Is Premiere Pro a better NLE for editing documentary films?

[Oliver Peters]

I would say either FCPX or Premiere Pro are fine. And I am perfectly willing to recommend the latest version of Premiere. I use it all the time on large productions. Does it crash? Yes, but not much more than previous versions.

The choice really breaks down between subscription versus ownership and between tracks and no tracks. Also don’t forget Avid Media Composer. Still the most robust option and you can rent or own it.

In general, for the best results with either app, make sure your source media is properly transcoded and organized first, before bringing it into the NLE. This means a codec like DNxHD, ProRes or XDCAM and unique file names. I bring this up because you commented about transcoding for FCP7. Premiere can work with many native, but non-professional formats, like DSLR and smart phone camera files. But this is a terrible way to work, if you think you will ever need to interchange the project or media with other editors, other systems, color correction in Resolve or audio post in Pro Tools. So take the time to transcode.

– Oliver

Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com

[Chris Wright]

for speed, if you chose smart rendering codecs, the final output render time will be 4x-10x faster as premiere won’t need to recompress any frames. any h.264 probally will be hard on your cpu to edit. any phone stuff will need to be transcoded to constant framerate with handbrake as premiere doesn’t support variable framerate stuff. you can also edit full online as well with cineform, if you have fast hd. transcoding to a non-long GOP like a wavelet proxy will also reduce crashes as premiere won’t have to reassemble delta frames while processing.

[Anna Wong]

Hi Oliver,

Thanks very much for your prompt reply. After listening to the advice from you and other friends, I will transcode all the footages. Most likely, I will use Premiere Pro CC. Which codec would you recommend? The footages are in wide range of formats. Some archival footages are still in DV tapes (Resolution 720×576) and some are interlaced video. The new footages are shot in HD with Sony A7II. Thanks in advance.

Best regards,
Anna

[Anna Wong]

Hi Chris,

Thanks very much! I do have footages shot with mobile phones.
Which codec would you recommend for unifying all footages in different formats? I have put this question to Oliver too.
Hope you can help too. Thank you!

Best regards,
Anna

[Anna Wong]

Hi Dave,

Thanks for your advices! Yes, I don’t have much good memory with FCP7 too.
You mentioned to use Premiere Pro CC 2015.4 or 2015.3. But how to reinstall the previous versions?
Thank you!

Best regards,
Anna

[Oliver Peters]

Since you are on a Mac (I think), I would recommend transcoding all this footage to ProRes.

You should also transcode to the dominant frame rate. This will slow down or speed up some footage, but that may be preferable to dropped frames/stutter caused by maintaining speed. For example, if your sequence is going to be 23.98fps, then footage that is 29.97 would be transcoded to 23.98, resulting in a slight slowdown. Of course, anything with sync sound is a different case and will need to stay at the proper speed.

I recommend buying EditReady for doing the transcoding/frame rate changes. Then use Better Rename to do any file renaming.

– Oliver

Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com

[Anna Wong]

Hi Oliver,

Thank you so much for your detailed reply! Yes, I am using Mac. My timeline will be in HD 25 fps.
Besides, is resolution a problematic issue? It seems frame rate is more problematic after reading your replies.
As I mentioned before, some archival footages are in 720 x 576. Should I keep it in 720 x 576?

Many thanks,
Anna

[Chris Wright]

you’ll need to take the handbraked video that is h.264 at RF 18 and transcode to prores 422hq. you can set to frame size vs scale to frame size. which one do you use video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OU9S2gjFyG8

don’t forget, any 23.976 stuff premiere will auto 3:2 pulldown to 29.97 for you! premiere can work well with 25 and 50, 23.976 and 29.97, 30 and 60; and 24 to 25 is a standard 4% change not too noticeable, especially with audio pitch correction.

obviously, you’ve figured it out, they are multiples and don’t create massive judder. If you do get judder, premiere now has native optical flow built in.
https://blogs.adobe.com/creativecloud/optical-flow-time-remapping-tips-tricks-for-best-results/

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[Oliver Peters]

[Anna Wong] “My timeline will be in HD 25 fps.
Besides, is resolution a problematic issue? It seems frame rate is more problematic after reading your replies.”

It sounds like you are in a PAL country (25fps), so my guess is that most of your footage will be OK. The oddball footage might be the phone footage.

[Anna Wong] “Should I keep it in 720 x 576?”

Since you want it to be HD, you’ll need to blow it up (‘scale to frame size’ in Premiere). However, it’s 4×3 in a 16×9 frame, so you will need to decide on how to handle the left and right edges. Maybe a graphic background. Some folks use the same image, blow it up a lot and blur it as a background. That’s a design issue. In any case, if you blow it up, the top and bottom will be at the frame top and bottom and you will preserve the aspect ratio without stretching it horizontally. Blowing it up so that the left and right edges match will probably degrade the image too much.

– Oliver

Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com

[Anna Wong]

Thanks Chris. I will study more! : )