shouldnt it be “start the head turn 4 or 5 frames earlier (THAN the previous shot”? Otherwise it is confusing, for me at least :D

I tinkered around this morning and found in my Sequence Settings that “Max Bit Depth” and “Max Rendering Quality” were UNchecked. So, I checked them and then, as per Adobe’s warning box suggestion, I changed the Memory preference to “Memory” instead of “Performance” and then restarted the app. When I did, a little color grading experiment I was testing within PPro instantly looked better. I gave it a rough test; blank wall behind me. The compression banding on the wall cleared up to what I would expect it to look like normally. And I looked better… at least as far as color rendering goes.
I don’t want to grade in PPro; I just did it to experiment, but that tells me that I should get a good result from coloring h.264 outside PPro now, right?

Is that all, or did I miss something else, like having to actually tell PPro to use 32-bit float or something? I start my sequence with the DSLR 1080 24p sequence preset.

In summary, I’m understanding this to be dslr > PPro > XML to colorist > XML color render from colorist > PPro > h.264 to final output for streaming or whatever format I need for whatever purpose lol. Is that correct? That is really no different than my current workflow, except that I don’t have to transcode, and I’m using PPro instead of FCP 7… all of which is awesomely exciting, by the way. It just doesn’t seem right because it’s so simple. lol I don’t mean to sound ignorant or anything, but quite honestly, I’m not sure I understand what you mean by the DPX sequence. lol I know what that is, of course, but I mean, just take a program like Apple Color or Davinci Resolve… What’s best? The XML? Or this DPX sequence, and how should that be setup?

I know I’m being a nuisance, but you’re the only person I’ve found with the knowledge to help me hash this out. The whole coloring process from PPro to a coloring program and back is the ONLY thing holding me back from leaving FCP in the dust for good. I’m just confused by all the wrong information I’ve already ingested that never worked. Sorry, but thank you very much!
If it helps the conversation: Right now, my only delivery medium is the internet, but I’m working on some bigger projects that might change that, and I’ve been using Apple Color to grade everything. But I have Davinci Resolve and After Effects and can use both for grading (I try to stay versatile).

What’s a P.O. Box for you, and what kinds of things do you like? You deserve a little Christmas present for this.

Thanks for visiting the site and enjoying the knowledge we are sharing. Believe me, I learn so much every time Shane posts a blog it’s insane! In regards to your question…I think I have nice workaround. If you have both FCP and CS5 then you can export an XML from FCP and open it in Premiere. The same timeline you have should open in PPro. My other question is did you shoot with a DSLR? You mentioned h.264 and it not interacting with Color too well. Premiere CS5 actually handles h.264 natively and will give you access to the full color and data information in 32-bit float. Shane did extensive research into this and concluded it to be extremely responsive and easy to grade compared to Pro Res and other transcoded formats. You might have to unlink and relink to the source h.264 files after you open the timeline in PPro that has your ProRes LT files. It will be well worth it once you play with the color grade out of PPro. To do that you, can see what your colorist uses, but a DPX sequence would be your best bet if you would like to maintain the most quality and use a 10-bit workflow. Hope that helps and let me know if you have any other questions! all the best, Vashi Nedomansky

I also have a MB pro 2 duo 2.4 (4 gig RAM) and have no problem editing 5D/7D h.264 footage natively off both FW 800/400 and even USB. I would recommend that on the playback monitor…choose playback resolution of 1/2 or 1/4 for real-time playback and full resolution on paused playback.

Enjoy and let me know if that works for you….

Vashi

I prefer individual files for the edit process so it’s easier to sort through each scene and make manageable bins to keep things as organized as possible.

Hope that helps!

Vashi

I prefer individual files for the edit process so it’s easier to sort through each scene and make manageable bins to keep things as organized as possible.

Hope that helps!

Vashi

Good tips, very helpful post.

I want to share how I menage the footage, when I edit – maybe someone has better workflow. First: I shoot mostly with Sony EX1, and for example when I shot with this camera for a long documentary, every day at evening I saved my rushes on an external HDD. But for avoid to have thousands of separate clips, I saved them in a single file, or in some, about 20 min length. The result was files like: oct1, oct2_1, oct2_2, etc. On the edit I import these files, and finding easy the right take. Easier then dealing with many little clips for every take. No conversion, just putting together with the same codec. I cut in FCP, for that it was justified to transcode in this step to ProRes HQ, for further grading. How you menage so many takes in other way? But how about premier Pro? I will cut soon a movie shoot with Canon 60D, should I put together all the clips in a single file? This mean a generation loss, if I export with the same AVCHD codec or better transcode it in ProRes HQ from the beginning? But for PP no need for transcoding. So, what you suggest for better navigate between the clips?

I shoot events as well and I find very helpful your QuickTips #1 Always shoot as much as possible. Especially as events can never be recreated again and there’s no 2nd take.

Thanks for the rules, I’m sure many of us editors have them, we just never got to listing them down. Many many editors will benefit from your post. Thanks :)

I’ve noticed that when you shoot 24p with HDSLR sometimes you get a “choppy” looking image, usually when the talent is moving. Does CS5 help with “shoothing” out the motion better that FCP or AVID?

Thank you and continued success.

Sid Levin
FirstFrame, Inc.

“7. With DSLRs I find you can scale a shot up to 40% and still have adequate sharpness if you need to reframe or make a medium shot a close up. Sneaky but I do it all the time.”

I’ve always felt a strange sense of guilt doing this, glad to know I’m not the only one. :)

I can’t wait to start tearing through the rest of this blog.

Děkuji vám!