(Page 1 of 2 pages for this article  1 2 >)

Filed under: CS5 •Editing •GentryMedia Sister Sites •HDSLR •Mac Coalition •Post Production •Software •Tips •Final Cut Pro •

Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 Helps Keep the Peace at Home

This probably isn’t the usual article on a piece of non-linear editing software. There will be no discussion of professional workflows and how it’s used to create broadcast television or feature films. But rather it’s a discussion of how a modest beginning, dabbling with a new piece of software and one of its signature features has grown into more than just a passing curiosity. It’s also about how that single feature drew me in to Premiere Pro CS5 and how that feature is helping keep the peace at home.

If you’re a working editor / post-production professional then you probably have a basic toolset that you use to make money. It may consist of just a single NLE or that single NLE and a composting / motion graphics application. There’s probably some plug-ins involved that help get the job done as well as an audio editor, color grading and compression or DVD authoring tool. That’s a basic suite of post tools that can get an entire edit done if you’re staying in the same box.

As editors we often get comfortable with our tools and don’t see a reason to change. Often upgrades aren’t installed or an entirely different, new and promising software package isn’t tried because it means learning something new and moving out of a comfort zone. There’s something to be said for the muscle memory that can only come from years working on the same tool and that muscle memory is often totally gone when working on a new NLE. Often upgrades and new versions might be a buggy mess causing the editor to have to revert to an earlier install to get things done. Some editors won’t upgrade until they are forced to.

I’m not one of those people. I love new tools and updates. I especially love major upgrades to my editing tools as more often than not, those upgrades add improved functionality, speed, bug fixes and workflow improvements that (hopefully) makes life easier and editing faster. I have no deep loyalty to a single company or software package as I want to use the best tool for me and for the job. My only loyalty comes in the form of a platform as I’m a Macintosh user. I’ll take the elegance and simplicity of the Mac os over a Windows offering any day. The higher cost is a price I’m willing to pay.

Now for Adobe Premiere Pro

That brings me to Adobe Premiere Pro. For years it was the premiere editing software for the Mac and I was a user back in the mid and late 90s. I specifically bought a Power Computing Mac clone with an AV rated hard drive, a Miro DC20 video capture card and a copy of Adobe Premiere 4.2 for editing a short film that was part of a scholarship application to film school. I remember upgrading to Premiere 5.0 a few years later when the interface got a drastic makeover to allow for more traditional 3-point editing that made it similar to Avid Media Composer. And then at some point after that Adobe Premiere left the Mac.

Years later it returned. I wanted to give Premiere another try so I began taking a look at Premiere Pro CS4, probably sometime in 2009. I remember liking a lot of what I saw but it was buggy and crashed a few too many times for my comfort. And there really weren’t enough compelling reasons to begin to use it on my personal projects over FCP or Media Composer. New software does have a learning curve and I choose to use personal projects as my playground for new software and to learn my way around.

So all that long-winded exposition above finally brings me to the topic at hand: Premiere Pro CS5 and how it’s helping keep the peace at home.

Fast, native editing means the videos get cut quicker

As I mentioned above, I use personal projects as a testing ground for new tools that I might want to move into my toolbox. They also provide a steady stream of footage and situations with which I can learn how to use these new tools. Some of these are more “professional” projects like an EPK or small multicam shoot where I have total control over workflow. But more often they are fun little pieces for the family. Since I have both a Canon 7D and an 18 month old the stream of footage is endless.

I know what you might be thinking: footage of your kid isn’t a proper way to test professional gear. I’ll disagree and argue it’s the perfect place to test professional gear. I can shoot any way and any where I please, dealing only with my own schedule and both the willingness and unwillingness of the toddler to be the star. These types of videos are also perfect testings grounds for workflow. I shot my wedding with 5 cameras that were randomly brought to the event be some friends. A recent retrospective combined 7D, 5D, HV20, Flip cam and footage from 3 different iPhones for one my family videos. That would be a challenge for any editing tool.

You may have noticed that in the above paragraph I didn’t mention deadlines. Your first thought (and indeed my first thought too) might be that there are no deadlines when you’re making videos of your family. Oh quite the contrary as family members want to see their loved ones as soon and often as possible (even more so if they don’t live close) and mom wants to send video links to her friends. Plus, as the video professional in the family I’m expected to make cool, fun videos of the kid, especially since I always have a camera out shooting. For those editors with children your experience may be similar. Not to mention that always steady stream of new footage so the further behind you get with one “shoot” the longer it takes to get caught up. Optimum workflow is important.

Another problem is that when working with this family footage I don’t want to have to do a lot of transcoding of media just to slap together a video. Transcoding presents two issues: One - It takes up extra hard drive space. While drives are cheap and plentiful I really don’t need extra, larger copies of everything I shoot cluttering hard drives (I’m aware of the importance of backup which we’ll get to in a moment). Two - Transcoding takes time and even an overnight batch means it’s the next day before any editing could get started.

So what’s the solution? Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 - it’s Mercury Playback engine and ease with which it can edit multiple, different formats.

Next Up: The workflow I’ve been using with PPro CS5

(Page 1 of 2 pages for this article  1 2 >)

                   

 

The Editing of “Courageous” Part One Steve Hullfish | 10/14 The off-line edit of a RED feature film Last October, I had the rare opportunity to edit a feature film called “Courageous,” which is in theaters now. “Courageous” was the number one new movie the weekend it opened (September…

The Best of Stunning Good Looks Art Adams | 08/30 A directory of my best articles, sorted by topic. This entry is a guide to my best articles, sorted by topic. Enjoy!

Final Cut Pro X Multicam Editing webinar now available on-demand Scott Simmons | 05/15 Plus a little screencast in this blog post on a topic we didn’t get to cover. I had great fun last week presenting the Final Cut Pro X multicam editing webinar…

---

You must be registered to comment. This is an effort to reduce spam. Please REGISTER HERE.

Scott, great article. You’re right about native H.264 media changing the game as far as backup - I’d never consider storing ProRes or even HDV captures via an online backup service, but with smaller files the calculation changes.

Any chance you’d share the family videos you’ve cut together? I’d love to see these home movies graded with Resolve. Too cool! =)

- Allan White
http://whitebalanceimages.com

Posted by Allan W.  on  11/09  at  06:03 PM

---

Nice article. I’d also like to hear about your impressions using Mercury for multicam editing.

Thanks

Posted by wsmith  on  11/10  at  01:25 PM

---

Name:

Email:

Location:

URL:

Smileys

Remember my personal information

Notify me of follow-up comments?

Submit the word you see below: