[Dennis Radeke]

[George Seven] “So do you think Premiere CS5 is good enough for editing a film?
In the past Premiere was terrible. I’m used to Avid, which in my opinion is by far the best editing software.”

Monsters which is a film in release right now was cut on Premiere Pro so it is being done. Salt also used Premiere Pro (though not for online) which is currently on the nvidia site as a customer story.

If however you are comfortable Avid, then you should stick with it. In my opinion there are advantages to every NLE… Premiere Pro’s probable advantages would be integration within the Adobe suite, native file handling, open timeline/native formats, 64-bit native application, performance from said 64-bit and GPU hardware acceleration.

Cheers,
Dennis

For you, I’ll also mention that Premiere Pro imports and exports AAF.

[Dennis Radeke]

Hey Justin,

I am the Adobe guy so am not the expert with FCP as others here are. FCP doesn’t like to things like P2 natively and so you need to convert them to something like Quicktime or ProRes ahead of time in order to edit with FCP. My recommendation would be to convert all of your clips using the log and transfer feature in FCP for tapeless formats and then edit in FCP.

I pointed out Premiere Pro because you CAN work with native formats and mix frame rates, media, aspect ratio and the like without having to convert anything.

Good luck.

[Dennis Radeke]

[Justin Lewis] ”
I’m confused about what to edit in (sequence settings etc), and then what to output in?”

If you have Premiere Pro CS5, then take all of the formats drop them in a timeline and output. The only thing you’ll have to remember is ‘scale to frame size’ for those clips that are larger or smaller than your sequence settings. Also, I’d choose a 720p HD timeline as its easier to scale up SD material and scale down 1080 material.

If you’re using FCP, you will need to convert pretty much everything to ProRes or Quicktime and then edit and output. Again, I’d choose 720p or a widescreen SD format.

[Dennis Radeke]

[Devin Crane] “Do you work for Adobe? Do you edit with FCP?”

Yes, and not really…

I know FCP and helped map the kybd shortcuts for our FCP mapping in CS5, but I clearly do not do professional editing with FCP on a regular basis. After all, I AM the Adobe guy. 😉

Dennis

[Dennis Radeke]

I’m the Adobe guy, so clearly take what I’m saying with a grain (or several) of salt.

Why Premiere Pro over MC5 or FCP7
1 – PSD integration. We support every aspect of PSD including layer styles & layer masks – both of which are NOT supported by FCP
2 – resolution independent playback engine. Will handle almost any codec you throw at it, natively.
3 – After Effects. Kiosks and Info type displays will almost certainly use some kind of motion graphics work. AE is the standard and there are a lot of templates that you can purchase if you’re not an expert.
4 – 64-bit native means you get the most out of your Mac or PC. CS5 is the fastest of the three (generally speaking)

The above are just some quick thoughts that are specific to your query. I can agree with the others who will tell you that all three will likely do the job adequately or more. Good luck.

[Dennis Radeke]

[George Seven] “Also, they say the new Premiere CS5 is better than Final Cut 7 for editing Canon 7d or 5d footage. What do you think?”

If by better, you mean able to edit it natively without having to convert it to another codec, then absolutely yes. It will also probably work just fine on your existing Intel based Mac, so you won’t have to switch to a PC as others suggest (unless you want to – Adobe is cross platform). If you choose a new dual hex core, Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 will address ALL of your CPU cores and ALL of your available memory so it adds up to a significant performance increase over FCP as it stands today.

However, if you’re willing to convert your footage to ProRes, the editors (from a editing functionality standpoint) are more alike than they are different.

I hope this helps you.

Dennis

[Dennis Radeke]

Traditionally speaking this is absolutely true. Adobe has a nearly 15 year track record of shipping major versions between 18 and 24 months. With CS3 to CS4 the video team had special demands to sync up with the rest of Creative Suite and so did a release in 15 months.

However, we do like to keep you guessing… 😉

Dennis, the Adobe guy

[Dennis Radeke]

Download the trial of Premiere Pro CS5 and evaluate whether native workflows are important to you. Of course, I am the Adobe guy. 😉

Seriously, do the research for what is the best decision for you. If it’s a choice to move to Mac, that’s great. Evaluate the current state of all the software products and make the decision based on your needs.

Good luck,
Dennis
Adobe

[Dennis Radeke]

Without having the files, I’m just guessing. My main point was that Premiere Pro should be able to play it without difficulty.

The 9MB file may be a QT reference file unless it is an .mxf.

good luck regardless!

[Dennis Radeke]

The frame size seems a little odd to me, but maybe that’s the inspector seeing through Panasonic’s pixel stretching.

Anyway, Premiere Pro does support native MXF (panasonic P2). If it’s a weird codec or perhaps missing, the best thing to try is import the clip (cmd-I) into the project and then drag it to the new item button. this will make it like FCP which will automatically create a sequence based on the clip properties. If that doesn’t play, then there’s either something wrong with the file or the codec is missing.