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

Making Subclips in Premiere CC

Subclips are a great way to organize longer footage into smaller clips within your project bins. This helps if you working on something like a documentary and need to find particular parts of dialogue but don't have transcripts to help you scrub through all of the clips.

While researching how to make subclips, I came across this tutorial from Peachpit:



Just so happens that make Subclips is super easy! There are several ways to create them and then it's just about putting them into the right bins!

Happy Editing!

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.

DPX Files

The complicated world of color management and VFX!

Trying to figure out how to export a DPX sequence from Premiere Pro CS6 for a VFX artist.
Surprisingly, there's a lot more about IMPORTING DPX files than there are EXPORTING them....but here's information on  DPXs that I've found so far.

Digital Picture Exchange (DPX) via Wiki

The Cineon System via Wiki

Society of Motion Picture & Television Engineers (SMPTE)

According to Juan Salvo from the Lift: Gamma Gain Forums:
"Are you doing a dpx for dcp or is the DPX intended to still be 709 color for broadcast? It's perfectly standard to do 64-940 within a dpx. This would be a limited range dpx, and is what would be expected as delivery for broadcast. Full range is generally used in situations when dealing with systems that don't have the ability to properly manage limited space, or maybe on a low budget grade for dcp or film out, but not for most workflows."

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

SurCode

SurCode, by Minnetonka Audio Software, has quickly become the "goto" brand for ready-to-use surround sound technology. SurCode is provided as plug-ins for popular workstations such as Pro Tools, Nuendo, Pyramix, Fairlight, Avid and Final Cut Pro in addition to stand-alone software, or licensable OEM software for most all workstation platforms and operating environments.

We have bought and downloaded the SurCode for Adobe Products and use it via Premiere to export 5.1 Surround Sound to take into Encore for Blu Ray DVD authoring.

Note: Our Adobe Premiere Pro came with a trial version of SurCode that was good for 3 exports before we had to invest. So far, SurCode is the only (and easiest) way to export 5.1 sound from Premiere that we have found.

PluralEyes

PluralEyes works with your favorite video editing tool to instantly sync all of your multi-camera video and audio tracks – eliminating complicated camera set-ups, timecode, and hours of tedious manual syncing. Save time and money, reduce frustration, and free yourself to focus on the creative editing process.

PluralEyes Video Tutorials (Includes tutorials for DualEyes and CloudEyes as well.)

Using PluralEyes with Premiere Pro (Includes information on different sync options.)

Vimeo Group: PluralEyes (A group dedicated to any video which uses the PluralEyes plugin to cleverly improve on the workflow of an otherwise complicated edit.)

Blog 25 Hour Day is all about producing video using multi-camera and dual-system audio techniques. It is maintained by Bruce Sharpe, founder and CEO of Singular Software and is a mix of posts about their products, video post-production techniques and recordings of live events.

Note: You can try out PluralEyes via their free 30-day trail before you decide to purchase.

Syncing Sound in Premiere Pro CS6

What is the best way to sync audio to your video tracks in Adobe Premiere Pro CS6?

Ingest & Sound Sync Using Premiere Pro CS6:  This instructional video combines, in part, the role of a Digital Asset Manager (DAM) and an Assistant Editor into one workflow for use with Adobe Premiere Pro CS6. UCF Film graduate student Zachary Beckler illustrates how to ingest data, work with native or transcoded footage, and prepare single and double-system media for assembly. (Note: this tutorial does not use RED footage.)



According to CreativeCOW.net there is no automatic audio/video synching function in Premiere Pro CS6. However, you can sync audio and video together in a plug-in available for Premiere Pro CS6 called, Plural Eyes

Mapping Audio Channels in Premiere

We ran into the problem of a file having 10 mono channels of audio that we wanted to export as 5.1 surround. While we didn't find a definitive answer to our questions about how to do this, we DID find some useful information on Mapping Audio in general:

From Adobe TV:



I also found a couple of forum threads from CreativeCOW.net pertaining to 5.1audio:

5.1 AC3 output in CS3 using surcode
maintaining 5.1 audio from Premiere to Encore

Wikia also had a section about Surround Sound using Adobe Premiere Pro:
Category: Surround Sound

Blu-Ray Authoring in Adobe Encore

A 3 part tutorial by Dave Helmly about how to take files from Premiere to Encore, and then burning to Blu-Ray DVDs. Dave recommends using BD-RE discs in order to save time and money (should testing have to be done). This method was used over Toast 11 Titanium because Toast kept giving the error of "Connection unstable" - we could not find a fast solution, and so decided to try Encore instead. It worked.

The R3D Epic and Working With 5K Footage

Information regarding the R3D Epic camera while using it's 5K abilities.

Note: 5K is NOT compatible with Final Cut Pro 7. FCP can only work at 2K (it recognizes 4K as 2K). Because FCP is not longer being updated by Apple, it will be unable to keep up with the advancing R3Ds. In order to use FCP with R3D footage, it must first be somehow transcoded.

We are using REDCINE-X Pro for transcoding. It is a free download available here: https://www.red.com/downloads Note that the time it takes to transcode files can be rather lengthy. Installing more RAM may help this. It is recommended to use a Red Rocket Graphics Card whenever possible, as it may increase speed up to 12x.

Once transcoded, the clips can be imported into FCP and edited normally. You can aslo import them into FCP, export your sequence as an XML, import the XML to Adobe Premiere, and replace the footage with the original R3D files. (note that Premiere can handle raw R3D files without transcoding).

Overall: When working with 5K, it is easier to work directly from Premiere if possible.

From 5K Insight, a 42min speech/presentation from December 2011: Using Final Cut Pro 7 with Epic and Scarlet



A PDF file from LMU's School of Film and Television: Post-production Workflow: RED This PDF also includes information on taking your footage into Apple Color.

Here's a video tutorial showing the Basic Red Workflow for FCP using REDCINE-X (the demo uses 4K footage, but we've used it for 5K without negative results):