[Jeff Pulera]

Tero,

Thank you for adding that, I was thinking in the 1080 domain, but of course you’re correct that one could export at 720p resolution and use the higher frame rates.

Regards,

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

That is correct. 50p/60p are not really accepted broadcast standards, not supported by Blu-ray for instance, so no advantage to editing at 50p/60p, as final export would be 25p/30p anyway in most cases. Take advantage of the slow-mo.

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

If you put a 50p clip into a 25p sequence, it will play like it is 25p footage. You don’t have to do anything, Premiere adjusts it for you so that a 10-second clip is still a 10-second clip, UNLESS you apply Speed Change.

Blu-ray for instance does not support 50p/60p, so there is no need to edit in one of those sequences. Just edit in a 25p/30p sequence, and take advantage of the slow motion capabilities from the 50p/60p footage then.

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

Hi,

You are correct, this is the usual way of applying slow motion. However, you can use something called “overcrank” meaning filming at a faster frame rate and then editing using a lower frame rate, thus taking advantage of the additional frames in the source clip. The term “Overcrank” is from the early days of film when the camera was cranked by hand and the operator would crank faster when they wanted the playback result to be slow motion.

If you shoot a 10-second clip at 50fps, then play that footage back at just 25fps, it would take 20-seconds to play and would play very smoothly since no frame is repeated, unlike slowing a 25fps source clip by 50% which simply plays each frame twice, creating jerky motion.

Premiere is intelligent and when you place a 50p clip into a 25p sequence, it assumes that you want the 10-second clip to remain a 10-second clip, so it just plays every other frame to simulate a 25p clip and it looks fine. However, if you change to 50% speed, it then uses ALL of the original 50p frames to provide very smooth playback. It does not need to duplicate frames – they already exist, and it uses them. Of course, if you drop to less than 50% speed, then some duplication will occur and the motion will no longer be silky smooth.

For folks shooting 60p, same thing applies when editing at 30p and using 50% slow, however you would also have the option of editing at 24p and using 40% slow to achieve even slower smooth motion.

Some older Premiere versions (sorry, don’t know when the change happened) might require you to right-click the clip in the Bin and select “Modify > Interpret” and then manually change the frame rate from 50 to 25 for instance. Then the clip will play at 50% without applying slow motion effect. You could still use Interpret with the new version if you wanted, but I’m told that leaving that setting alone and applying 50% slow, Premiere will automatically use the extra frames available to it.

I have limited experience with this effect as my own video cameras shoot at 1080i only. However, I did recently get a little GoPro camera that offers 720p60 shooting. I placed that footage into a 30p sequence and was able to get beautiful silky-smooth 50% slow motion, unlike the results I’m used to when NOT using “overcrank”.

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

Hi Tad,

If you let Adobe choose the sequence, it will choose the first option from the list, alphabetically, that matches the frame size, frame rate, aspect ratio, and field order of your clips. Nothing else really matters, as long as those 4 parameters are good.

So while you might feel more comfortable using a preset more appropriately labeled “AVCHD” there is no harm in using another preset so long as the specs line up with the footage.

If your clips are 1920×1080, 29.97, upper field first for instance, and the sequence matches, good to go then! But as long as you’re comfortable in choosing your own sequence and you know it matches, then do it that way. Being an experienced editor and bit of a control freak as well, I usually choose my own Sequence preset, but that’s just me.

On a similar note, how do you import your clips? Best to copy all folders from SD card directly to hard drive, no changes, then use “Media Browser” within Premiere rather than “File > Import”, as the Browser method will properly handle spanned clips and other nice things for you and generally provide a better experience.

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

Hi Rex,

You won’t have the ProRes option on the PC. You might try installing the FREE Lagarith codec and then export only the Neat sections of timeline as .avi files using Lagarith. The quality is lossless. If the export works, then drop the new clip(s) onto a higher track in the sequence directly over the originals, then export the whole works to format of choice.

I don’t use Neat – I have Red Giant DeNoiser II – but due to extreme render times and such, I do pre-render those segments rather than trying to “do it all at once”.

Of course, one could simply use the ENTER key to render parts of the timeline from red to green, then in AME check the box for “Use Render Previews”, however most sequences will use “MPEG I-Frame” as the preview format, with no way to adjust the quality at all, so who knows what quality you would get. I just position the work area bar in the timeline and manually export (render) what I want to and import the results. I do have the Matrox MXO2 hardware and generally use the Matrox codec, but Lagarith comes in handy as well.

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

Hi Jonny,

Quite simply, NEVER use “Match Source” in AME – rather, you will specify the desired output for your specific needs.

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

Hi Travis

Many reasons to keep a high-quality master, versus just the “YouTube” quality. What if you need to re-edit later, fix a mistake, use parts of the clip in another project? Now all you have is the nasty, heavily-compressed YouTube clip to work with, then when you export AGAIN and compress AGAIN it looks that much worse.

As someone said, if it’s a one-shot deal, been delivered and the customer signed off on it, then don’t keep any copy, that is up to you. No one says you MUST keep a “lossless archival copy”, that is up to you. For most of the weddings and events I deliver, once I know the customer is happy with the edit, all I keep is a copy of the DVD they got. If I have some really good clips that I might want to use for a future demo, then I will keep the original cameras clips or a high-quality master of them. Just depends.

You didn’t say if you were on the PC or Mac. The huge files you saw were from choosing the wrong codec, basically “uncompressed” as a series of still frame images.

Rather, you will want to use something “visually lossless” for mastering. On Mac, that would be ProRes for instance. On the PC, something like the free Lagarith or UT codecs will provide a good balance between great quality and reasonable file sizes. Or even the “Matrox” codec which is MPEG-2 I-Frame with 4:2:2 color and is smaller yet.

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

You could try Nesting a Sequence. In other words, create a NEW SEQUENCE for each clip you need to stabilize, add clip and apply Warp Stabilizer. Then drop that “Sequence” into the main Sequence and apply PIP and such.

I cannot predict how Warp Stabilized clips work in Nested Sequences, especially when later applying other effects (PIP, cropping), so that is why I personally would use Export. No re-rendering after that point, the new clip is “good to go” and do what you want with it.

Good luck

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

So use the Warp Stabilizer in CC rather than keyframing it, see post #4

Jeff