Walter Biscardi
Forum Replies Created
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[Max Kaiser] “Are you editing locally, or via a san like XSAN?”
Both locally to a small RAID on my iMac and via our Small Tree Ethernet SAN at work. No problems in either case at the moment.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author, Chef.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative Media -
I’ve got a three part series on Starting and Running your own business which might have some tips in there that could help as much of what I talk about can also apply to an internal video department. It’s really about getting organized so someone else can step right in and complete a project using your workflow requirements.
https://library.creativecow.net/articles/biscardi_walter/ready.php
https://library.creativecow.net/articles/biscardi_walter/shop.php
https://library.creativecow.net/articles/biscardi_walter/running.php
I also did a follow-up article on “Small Steps to Success”
https://magazine.creativecow.net/article/small-steps-to-big-success
The biggest thing is to know your limits and when do you need to ask for / bring in help. Getting overwhelmed as the Video Department is one of the biggest things that I see. Projects don’t get done, animosity builds and it’s not good for everybody involved.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author, Chef.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative Media -
[Steve Martin] “but will take Walter up on the 30 day trial soon!”
Here’s the link when you’re ready. Also know that Avid and Autodesk both offer 30 day free trials as well of Media Composer and Smoke. So you can really have some fun playing with new software!
https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/tdrc/index.cfm?product=production_premium
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author, Chef.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative Media -
https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/98/878616
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author, Chef.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative Media -
[Robert Brown] ” Of course Smoke is uncompressed but a lot of clients are going to wonder why you have to re-render it even though you’ve already rendered it. I work in a lot of tight turnaround situations though.”
For tight turnaround situations, I’d definitely be considering Smoke if the budget allows. Autodesk was kind enough to send us an evaluation copy which I’m very excited about trying out. Have always seen Smoke from a distance, can’t wait to actually take a test drive.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author, Chef.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative Media -
[Bob Zelin] “REPLY – we are seeing posts that to play back ProRes422 in Premier, a Quad Core Mac Pro is causing stuttering. Walter Biscardi has stated this, as well as others. But yes, your AJA hardware will work just fine.”
Yes, a single quad core Mac. That is you ONLY have four processors in the machine. Video will stutter if you have the AJA Kona board enabled. But if it’s not enabled, then you are fine.
We were testing on our ProTools rig which happens to be one of the older machines with a single quad core processor. And it’s not even a video editing machine normally. I’m now running on an 8 core machine and it’s running very smooth now. That’s the machine I’m cutting the documentary on.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author, Chef.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative Media -
[Steve Martin] “But reading about it isn’t using it. And the propaganda that Adobe put out it just…. well… sales propaganda.”
You have the opportunity to download a full 30 day trial of the entire CS 5.5 suite. No watermarks, full function. free.
[Steve Martin] “1) Will my existing AJA hardware (Kona 3 and LHi) in my 2 MacPros work as well (or better) with Premier? Other than installing new drivers, are there any “gotchas?””
No new drivers, it’s the same 9.0.3 Driver you would install for FCP. It’s the CS 5.5 Plug-Ins that you have to add.
The only gotcha I’ve found is that you have to set the Audio Hardware to anything OTHER than AJA or you get drop outs in the audio.
[Steve Martin] “2) Adobe says that Premier can open FCP projects via XML. How effective is it and can I really count on it to actually work for legacy FCP projects? Or is is just “marketing speak?” Really just curious here and it’s not a big deal since I don’t have to uninstall FCP.”
Works perfectly here. You will not get your filters and you’ll have to rebuild your text, but as far as all your bins and sequences, yep. Completely as they appear in FCP.
[Steve Martin] “3) From what I can tell, Premier interface looks similar to FCP in many ways and wouldn’t require a complete re-think on how we edit – with the exception of a few missing (or extra) functions. Or am I missing something major in my limited view thus far?”
Essentially the same workflow, similar interface. Especially if you switch the keyboard shortcuts over to the FCP settings.
[Steve Martin] “4) Does Premier handle media and/or project files in a similarly to FCP7? Any surprises and/or land mines to consider?”
You can only have one Project open at a time in Premiere Pro right now. You can have as many timelines open at a time in a single project like FCP.
Premiere handles all media natively so there is no Log and Transfer function. Because of this, Adobe does NOT move your media to a Capture Scratch when you import it. The media simply stays on the drive and comes into the project. So you need to move camera data to your Capture Scratch BEFORE you import it into the project.
If you Capture through the Kona board for example, then it does put all the media into the Capture Scratch
All media labels are clearly seen in the Sequences. That is when you assign a color to a certain type of clip, say interviews are colored red, the entire clip shows up in that color in your timeline.
When you assign a media label color, all of the media is labeled as it comes in, you don’t have to go through your clips and color code them after they are in. So you assign Purple for example to all your still images and graphics. when you import graphics, they’re automatically given the purple color.
Text Tool is absolutely incredible compared to FCP.
[Steve Martin] “5) Other than the hassle and inconvenience of getting used to new keyboard short cuts, etc…, has anyone transitioned from FCP to Premier and wish they hadn’t? If so, why?”
Again, no need to learn new keyboard shortcuts.
Adobe Premiere Pro > Keyboard Shortcuts
Select Final Cut Pro 7.0
over 90% of your keyboard shortcuts are now active in Adobe Premiere Pro.
So far I’ve found very little NOT to like about Adobe Premiere Pro. I’ve already moved multiple projects to the app and I’ve cut several PSA’s with it. I’m going to move my 250 hour of raw material documentary into the app this week and see how it feels.
Software works with all of our existing infrastructure so that’s awesome. Still need to test out Avid and Smoke but so far, Adobe is a very strong contender for our workflow because it’s essentially a seamless transition over to PPro.
And actually there is one more video over on Vimeo about setting up the Kona to run with Adobe Premiere.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author, Chef.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative Media -
Premiere Pro > Preferences > Audio Hardware
Set that to anything OTHER than AJA Kona. I have it set to Built In Audio.
In System Prefs > Audio Output I have it set to AJA Kona.
Yes, that’s a weird setting in the Audio Hardware but that’s where it needs to be.
As for the choppiness, we have that on our four core machine and have determined that the four core will not work with ProRes footage playing back through the AJA Kona. An 8 core machine works just fine.
As a test though, bring up your Activity Monitor and the CPU Activity. See if the cores max out when trying to play back the footage with the AJA Kona being used for output.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author, Chef.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative Media -
What’s the latest on that additional licenses deal? I thought that was about to happen. If you own the software you can purchase additional licenses for more installs.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author, Chef.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative Media -
We run the Hi-5 all over our shop, probably 10 of them. I don’t have any experience with the BMD version.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author, Chef.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative Media