Creating Slow Motion clips in Premiere Pro CC

Sometimes we want to make footage slow motion because, let's face it, slow motion shots are freakin' beautiful. But what is the best way to do so? A lot of people will recommend that you put the clip into your sequence, right click it, selected speed/duration, and then slow the clip down to whatever you like.
DO NOT DO THAT.

Often times, if you follow that method, you will end up with choppy footage that looks icky. And nobody wants that.

If you REALLY want nice looking slow motion, the answer lies within the frame rate of your footage.

I found this nifty little article on The Beat - A PremiumBeat Blog called Creating Beautiful Slow Motion in Adobe Premiere Pro

The article goes over different methods on how to create slow motion clips by setting clips at 60 fps to be 23.98 fps. The main one that I like to use is the second method - doing all of the clips at once haha.

Here are the simple steps (click the link for visuals):

1) Select your clips in your bin that you want to make slow-mo.
2) Right click and select “Modify>Interpret Footage.”
3) Select “Assume this frame rate” and set the value to your timeline’s frame rate.

And you're done! Super easy!

SIDE NOTE: In the comments Darkwing Productions has a good point about shooting in 60fps with the intention of slowing down:

"One other thing to keep in mind, you need more light to shoot in 60fps, because you usually want to try shoot at a shutter speed equal to twice your frame rate, which in this case would be 1/120. I shoot a lot of sports, and although I would love to use my 720x60 mode more often for the smooth slow-mo it can produce, but I find that the lighting often isn't sufficient.

When it comes to 24fps vs 30fps, I tend to go with 24fps if I need a tad more light (1/48 vs 1/60). It's not a huge difference, but when you're in a pinch, every little bit helps. I find you can barely notice the difference between 24fps and 30fps unless you're dealing with a fast moving subject."

Documentary Workflow

An important part of any project is your workflow...it determines how quickly and efficiently you are able to work and get that project done. The quicker (and correct) you are, the happier your clients will be :) This post is to outline our workflow process when dealing with our documentary-type projects (via Adobe Premiere CC).

*NOTE* This is more specifically just what we do from the moment we receive the drive to right before we start editing our first cut. ALL PREP.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

1) First things first: import all of your media into your Premiere project. Then organize it in the best way for you and set up your multi-cam sequences (if applicable). For us, we use Premiere CC's nifty new "Create a multi-cam sequence" function to sync all of our footage (SOOO NICE!).

Once the multi-cam sequence is made, I expand it to form the "master sequence" that shows me all of the layers. I then set in and out points that correspond to the longest video track available (different cameras will start/stop at different times most likely). You want to choose the longest track so that you're transcribing as much of the video as possible.

2) Once all of the sequences are set up, I will export each clip / take as its own separate video file (in our case - mp4 files. We use mp4 files because their size is usually more friendly to dropbox / hightail / email than movs).

3) Once we have all of the clips exported into their own separate video files, we send them (via dropbox usually) to our transcriber. You can also transcribe the footage yourself....though it will take a while haha

When the transcriber has finished, they will send back word document files - one to correspond with each individual video file. It is important that the transcriber provide a separate document for each video file because of how we'll be using them in the next step.

4) Once you have the transcriptions / scripts for each video file, you can use Premiere's "analyze test" function, in conjunction with Adobe Story, to import the scripts directly into Premiere and link them with each clip - adding the transcription to that media file's metadata.

This is EXTREMELY helpful when editing! Aside from having the transcriptions in front of you while editing, this also allows you to search for specific pieces within each clip. For example, clicking a word in the analyzed text (such as in the screenshot above), will take you to the exact point in time in the original clip's timeline where that word is said. Also, as you play a clip, what they are saying will be highlighted for easy following :)

Once the transcription is added to the metadata, it will live their permanently. This means, that if the media is given to someone else, the transcription will be embedded in the files, and they will be able to view it on their own system without relinking through Adobe Story.

Here's a tutorial on Accelerated Editing with Enhanced Speech Analysis in Premiere Pro CS5 via the Adobe website :)

Happy Editing!

~ The Hotbed Team

Installing Plug-Ins to Adobe Premiere Pro CC

So we recently updated our Adobe Suite to the Creative Cloud package (YAY!). However, when we do this, our plug-ins don't come with us, so we had to find the proper way to reinstall them.

I found this page that outlines the best ways to do this for both Mac & PC from Toolfarm: In Depth: Plug-ins Adobe After Effects CC and Premiere Pro CC

Basically, you have to follow this path:

Macintosh HD > Library > Application Support > Adobe > Common > Plug-ins > 7.0 > MediaCore

Once you have that path, you copy/paste your plug-in folders into the MediaCore folder. Then voilà! Your plug-ins should be ready to go after restarting that application :)

Creating Subclips in Premiere CS6

In order to help with organization when it comes to large projects or very long clips, you can create subclips to "break it up". This is useful if you need to find specific clips quickly.

Adobe SpeedGrade

Here at Hotbed, we're getting ready to move a project into Adobe SpeedGrade for color correction. SpeedGrade is new for us! So what exactly IS Adobe SpeedGrade? Find out here:



IMPORTANT:
When exporting TO SpeedGrade from Premiere Pro - you may NOT want to use the "Send to SpeedGrade" option under export. This is ESPECIALLY true when using R3D Epic or Scarlet footage. Instead, use this method to save some of those finer details and give yourself more room:



Now that we know what SpeedGrade is - how about some directions on the basics:




For more control with Color Grading - You can do power windows (also known as masks in SpeedGrade):



Also, when you've had everything corrected the way you want, it's time for Export! Here's a nice tutorial that goes over all of the basics when rendering from SpeedGrade:



MORE LINKS:

Timeline Basics
Keyframe Basics
Mask Basics
Keyboard Shortcuts

Multitrack Mixing Automation in Adobe Audition CS5.5

We're using Automation in one of our jobs here at Hotbed, and so this little video is a good reference on how to get to all of the basic tools you need while working. We're working out of CS6, but the 5.5 controls are just about the same :)

Using Multi-Cam in Premiere CS6

Multi-cam is good for any project that uses more than one camera, but especially for live events! The option allows for easy back and forth between multiple cameras angles. This is how it can be used in Adobe Premiere CS6:

Basics from Lynda.com:




Julio Cesar explains the use of Multi-cam through 4 simple steps:
1) Marking & Naming of Clips
2) Creating a Multi-Camera Source Sequence
3) Enabling Sound in ALL Clips
4) Enabling Multi-Camera Monitor for the Recording of the Sequence



Notes:
Remember to double-check your sync points before you begin cutting.
It is important to roll your edit points so that you can fine-tune your camera changes.

Adobe Dynamic Link

Use Adobe Dynamic Link to link sequences between various adobe products (for easier editing). We use it mainly for moving between Adobe Premiere and Adobe After Effects. Here's a quick tutorial on how to import a sequence from Premiere into After Effects using Adobe Dynamic Link:




Here's one from Adobe.com. Adobe Beginner's Classes Episode 41: Dynamic Link Workflows in Premiere Pro CS6

Applying Camera Shake

Looking to apply subtle camera shake to talking heads to give a more documentary feeling. We looked into whether or not there was a filter to do this in After Effects. Via Video Copilot, we stumbled upon "The Wiggler"

Camera Shake with Wiggler

There also exist a few presets that can be downloaded and used in After Effects for this motion:

Real Camera Shake for After Effects
FxFactory Pro Camera Shake filter for FCP, Motion and After Effects

Here's an AdobeTV video - Adobe Beginners Classes: Episode 19 - "Bootleg 4" - Camera Shake

Adobe Creative Cloud

This may be a favorable alternate to buying new software from Adobe. The creative cloud is a membership service that allows the member to download all Adobe Apps and stay constantly (and immediately) updated at all times for a monthly fee.

For more info: Adobe Creative Cloud Overview