Michael Krupnick
Forum Replies Created
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If you work the entire project inside a master folder on the media-only drive you make named for the project, linking issues are greatly reduced in their impact and remedies. In the case of data caches, you still need to manually check and adjust periodically but it becomes much simpler. Archiving and cleaning out the project is easy, too.
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The programmers @Adobe Premiere were dropped on their heads in childhood — by an audio engineer. Many awkward behaviors are because Pr is not well automated for editor I/O and doesn’t prompt for actions — just sits inert and waits for you to figure out why it refuses to do simple stuff and may be grayed out for some functions easy anywhere else. It is especially dependent on audio tracks in the sequence: they must conform to expected format or Pr just won’t do much with `em. DVCProHD on P2 comes in as four linked audio tracks on one video, assigned as four monos. To reformat the track config, you will need to examine the tracks, un-link them manually, and create if necessary new audio tracks to fit, copy the audio there, then re-link manually before you can use them fully. It’s one of the really clumsy bugs that they call features and was so nicely handled automatically in FCP people got used to it…Pr is not so elegant.
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It’s hand set in prefs to go on the media drive in the Project’s folder. It makes new folders there for the media cache and database cash. Since I do a fresh save before I quit, it should find where it put them in the first place, shouldn’t it? It should simplify the task, yes? I never have relinking issues by virtue of this practice…am surprised Adobe seems to…still no obvious reason for it to get lost, far as I see.
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As i said, it’s just an indicator of app/OS activity and not a bug. Momentary and gone for the remainder of the session. Consider it feedback from the system.
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That usually occurs when your video card is initiating a second monitor…it’s totally normal. Should only happen the first time it “sees” the second screen.
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I think the key to grading any image is that your goal is to evoke the flavor of the scene rather than duplicate it. It’s not so much a technical task, but an artistic one. You’re painting or cooking, which is very interpretive. Yes, being skilled at technique and using the tools skillfully gets you there, for sure, but the real vehicle remains primarily your eye guided by your gut. Also, be aware of how the images will be presented, how the audience’s display will filter your “cooking”. A great way to understand the components of an image (to help you gain skills in color and level control) is to play with stills in Photoshop using the huge assortment of image adjustment tools readily available there. You’ll see instant feedback on the parameters that you manipulate to effect in the image.
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Workflow is an art unto itself: it starts with knowing how the system OS works. Then, knowing the app file conventions. After thst, the project is built upon that foundation and the computer can efficiently maintain housekeeping without your thinking about it thereafter. That’s automation, and WHEN you do things is as important as what and how.
Start in “the basement” and build up from there. Let’s say you have a project named CROWS you’re going to shoot with a first-gen Panasonic HVX200 as 24p 720HD on P2 cards. You’re going to edit with Premiere CS5.5 running on a MacPro Intel multicore tower. You’ll be using a G-Raid firewire for external storage of the media. Mount the Gdrive and make a folder there named CROWS. Everything the project creates will go inside CROWS from here on. Inside that, make another folder named P2Capture. Now, launch a new PP project. Set it up carefully, going through all path options, including project and media/capture/options, sequence sets and even preferences, and assign everything to CROWS. Save the project as CROWS. Now, quit PP.
In the sys finder, you should see a PP project icon named CROWS inside the CROWS folder. Drag thst into the dock. It’s the “speed-dial” to the CROWS project. (Adobe hotline helpers will tell you that is not the safest way to call up PP, but that’s just rubbish; it’s actually the shortest best path, especially for custom-tailored projects.) Click it and if you’ve done it right so far, PP ehould open quickly right to CROWS.
Now connect and import the clips from the camera into the open project, put one on the timeline and resave the project. Quit PP. Relaunch CROWS from the dock. If it opens as expected right away, you’ve now got roots on a branching tree, tested with one quick click…congratulations!
You should not have any link/offline/reconnect issues; if you do, you have to adjust them in PP and resave until they disappear. Quit PP and relaunch until you have desired results. Any further additions to the project may require you to do this, such as another shoot/import, but the adjustments appear as branches on the tree, which is planted in a single spot on the media drive.
For instance, you’ll finish shooting, but still have editing to do, so you’ll want to have the MXF files on the drive inside CROWS. Knowing the structure of the psuedo-ext drives P2 makes and how to properly archive them will facilitate this. You should not have to mount the camera and import card data more than once; if you have an error, you’re not doing it corectly, or there may be a bug you’ll have to work around.
Sometimes it is a bit awkward to establish, but it’s always possible IF you know what files and where the system/app looks for data and tske those basics into account during building. This has worked for years for me and still does today. -
Every NLE has a few bugs — they’re like ants in the kitchen: you’re never without a few. However, in my experience, PP has always felt a bit “clunky” in its ergonomics, the way it “drives”. It’s a mystery to me, considering how well-designed Photoshop’s control is for humans; they’re both Adobe. Figuring out what the programmers were thinking when they wrote the app is a large part of getting the most out out of the app, and I’m scratching my head more often with PP than with FCP or Avid, asking “now why did they do it THAT way?” What you want is often there; you just need to discover where they “hid” it. AE is a bit better, but also sometimes clumsy, too.
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I’d guess so…stacking being an automatic flag. The only way a clip is free to move is if it’s by itself on the timeline and is the EXACT matching codec and wrapper as that of the sequence. The best way to do that is a direct export from PP, in which case when you re-import it, there won’t be a bar on it all. Even so, a bar doesn’t really impede the editing much if your system has adequate media drive speed and enough RAM to process in real time with low load. DVCCPro for instance, is pretty much as slick as standard old DV….
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I think the bars indicate the SEQUENCE’s play-state of readiness, which is more than any single clip attribute. It also reflects the system;s capacity for real time playout, factoring in more parameters. If you stack two native clips, it probably flags that portion as a bigger CPU/GPU load, so it flags as a render.