[Matthew Gordon]

Yes, this does help! It definitely matches up with what some other long-form doc editors have said. When projects get long and complex, Avid seems to handle it better. Which means that Avid is still probably my best bet for long-form work.

That said, your Premier tips will come in handy for smaller jobs in Premier.

Thanks!
Matt

[Matthew Gordon]

Oliver, can you describe your workflow for editing long-form docs in Premier?

The last version of Premier I worked with was CS6 (on a 2012 Mac Pro with plenty of RAM). At the time, I found it to be very unstable and slow when working on large, complex projects (over 100 hours of footage and with lots of folders, clips, and sequences).

I’ve been using Avid Media Composer almost exclusively for the past few years and am contemplating switching to Adobe Premier CC, but I’m worried I will still run into the same problems.

I had these same problems with Final Cut Pro 7, but I got around them by creating new projects for each scene or sequence. And since FCP 7 open multiple projects at the same time, it was a great work around.

This multi-project workflow never worked for me in premier since I couldn’t open projects at the same time (I know there are workarounds, like importing sequences and clips from other projects, but it just got too complicated).

So the three main questions I have are these:

1) Can premier cc now handle very large and complicated projects without bogging down?

2) If premier DOES still have problems with large complicated projects, what workarounds do you use in order to edit longform docs?

3) Have you had success switching a project from Avid to Premier CC?

I may just stay with Avid, but if Premier has continued to improve and can now handle big sprawling projects, it certainly would be nice to be able to more easily interface with After Affects, Photoshop, etc.

Thanks!
Matt

[Matthew Gordon]

Katy,

Thanks so much for your response. Very helpful. Assuming the focus issues get figured out, the HPX250 sounds like a great camera. Best of luck with your doc!

Best,
Matt

[Matthew Gordon]

Katy,

Thanks for posting your experience. I’m about to start a documentary that will require the same sort of shooting you have been doing. I’m seriously considering the HPX250, but your experience with focus issues has me a bit worried.

Hopefully, Steve Cooperman or someone else here can suggest some solutions. The HPX250 seems to have such potential for documentary shooting, but being able to get focus is critical.

Having now used the HPX250 and the Canon XF305, how would you compare them? The HPX250 sounds like it’s better in low light and it has a better codec, but what’s your opinion?

Thanks,
Matt