[Jeff Pulera]

With the intention of using slow-motion, you’d want to shoot as 50p (or 60p in the US). Then edit as 25p or 30p respectively. Works great for me using that same X70.

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

Hi Rory,

I work on PC, never used Mac, but here goes:

1. Can I play FCP project files in PP?

No – but if you export the FCP project as an EDL (Edit Decision List) you should be able to import that EDL into Premiere. That’s my understanding. Will not retain the effects, but basic layout of clips, cuts, etc. ought to be there. The Basics.

2. Will my Prores 422 work?

Yes.

3. Is it true that you can edit AVCHD in PP?

Absolutely. Best workflow is to copy ENTIRE contents of SD card to NEW folder on hard drive. All folders/files from SD must remain intact. Then in Premiere, import AVCHD clips using MEDIA BROWSER, not File > Import.

4. And that you will just uncompress it at the end when you export it?

Not sure what you mean. It is transparent to the user. Import clips and edit, then export to any format.

5. Would I be able to mix this mid project? i.e. use my Prores 422 stuff now and just add AVCHD clips into the same timeline. And then just get it all sorted out on export.

Yes, you can mix and match clips such as ProRes, AVCHD, HDV, etc. in same timeline, no worries.

6. Though as I’ll be starting a new edit from scratch, I could just bring in all my AVCHD stuff into the library, and go from there.

Yes, pay attention to #3 though.

7. If you do have to convert from AVCHD to a usable format for editing, what would you recommend?

No need to convert, but ProRes is great, or Avid DNxHD (.mxf).

8. And how large are these files, if AVCHD is 8GB/hr and PR422 is about 50GB/hr?

AVCHD is more like 13GB hour usually. ProRes data rates here – https://documentation.apple.com/en/finalcutpro/professionalformatsandworkflows/index.html#chapter=10%26section=4%26tasks=true

9. How much ram would you suggest? (As I say, we’ve been using 32-bit FCP7.) I’ll have a graphics card with 8gb Vram, but it’s all just simple 1080p AVCHD. No 3d. Almost no fx – just subtitles and the odd fade.

16GB is sufficient for HD editing, 32GB doesn’t hurt and helps with 4k sources.

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

Connect a TV monitor directly to the deck’s analog video output – do you have a clean image there when playing a tape? If not, perhaps you need to run a head cleaner tape. There is not a special HDV head cleaner, just get a MiniDV head cleaner tape and try that.

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

GoPro offers a free editing software on their site, and it can be used to “transcode” the source footage into larger, easier to edit files that you then use in your choice of NLE. There is a checkbox that will correct the fish eye during the transcoding, works well.

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

Can’t view examples, but make sure you are not using an interlaced sequence or export. Try disabling GPU acceleration and use CPU only – that sometimes helps with strange effect issues.

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

I’d find a frame where Kramer is looking straight at the camera, to minimize size of his head versus when turned, and make a still frame of it. Take the still into Photoshop and clone brush the head out of the scene.

That the now the background plate. Then shoot a head with greenscreen and key it over that background in Premiere. Use Motion tools to position, scale, rotate to fit the screen.

You may have to do some kind of soft-edge matte to “blend” head to turkey so you don’t have an obvious sharp edge.

If you still want the wing to wave, the head replacement still image can be cropped to just that area and leave the original video running under it. So you have the original clip on V1, head replacement still on V2, keyed video head on V3 layer. Maybe you don’t even need the V2 layer if new head is slightly larger than original and hides it.

Just for fun, no reason you can’t fake this in Premiere without needing After Effects or other compositing involved. I used to do fun stuff like this with my kids when they were young. Not Hollywood quality, but good enough.

Thanks

Jeff

[Jeff Pulera]

Not a Mac user, but my understanding of using FCP is that the source files, and rendered files, would usually all be QuickTime, so when you would “export” it was really just stitching those existing .mov files together into one file, so not really rendering much of anything.

With Premiere, you could have a variety of source formats since it will edit most anything natively. So you might have AVCHD source material, then you export to say H.264 and every frame has to be created from scratch using the new codec. Even if you had rendered the timeline to green, those are just temp “preview” files and even if you check the box for “Use Previews” those are still getting re-rendered. The only benefit being that the export might go quicker if complex effects had already been pre-rendered that way (but I don’t recommend User Previews since it adds another layer of compression/extra generation of loss).

In general, I do NOT render any part of the timeline, red or not. If I can play/preview the timeline, I’m happy. Then I export and the original source at that point is transcoded directly to the delivery format.

https://blogs.adobe.com/creativecloud/red-yellow-and-green-render-bars/

So really, Premiere uses a much different workflow than FCP. You don’t need to transcode sources before editing, and you don’t need to render the timeline. Edit your raw material, then export to whatever.

We don’t know what you are editing, what effects might be applied, the duration of the video, format being exported to, your computer specs, etc. – so hard to say if an hour is a reasonable export time or not.

If you’d like to share any of that info, including a screen grab of Export Settings, that may be very helpful in providing tips to help improve your workflow.

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

What Todd said. Keeping in mind that most camcorders shoot at around 28mbps, not going to gain anything by exporting at a much higher rate really.

Just try the YouTube 1080p 29.97 preset and don’t touch any settings, just export as is and see what you get. Cranking up sliders and checking boxes sometimes has the opposite effect of what we expect.

Also – how are you viewing the exported clip to judge quality? Every player will provide different results, gamma shifts and such. Just import the .mp4 right back into Premiere and look at it there, then you at least have that constant to compare to original.

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

The only HD format that is ever interlaced is 1080i, and so the 90fps source footage cannot be interlaced. Just saying…

Jeff

[Jeff Pulera]

Interpret is not needed. I routinely drop 60p clips into 30p sequence and edit/deliver as 30p. When I apply 50% slow to any of those clips, I get silky smooth slow mo that is definitely using the 60fps source. I guess 33% in your case?

Do a simple test – apply 33% to your clip in 30p sequence. Use arrow key to move through clip one frame at a time. Is every frame unique, or do they repeat?

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers