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Making the most of DSLR footage
Hi all,
Just spent a lot of money on a new editing set up (i7, 16gb ram, decent graphics card, SSD, etc) to edit a documentary I filmed in Ibiza back in September. Took a while to save up but I’m ready to go.
I’m using Premiere and After Effects CS6, but also have DaVinci Resolve (Lite) which I may use for grading.
I’m pretty new to this, so before I do anything, I’m making 100% sure that I do everything right. I’ve done quite a bit of basic editing before, mainly using captured DV footage and some stuff from Sony XD cams a few years ago, but this is my first time using DSLR footage and although this isn’t a Hollywood blockbuster, I don’t want to get hundreds of hours into editing only to find it would have been better/quicker/more efficient to have done such and such right at the start, by which point it is too late.
So apologies if I sound a bit stupid, but I want to learn about this now, rather than waiting until I’ve put a decent edit together.
So –
1. The camera is a Nikon D5200, files shot in 1080p, 24fps. Files are .mov files, I think h.264 and I think actually at 23.976fps, but I’ve no idea as for some reason Bridge refuses to tell me what the encoding is. Any way to accurately find out?
2. Should I convert these files into something like ProRes for ease of editing? I read a very compelling case to convert them into 10bit ProRes 422 using After Effects. It doesn’t make a massive difference, probably due to my computer, Premiere works quite well with the native files when I’ve been messing around with it, but if it’s more efficient to use something like ProRes when editing, I’ll happily spend time converting. I’d rather do that now than wait until several weeks down the line when I’ve got an edit build and everything starts grinding to a halt because I’m editing using h.264 files.
3. I have the bug in CS6 where none of the presets show up. Official answer from Adobe is a reinstall. Does it really matter though? They’re presets right? Not codecs? Just entering in the settings manually is fine right?
4. I have installed no codecs aside from whatever is installed with CS6, and I certainly haven’t installed any codec packs (been warned about that!), so do I need to do anything else? Do I need to install the ProRes codecs? Again, stupid question, but this is the bit I’m stumped on.
5. A final largely unrelated question, though it does slightly relate to point 1 – A lot of the metadata seems to be missing. For example, on the first SD card (I used three) only about half the clips show the file dimensions (1920×1080) in Bridge. The rest are missing. On the second SD card, two files keep corrupting when copied to a hard drive. This footage was filmed in an insanely hot club that caused condensation to form on the camera. I got it out of there ASAP, but while these files work fine right off the card, they corrupt when copied to a hard drive. Is there a danger I’ll never be able to recover them properly? Any way to make a secure back up?
Sorry for the ignorance here. I’m pretty clued up when it comes to editing itself but never before have I bothered with making sure the codecs are right, let alone grading. This means a lot to me, so I want to get it right, even if it means asking stupid questions on a forum.
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6 Replies
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1. Bring the clip into Pr and it will give you the specs on the file.
2. DO NOT convert, edit raw.
3. No, you don’t need the presets, though they can be handy sometimes to serve as a starting point.
4. You get the Prores codec by installing an Apple app. that uses it.
5. Don’t format the card. Try off-loading the card again.
Chris
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Re transcoding, I DO transcode (to AIC coodec, because my CS3 doesn’t like ProRes). I only do that because my macbook can’t play back my Panasonic GH2’s native AVCHD files very well in realtime (even on the desktop), and Premiere exports take AGES if I edit in AVCHD. Once I add any video effects, timeline playback becomes impossible with the AVCHDs
There’s definitely a theoretical loss in quality doing any kind of transcode, but I can’t see it on screen. If I take a frame grab of the two versions and overlay them on each other in photoshop with a “difference” blend mode, I can see a really subtle difference when I turn the contrast right up. But my AIC workflow is a good compromise.I started out in audio before moving into video: if one had an mp3 to edit it was always recommended to convert it to an uncompressed format so the computer didn’t introduce all kinds of rounding errors and suchlike when processing. Does the same apply to video, or is Premiere making its own uncompressed “mathspace” to work in?
[PS, Chris, I’m doing some speed tests today to find the quickest way to output draft videos :-)]
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Hi Mike,
1. Copy entirety of SD card to hard drive, then in Premiere, use Media Browser to Import clips. Drag a clip from the Bin onto the “New Item” button at lower right of bin (hover mouse over icons to see their names), as this chooses a Sequence Preset to best match your footage.
2. Appears the new system is a PC, is that correct? If so, you can’t create ProRes on a PC (unless using some third-party software). Premiere WILL play back and edit ProRes sources, just having QuickTime installed provides the playback codec. No need to transcode really, edit native clips.
3. Reinstall. If things are missing, likely missing from Export options as well, nothing but headaches ahead if you start off on the wrong foot.
4. If QT is installed, you have the ProRes playback codecs, see #2.
5. Follow step #1, hopefully your clips are intact. Do not use any “transfer utility” from camera maker, just COPY memory card contents straight to hard drive, all folders.
Thanks
Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers -
[Jeff Pulera] “Copy entirety of SD card to hard drive”
Where they are copied matters. To do things entirely correctly, you need to copy exactly as Jeff said, and also to another drive, and if you can, one more drive (that’s three places) because you don’t want to lose your camera archives.
From time to time, email yourself the project file, so it has a back up too.
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OK, so I’m going to re-install to sort out the presets problem – like Jeff pointed out, there are issues with presets in the export options, which isn’t the end of the world (I could do it manually), but its a pain.
When it comes to copying the card WITH folder structure – I put the card in my reader, on the card the folcer structure is “DCIM>100D5200>*video files*”. So on my drive where I have “Ibiza Video>Source Media”, when you say to keep the folder structure, does this mean I can’t have “Ibiza Video>Source Media>*video files*”, I HAVE to have it as “Ibiza Video>Source Media>DCIM>100D5200>*video files*”? Why is this?
There’s also a file on each SD card (just on the card, not in any folder) called “Nikon001.dsc”, is this important at all?
As for transcoding, even in Premiere, it won’t tell me what codec is used. I used media info and the files are in the attached text file (too long to post here, can’t work out how to do “spoiler” tags on here either). In short though , they’re .mov AVC files. I’ve read they’re h.264 but that shows up no where.
Given that, would it be worth transcoding to Prores/DNxHD/AIC/etc, or to put it another way, would I lose anything by doing so? I’d rather have as much room to play with as possible.
If I do convert, how best to go about it? Bridge?
Text file with all the info on one of the files from MediaInfo – 7122_videocodecinfo.txt.zip
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I open up two finder windows. I make a folder called Camera Archive. Then I make a folder in that folder called 20140213 (the date), then I copy everything exactly as it is on the card into the date folder.
Camera Archive\20140213\…
Inside this folder are three more folders, the ones I coped from the card:
– DCIM
– MISC
– privateIf there are other files in there, copy them too. Copy Everything! Do not change the folder structure. Literally, actually, drag and drop everything!
Open premiere. Go to the media browser and browse to the private folder. Wallah.
The camera archive needs to be exactly as it is on the SD card because there is metadata the computer looks at. It’s not for human consumption 🙂
The files your camera records are called Long GOP and they are h.264 probably AVCHD. Highly compressed files. Premiere needs the metadata to deal with the interpolation of the missing picture data. When you transcode to DNxHD or ApplePro Res 422, your graphics card makes the best possible guess to put the video into an intraframe codec. That process will take quite some time.
The text file you linked contains a lot of information. You should google that stuff and read up on it until you feel like you know it.
Start here:
Format: MPEG-4 https://mpeg.chiariglione.org/standards/mpeg-4
And here is a good site to read: https://lurkertech.com/lg/timecode/
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