[Tom Laughlin]

Thanks Ian. Anyone else use various SxS adaptors and SDHC cards? Please share.

Thanks,

Tom Laughlin
Producer/Editor
Digital Chop House
Salt Lake City, Utah
http://www.digitalchophouse.com

[Tom Laughlin]

So, I should be fine for the most part. I’m not too worried then.

Tom Laughlin
Producer/Editor
Digital Chop House
Salt Lake City, Utah

[Tom Laughlin]

So, when I start a new project, I import the media, and it plays fine. Once I drag it to the time-line, there was not a pop-up saying do you want to match sequence settings, etc, etc, so I assumed when I imported it and played it, and drug it to the time-line, set in and out points, then exported “Match Sequence Settings”, that all was ok, but from what you’re saying, I need to “set up” the project for this media at the fore-front, with your specs? This footage is XAVC, 1080p, 23.98fps, so that’s what I’m working in. Can you please give me a few more details on your post? Also, exporting, I was told to mannually dial in your export specs, and since XAVC is not offered as part of the selected export codecs, should I export it out as a Pro Res QT?

Thanks,

Tom Laughlin
Producer/Editor
Digital Chop House
Salt Lake City, Utah

[Tom Laughlin]

Nathan,

I’ve been editing in Premiere for about a year, transitioned from FCP 7. So, what you simply need to do when you export, is create a preset for your exporting. In Final Cut 7, export to QT was like exporting “Same as Source”, this is not an QT Ref file, you want an independent file.

First, find out what you shot in, in my case, for this video, I shot EX1, 35MB/S, 29.97, Progressive, which matched the raw media when I brought it in via MPEG StreamClip or SONY’s Clip Browser, which converts it from MXF to MOV. So, in this case, you are not transcoding, so you simply need to go into QT and open the file, or a raw footage file, and hit Control+I, as you can see in these screen shots, I’m checking the raw footage’s native info.

On the next screenshots, you can see what I did in the Export feature of Premiere to create a template with matched export settings, naming it “Same as Source”, so if I’m ever needing to export this in future, I just use my Same as Source EX1 preset.

Check setting before you export. Everything looks to match the raw footage here…

And export!

I don’t understand why Premiere does not have a same as source type preset already, it’s weird, but oh well.

Tom Laughlin
Producer/Editor
Digital Chop House
Salt Lake City, Utah

[Tom Laughlin]

One of the easiest ways to ensure you are not editing the wrong sequence is to always check and ensure you are working in the right sequence. This is a project management essential, being mindful of naming and renaming sequences as soon as sequences are copied or duplicated, renaming them, and placing them in bins, and maintain that file structure and order to your project, as everyone has their own way of organizing and naming your media, is not the responsibility of the software, but the editor. So, I do understand your concerns there with getting used to editing with multiple time-lines open, but also taking advantage of using colors to label sequences, or just plain text, typing in: “XYX_Final Sequence”.

When George Lucas embraced digital, famous DPs in Hollywood (and everyone else it seemed) freaked out about it. George Lucas never intended to stay comfortable with film, as a filmmaker and innovator, embracing ‘change’. Visual Effects were being done digitally, thus, why not filming in a digital format, so the editing part came first, with him developing the Edit Droid, then camera companies started pioneering film cameras that could shoot digitally. So there that constant evolution happening and still happening.

I’m not sure that what we term “rewrite” is the same as what Avid thinks, is a “rewrite”. A new version of a software, usually embodies brand new features, tools, etc. Adobe releases bug fixes and new things almost monthly, whereas the only difference with a new version of Avid, is an update, with one or two added tools.

This ripple in the pond affect, does have to do with job security, especially like what we are seeing now in the Special Effects industry, with cheap labor and 3D software that ‘everyone’ has access to. Same with cameras, everyone out of film school is shooting on Red. The student DPs and the professional DPs, both using the same tools.

With the Edit Droid and George selling his software to Avid, and then Avid taking it over and developing it. The difference is, as we look at Apple, at the core is a software innovator, Bill Gates (before he died was also heavily involved with Pixar – George’s former VFX house), had been involved with supporting filmmakers involved with digital tools and technology that really helped people move into 3D animation. That Apple connection to George Lucas and to Pixar shows those fruits of labor today.

“Post” magazine, as well as “American Cinema Editor” magazine are relentless about ensuring every single article, blurb, or new update, has somewhere in the article: “__ was edited on Avid Media Composer”, and that’s great. What we want to do is strip the “against change” culture aside, and simply say, “Can we have this feature added?”, but without the baggage of concerns, headaches, and resistance to change? Cause it’s not classified as a change to the way people edit. It’s a request to add a tool, and maybe to replace the hundreds of tools in Avid that are never used ever by an editor.

As far as ‘under the hood’, why are we not still editing on Moviolas then? They worked great right? Why move into digital editing? How many editors were scared when digital editing came into the picture?

I simply think that requests to add new Avid tools are simple requests. But if we come at this as “Well, why?”, we go from the spirit of helping and innovation to a brick wall.

In the end, it would be nice and very beneficial, at least for me, if Avid had this feature, now having edited on several NLEs that have this capability.

Thanks for your thoughts,

Tom Laughlin
Producer/Editor
Digital Chop House
Salt Lake City, Utah

[Tom Laughlin]

When one renders, after you render, it wants to start playing from the in and out. Is there a way to turn this feature off? I just want to render where I’m at and have no playback after rendering. I just want the playhead to stay where it’s at.

Tom Laughlin
Producer/Editor
Digital Chop House
Salt Lake City, Utah

[Tom Laughlin]

Jeff,

So, if I’m shooting on a Sony EX-3, in the 1080p, 35 VBR, 29.97fps, using Sony Log and Transfer to rewrap in .mov, then importing it, and editing it native, you are saying it is better to take those files from the XDCAM cards and transcode to ProRes? I’ve one this before with editing Canon 5D M2, stuff, but not with the EX-3 footage. I just import it using Log and Transfer, and convert it from the wrapper it has, I think .MP4, and change it to .MOV, (I know now you can edit .MP4 native already inside APP, but I prefer working in .MOV on the timeline), so would transcoding to ProRes give me better quality? Those files are much bigger, not that that is a huge concern, but… In terms of preserving footage quality, I’ve just rewrapped and edited in 1080p, 35 VBR, 29.97fps, setting the project up in APP for this setting.

At the end of an edit, I export the time-line as an uncomressed file, to have on hand, if I need an HQ version later on, and use that file to compress from. When I compress, I leave all boxes unchecked, and usually export out of APP. Then use Compressor to do a 720p version. So, what you are saying is, I can just export directly out of APP, to 720p, and click on the “Use Maximum Render Quality” for my 720p?

Tom Laughlin
Producer/Editor
Digital Chop House
Salt Lake City, Utah

[Tom Laughlin]

Ivan,

Are there any other advantages to “Smart Rendering”? Sometimes, as I’m editing, as an edit get bigger and more complex with b-roll and layers of shots, the time-line obviously is either red, yellow, or green in certain spots. In FCP 7, you rendered once, and you were done, and playback was smooth, etc. It was great because once you rendered the time-line, the actual export took no time at all. I think this is in reference to what people refer to as the FCP 7 being built on a QT architecture, so it made things much quicker, even on older Macs.

What I’ve discovered with Premiere, is that, when I’m getting heavier into an edit, the files that rendered are green, but over time, things become yellow and red naturally, and that’s not always a playback issue at first. Earlier into my edit, lots of yellow and red areas played back fine, but as edits grow over time, the areas that are yellow and red tend to have more trouble playing back, smoothly or it plays and you can here the audio, but the frame is frozen, and to then you begin the space bar stop and start, stop and start, to play the footage, so it’s kind of like a habit from FCP7 to render, but also, I like to have smooth playback when I edit, so I often render as I go. Depending on the section of the edit, rendering takes a few minutes. It just seems like rendering in general takes a bit longer in Adobe CS6, which is what I’m still in. I’ve not crossed into CC yet, as I’ve been reading a lot about how it tends to crash unexpectedly quite a bit. Makes me a little hesitate.

With regards to Smart Rendering, are there any advantage to this, other than what you mentioned? Do most APP editors leave this “Use Previews” on, or checked, for Smart Rendering? Is this a check box that most people check in general?

With regards to Exporting, the other question raised. So, I usually export a “Same as Source” from FCP7 habits, so I have an uncompressed version if the client needs another format or compression, I can just have that on hand on a drive, the MASTER uncompressed file, with which to compress from for future needs. Then I take that file into Compressor, and export a 720p file. As I progress through my APP editing, I will eventually export to just 720p, by-passing the whole export to uncompressed, as I use these files less and less, and more 720p output, for client preview.

I’ve not yet tried to output a sequence through AME using the 720p preset. In terms of quality, the quality of the export is always my concern, so that’s the other reason I’ve habitually exported an uncompressed QT file, then used that file to compress from.

Ivan and others, any other thoughts?

Tom Laughlin
Producer/Editor
Digital Chop House
Salt Lake City, Utah

[Tom Laughlin]

So re-wrapping it in .mov affects whether software runs in 32 or 64 bit? Would it be reasonable to try duplicate the project, open the duplocate as a test, and just relink the media to the original mp4s?

Tom Laughlin
Producer/Editor
Digital Chop House
Salt Lake City, Utah

[Tom Laughlin]

As usual, I’m also just now finding out that, along with using Adobe Premiere, a few things to accelerate work-flow is the graphics card. I just had my tech install a brand new ATI Radeon HD 5770 into my 2008 Mac Pro, and also take out the current system drive in my Mac Pro out, and add and max out the RAM to 16 GB RAM, as well as add a SSD as my main program drive.

So, the computer starts quicker, some performance has increased, and yes I can connect up to three monitors and the video display quality is way better, but in the end, this doesn’t help me “RENDER” or “EXPORT” faster!

I guess I need to get a QUADRO 4000 card, to assist with this. The sad thing is, FCP7 was fast at renders and exports, and with these upgrades to my Mac, and added new parts, I was hoping that this would make the Mac Pro faster, but with Premiere 6, you need more of a robust card. I upgraded a few things for it to benefit me in the editing more, not so much in other computational areas. FCP 7 is faster now in exports and renders with my upgrades, but I’ve switched to Premiere…

Could you run two cards, the ATI and Quadro, or do I need to take this one out and sell it? Or, should I stop putting more money into a 2008 Mac Pro, and wait to upgrade in a year to a new Mac Pro and buy a Quadro?

Does Avid use or benefit Quadro 4000 cards?

I’m also trying to get a handle on Da Vinci and have had multiple errors with using it, and trying to get a handle of what I need to run it properly. Are there any other cheaper cards out there or should I, when I get ready to get a new Mac Pro, get the Quadro 4000?

Any further thoughts? (Walter?)

Tom Laughlin
Producer/Editor
Digital Chop House
Salt Lake City, Utah