resolution: 1440×1080
  Frame Rate: 25fps
  File Type: mpeg
  Codec: mpgv
  Audio: 48khz mpga

  Samsung SKY02 Camera
  Resolution: 1920×1080
  Frame Rate: 25fps
  File Type: mp4
  Codec: H.264
  Audio: 48khz AAC

  Canon 550D
  Resolution: 1280×720
  Frame Rate: 50fps
  File Type: mov
  Codec: h.264
  Audio: 48khz

  As you can see, they are all over the place. I want to standardize everything, with as little quality loss as possible so i can edit them all together easier.

  The Canon Legria and the Sony FX1 were the primary cameras, but the main audio will be coming from the Legria.
  The 550D was secondary, but I have some really nice footage i’d like to use from this camera – so I figure I need to set up my projects at this base resolution of 1280×720. (i will be bringing bits of slowmo footage in, hence filming at 50fps on this camera).
  The Samsung was only used during the ceremony, but has some great filler footage from a different angle.

  In my head, here is what i’m kind of thinking I should do (but don’t really know where to start).

  1. Convert the NTSC Legria footage to 25fps (and ditch the AVCHD codec for something less processor intensive)
  2. Figure out how to resample the audio from this Legria to match properly (this is the main audio for the entire project, so has to be spot on)
  2. Do something with the Sony FX1 footage to make it square pixels to match the rest?
  3. Pick out the bits i want to slow-mo from the 550d footage and sort this out (not a problem)
  4. Pull it all into Premiere or Final Cut – figure out which project setting to use (square pixels?, interlaced?)
  5.(with the project set to 1280×720) – start editing.

  Sorry for the loooooong first post! Can any experts here give me a few pointers of where to start, what formats to convert to and any essential software to use?
  I have a medium spec dual core 64bit windows machine, with 2gb Ram, but have just got a Mac Pro 1, Dual core, dual 2.66 Xeon with 16gb Ram – so will most likely use this.

  I have Premiere CS5 on my pc, CS4 and FCS3 on the mac – but willing to upgrade to CS5 if it will help.

  Many, many thanks for any help you can give me!

  Keith Moreau replied 15 years, 5 months ago 2 Members · 2 Replies
• 2 Replies

• 

  Chris Li

  February 22, 2011 at 12:11 am

  Sorry, just to add – I am much more familiar with Premiere Pro and know the program well, as opposed to Final Cut Pro – which I have pretty much zero experience with.

  After a bit of further reading, it might be better to aim for a full HD final output and simply scale up the Canon 550D, as there isn’t lots of this footage – but everything else already 1080. Seems a shame to drop the size of everything else.
• 

  Keith Moreau

  February 22, 2011 at 6:49 am

  I used to use FCP for these types of projects, now I use Premiere Pro CS5 on my mac for the vary same reason that I have a lot of different camera codec types in the same timeline.

  But for any new workflow I do a bit of testing first with a small amount of footage.

  I would just drop a clip or 2 of each time on a separate track, choose a sequence res and framerate that matches the majority of the footage and output to your final delivery format and play it back on that device, whether it’s a DVD, a web player, Bluray or any combination. It might just all work well without a lot of fuss. That’s been my experience with CS5 so far. I’ve put 24P AVCHD on the same sequence as 30P EX1 and it cuts pretty well together. If it were going to National broadcast I might be more picky with the frame rate conversion, delinterlacing, trancoding, etc and there are tools to help with that.

  The rule is, test your workflow with a small, manageable amount of media before starting down a path that might now work or be a lot of extra trouble.

  Good luck.

Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up