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Workflow Advice
Okay, this may be covered elsewhere, but I can’t seem to find a clear answer. Getting desperate, so here goes.
I’ve a completed edit for a feature length movie. I need to begin color correction and special effects for it and need some help clarifying work flow issues.
I have used Premiere Pro 2 for a few years now. My movie’s edit is completed in this program. I like PPro 2.0 but will grudgingly consider an upgrade to Premiere CS5 AND completely re-cut the sequences for the added color/special effects power of the 64-bit system.
I’ve always used Cineform in the past, and liked it, but (and this may not be the case with most others out there) it’s unstable with Premiere CS5 (and CS3 and CS4 as well–hence the reason I’ve stayed with Premiere Pro 2.0 way too long).
PPro CS5 seems to edit native M2T footage very well, except for exporting and I’m hoping that is due to my ignorance.
If staying native really is a viable option, my goal would be to recreate each of my movie’s sequences from scratch in Premiere CS5 with my footage M2Ts instead of the Cineform avi’s, then export each scene to be imported back into a separate whole-movie project file for the completed edit.
If this sounds unnecessary–in the past–I’ve attempted to include all clips from each scene (well over 3000 clips) into the same project or sequence. Premiere could not handle the number of clips in either case. It crashed every time and that was with DV footage not the 1920×1080 HD that I’m working with now.
So please…anyone with advice, comments or suggestions on my work flow, I’d be eternally grateful. There may be a better way and I’m all ears if there is.
Once all the color correction, special effects, music and sound effects are completed, I plan to export to tape as a master, but I’ll also need to have a digital master as well. I plan to author a standard DVD, Blu-ray version and also prepare the movie for possible submission to festivals…having a product in the proper format for whatever the next step is at any rate. Broadcast is not a likely concern right now, but I’d like to know I have the proper high quality master for anything.
For the work flow I’ve described, a loss-less conversion seems necessary for both the individual scene exports and also the final digital export. I don’t want color correction or special effects to result in lower quality footage (banding, skipping or artifact-ing) through a compressed format. Some people say it doesn’t matter. I’d rather bulk up my hard drive than risk working with lower quality footage the my audience can see in one way or another.
I’ve tested a few exports with PPro CS5 and despite the wide variety of HD selections, I repeatedly come out with a reduced quality product. I know PPro pretty well, but am totally ignorant on the codec information. Cineform spoiled me, and now I can’t use it if I want to move to PPro CS5. I have to find an alternative I can trust before I start completely re-cutting this movie with M2Ts.
Native M2T files seem to be working for now, but I know I’ll need to export something other than M2T eventually. Even if I simply work back and forth between Premiere and After Effects without actually exporting, I know that I will have to address this eventually.
The good news (I hope) is that I only work in Adobe Premiere and After Effects. Color correction with Color Finesse.
I’ve read about a few formats that seem loss-less for final exports, but so many people have conflicting views. PNG loss-less video, Quicktime self-contained, m2v, Animation codec, MPEG-4, MPEG-2? I know so little about what the pros and cons for each of these formats. I’m looking for the right format to create a digital master.
I want to retain as much of the quality of the original files as possible to avoid the banding and artifact-ing that come from compression. I have plenty of room on my hard drive (I know it’s not the only issue–but before someone mentions it). The operating system drive (for Vista 64) is 10,000 RPM Sata with a Quad Core processor and 8-gig of RAM (6.5 usable by PPro).
I shot in 8-bit. I know that you can’t increase quality beyond that, but the loss-less quality and increased “overhead” the 10-bit codec like what Cineform added was definitely helpful in color correction and keying. I was under the impression that PPro CS5 would up-res (or whatever the term is) to 10-but as well. If I’m wrong about this, please let me know.
I’m just looking for the right pathway to complete the remaining parts of this project and feel ready to tear my hair out at this point. It was a shock to see that the native footage works better in PPro CS5 than Cineform, but a relief given the problems I was having. Now I just have to figure out what to do next without an export codec in mind.
Anyone who could help with a loss-less file format or better work flow than what I’ve listed above…you’re my hero.
One last thing, I’ve never needed Adobe Media Encoder. Do I need it now without Cineform or is there a format inside of PPro CS5 that is appropriate?
Whew! Thanks for reading all this!
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1 Reply
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Janet,
CS5 should be good for you because (being 64-bit), it will enable larger projects to be handled. (I tend to (still) initially break up my large projects to cut down on media load times; then finally import them into a master project for final assembly & output).
I personally would simplify your workflow, going with native source footage on the timeline. I have a Matrox MXO2 mini, which in addition to supporting an external monitor, gives you a nice selection of high quality codecs (compressed 8-bit; uncompressed 8 & 10-bit) that you can use to render in both PPro and AE. However, PPro and AE CS5 already natively support uncompressed 8 & 10-bit YUV codecs for rendering (and real time playback)if your disk system can handle it. PPro CS5 also has an I-frame MPEG2 (or DVCPRO HD) codec for rendering that would be easier on your disk system. You can always delete your (compressed) previews before exporting (to a file – not tape) for maximum quality.
I would say you have the minimum amount of RAM for editing large projects. You also may want to consider getting an Nvidia graphics card that supports the Mercury Playback Engine, which might enable real-time color correction (depending on the filter you use). Matrox also supports real time color correction (CPU-based) with its own filter set (included with the MXO2 Mini).
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