Avid editor questions

[Alan Lloyd]

1. Is there any way of doing edits on the timeline by marking in and out and clearing or lifting the marked area? Like in Avid where you hit I,O, and then Z or X?

Ripple delete…

2. The titling is driving me nuts. I have set up a nice title with embedded effects and transitions to be used throughout the timeline.
When I copy the clip on the timeline and try and change the text – all previous versions also change! Please tell me I’m doing something wrong.
How do you disable the “linked” or “referenced” title copies?

You have to make a different title – “New title from current title” is the menu item.

5. I’m trying to do a final color grade by adding an effect to an empty layer at the top of the sequence in order to have a uniform look that i can apply across all clips below it – and that i can tweak and change after client inputs. I can’t get this to work – do i have to enable a special “adjustment layer” or something somewhere.
In Avid I do this by dropping an effect on an empty track.

Adjustment layers are found in After Effects.

[Andy Prada]

Different workflow..not necessarily better or worse.

Premiere uses a different geography more akin to FCP which you may either love or hate. I work with Avid and indeed FCP frequently and I often have to stop for a nano second and think how to translate the choices I need. Here are possible answers to your questions in numeric order:

1. Mark an in and out point in Premiere. To clear the area simply keystroke semicolon (;) To ripple delete keystroke a single inverted comma (‘) The tracks you lift or delete depend on what you have selected – just like Avid. It’s worth experimenting!

2. You can do this in two ways – one is using the make caption a template option in the title tool. The other is, in my opinion equally simple. First off – don’t try and simply copy and paste the title from and to the timeline. Any changes you make will change the original file. In the Project box copy your title (Ctrl C) and paste it (ctrl V). It will appear as a copy of the original caption. You can now amend this without messing up the original. Do this and then add to the timeline.

3. Positioning the cursor in an area you want to zoom in on and press dash (-) or equal (=) to zoom in or out around the curser – much more flexible than Avid.

4.Not sure what you mean here. Adding a transition is constant whether between clips or fading up and down on an individual clip. It depends on the default duration selected in PREFERENCES.

5.You can’t colour correct an empty layer. To make a uniform look, add a colour correction filter to the first clip you want to alter. Set your parameters. You can then either save this preset to the USER presets in the effects library (and then simply drag it to any other clip(s) you wish to change OR click on the effect in the effect control panel, copy it (ctrl c) click on another clip and then paste (ctrl v). Hey presto your effect is copied over. In CS4 you can lassoo multiple clips and paste one or more effects into them in this way. Because CC may vary considerably between shots it’s not really a good policy to do global nested or mixdown correction.

To reiterate, Premiere is slightly different in some respects – you simply need to get used to it. I find Avid quite slow and clunky now – but that’s my opinion.

[Alex Udell]

Hi…

“5. I’m trying to do a final color grade by adding an effect to an empty layer at the top of the sequence in order to have a uniform look that i can apply across all clips below it – and that i can tweak and change after client inputs. I can’t get this to work – do i have to enable a special “adjustment layer” or something somewhere.
In Avid I do this by dropping an effect on an empty track. ”

Another option is to multi select the clips, right click and choose Nest.
This drop the selection in a subordinate sequence.

Then apply your effect on your master timeline to the nest.

Alex

[Jon Barrie]

Hi Dan,

1. Set I O in timeline. Use ; key for lift, ‘ key for extract. The section you have removed with either key is then stored in the RAM for pasting elsewhere. Great time saver when editing from the timeline. There is a track select “active” state that can apply the lift/extract to only active tracks – be aware of this and play with it to understand it.

To Select all tracks or deselect all tracks in Video or Audio groups hold the Shift Key modifier when selecting to activate or deactive the track group.

2. Open the Title into the Title interface and click on the shortcut button top left button or go to Menu>Title>NewTitle>Based on Current Title… name it and proceed to alter it.

You must be in the Title interface for this option to be available.

Being able to make a master adjustment to a single title (especially for lower 3rd design – with text setup on another Title, makes colour changes etc very fast as it the changes ripple through the whole edit it’s been used in. Different way of looking at it but when understood a very fast way of using titles.

3. Default keys are – and = on the keyboard. You can use the mouse wheel while holding the ALT key to zoom in or out of the mouse arrow position, if you are over the playhead… 😉 – zoom amount is like the slider.

4. It works and I use it all the time. Make sure the track the clip is on is selected as an active track. The CTI (current time indicator) or playhead doesn’t need to be snapped to the actual edit point, but it can help.

5. Set up a CC look on a clip so you have ‘template’ look. Open the Effect Controls panel and holding down the Ctl or Cmd key (PC or Mac) select the effect/s used to create this look. Go to the little triangle with lines in the top right corner of the Effect Controls Panel and select “Save Preset”… Name it approriately and hit OK.

It will now be in a custom folder in the Effects (listing) Panel. You can add that across a selection of clips in (only in CS4/CS5).

The “Save Preset” can store Motion Opacity and everything you can alter in the Effect COntrols and have selected (multi-select with Ctl/Cmd key) – it is a great time saver for multiple use effects, manipulations, looks etc.

I hope this has cleared up all your questions in a single hit or given you insight into the multiiple ways to work in PPro. There are so many similarities to Avid and FCP in this app that I find it a nice blend. Glad to have another Avid Editor having a crack at PPro. CS5 is a very nice version. CSNext should hit the proverbial nail on the head.

– Jon Barrie 🙂

Jon Barrie
aJBprods
http://www.jonbarrie.net
http://www.suiteskills.com

[Dan Fisher]

Thanks Andy, John – you guys rock!
You are right Andy, it did clear up my questions in a single hit!
This will make my life a lot easier. I’m starting to get the hang of Premiere now – and you’re right, the CS5 seems more stable than the other machine with CS4 on it – although I suspect that it might also be hardware related. The CS4 box has a BM intensity pro card which doesn’t always play nice.

None the less – thank you for your help. The zoom keys seem to be broken, but I think I’ll restore default keyboard settings and then see.

Thanks anyway, it seems Premiere is as similar as it is different to MC 🙂

[Jon Barrie]

Glad to hear it Andy 🙂

Jon Barrie
aJBprods
http://www.jonbarrie.net
http://www.suiteskills.com

[Stephen Eckelberry]

In CS5 keyboard customization (option H) you can open up shortcuts for Avid Express DV 3.5. I did this for FCP7, and while not perfect, it does help. Then continue customizing from there. The keyboard customization window is clunky; once you create your own custom shortcuts template you have to ‘save as’ and overwrite your own file. PP doesn’t always accept your new shortcuts either, sometimes you have to add a an option or shift key to make it work.

Stephen Eckelberry
Currently using PP to edit “Sucker” a feature film shot using R3D footage