Thanks for checking out the blog,
Justin

S

I used you workflow to edit and it worked a treat, so huge thanks! However I now am struggling to export the footage. Now I don’t really understand what all of these settings mean (pixel aspect ration, anamophic…) but the footage all looks great when rendered out at low res. Now, I need to export it as uncompressed so I can bring it into Adobe After Effects to add some titles etc. the problem is that I can’t get the uncompressed export to work, it seems to make the footage almost metallic looking. I’ve tried messing around with many options but I just can’t find the best solution. The only really way I can export it and it looks ok is by using the h.624 format but this makes my cross dissolves look really pixilated. So, any ideas for ways to make this work?

Ta

S

Cheers,
J

Yeah the AIC codec comes with Apple OS X I believe, if you are using PC I think there is a free codec here:
http://lags.leetcode.net/codec.html

Basically you want to use a codec [AIC or other,] with minimal compression and decompression, this will make it easier on your system to work in realtime. Also be sure that the bitrate drops as well.. the raw files are somewhere around 40Mbps so bring these proxies down to something like 5Mbps.

Remember that you need to keep the same extension in order to replace all the proxies with the originals, so use a .mov wrapper with whatever codec you choose for your working files… This all sounds tedious but once you are able to work in real-time it’s all worth it.

Hope that helps,

Cheers,
Frost

ThNKS

proxies are required for smooth editing.. from my experience there is NO HOPE of RENDERLESS editing the raw .h264 files from the 5d mk2 in premiere pro cs4 especially once effects and transitions are added. This is critical for me as I lose all creativity when waiting for renders and spinning balls of death…

transcode all raw files with mpeg streamclip to apple intermediate codec [or .h264 if you really have to..] @ [640 x 360 pix]

save these in a new folder alongside your raw files, call it “proxies”.

open mpeg streamclip
press command + b for BATCH
dump all your raw files in the batch
export to quicktime

mpeg streamclip transcode settings:
no interlaced scaling [this is awesome progressive footage..]
30 fps
5Mbps
square pixels
50 % quality
RUN THE BATCH AND WAKE UP IN THE MORNING…

open ppro cs4
new project:
square pixels
30fps
1920 x 1080
progressive

[save that as a preset]

after importing all the raw footage to the project panel, select all raw clips right click > make offline
with all clips selected, replace them with the 640 x 360 proxies right click > link media

NOTE: the file names need to be exact filename matches to the raw files, this will allow premiere to replace all the clips when you just select one.

ANOTHER NOTE: the 640 x 360 proxies will not fill the 1080 work area until you right click on them in the timeline and select “scale to frame size”.

HAPPY EDITING.. Premiere will now be able to work on this low-res footage much quicker. Welcome back to real time editing.. FINALLY

Once the cuts are complete, then repeat the process and replace the proxies with the raw files. Render them out at nothing more than 25Mbps [my advice for smooth playback... unless you have top end machines along the life of the file]

Here is the post with all the details, my workflow is more or less the same as that one. I did try to make the proxies SD and it still choked my macbook pro 2.0 GHZ, I would recommend going straight for the 640 x 360 resolution and a bit rate of 5Mbps or maybe even lower. The key is to be able to have it play smooth not only for straight cuts, but also renderless dissolves and color corrections.

Peace,
Justin