Adobe Video World 2016 Day 2
HIGHLIGHTS FROM DAY 2 OF ADOBE VIDEO WORLD 2016:
- Must-Know Plugins for Premiere Pro CC
- Gravity Waves and Proxy Workflows
- Logging Strategies and Tips
- An Introduction to VR
- The Power of Pancake Timeline Editing
- The Art of Editing Trailers
MORNING
Boosting Premiere Pro: The Best Plugins You Must Know About for Premiere Pro
Eran Stern started the day with a demo of his favorite 3rd party plugins for Premiere Pro CC. These tools expand the capabilities of Premiere Pro CC, allowing editors to create motion blur, realistic animations, 3D titles, planar tracking and masking, beauty filters, and more.
Eran likened Premiere Pro CC to the "operating system" for these 3rd party tools. Some of these tools cost some coin, but Eran vetted and clearly demonstrated the value of these particular plugins:
Case Study: LIGO: The Search for Gravity Waves
I love listening to Christine Steele talk about her documentary filmmaking. This was the first opportunity I've had to hear her speak about her latest project, "LIGO: The Search for Gravity Waves", which is still in production. I would attempt to explain the film's scope, but it would probably end up sounding like Interstellar. This project will have multiple deliverables, not all of them available to the public. Funding is still being sought for either a feature length-documentary or a broadcast series.
Christine was a big advocate for Prelude CC. She uses it for DIT and media management in the field. Along with some other things:
For Christine, transcoding with Prelude CC was replaced by the new proxy workflows in Premiere Pro. She was visibly excited when she spoke to the time-saving benefits of being able to generate multiple proxy files simultaneously on ingest.
From Chaos to Order Get Organized with Logging Strategies
If you follow Scott Simmons on Twitter (chances are you do) then I don't need to front load this with an introduction to his editing genius. In this session, Scott focused on some fundamental logging strategies in Premiere Pro CC. My favorite part of his presentation was he only had 3-4 introductory slides before jumping into Premiere Pro CC and teaching.
Metadata in Premiere Pro CC is powerful, but it can be overwhelming. That's why Scott recommended customizing the metadata columns in Premiere Pro CC specifically to your project. Reducing the number of columns, keeping only the relevant ones, will make adding and viewing metadata much simpler. To customize the metadata columns, click the Project panel menu, and choose Metadata Display at the bottom.
When you're done adding metadata to your clips, Search bins can be used to automatically gather clips based on keywords. The great thing about Search bins is they will continue to collect clips wherever those keywords are used.
This is a very useful tip for quickly pulling down selects from the Source monitor. By default, when you perform an insert or overwrite edit from the Source monitor, the Timeline panel then becomes active. You can turn this preference off under the General tab. Doing so will allow you to continue pulling selects by keeping the Source monitor active. This can be especially useful when using pancake timelines. (Continue reading for more on pancake timelines.)
Another helpful tip for pulling selects. You can set a custom keyboard shortcut to move the Source Assignment (or source patch) up and down in order to make an insert or overwrite edit on a specific track. Remember, the Source monitor must be active to use this keyboard shortcut.
AFTERNOON
VR 360: An Introduction to Virtual Reality Productions and Editing
This was an exciting class, and not just because it was taught by Jeff Greenberg. The future of VR is very exciting, and Jeff began his session with a prediction that VR is going to be a success. He attributed this to things like Google Cardboard, Samsung Gear VR, and other products that make VR experiences accessible to many people.
VR and 360° video is not hard from a conceptual standpoint. (Of course, it helps to have someone like Jeff to explain it it to you, and that's why you should come to Adobe Video World. Sales pitch complete.) Check out this picture of Jeff's slide, which breaks down the entire process from start to finish. By the way, Jeff makes all his slides available after the event a jgreenbergconsulting.com.
Both the VR and proxy workflow features were released in the 2015.3 version of Premiere Pro CC. But did you ever realize you can (and probably should) use these two features together? It may not occur to some editors that the actual media for 360° video is no different than any other media. 360° video is just a 2D image wrapped around a sphere. This means you can apply the performance benefits of proxy workflows in Premiere Pro CC to your 360° video clips.
For those interested in picking their first 360° camera, the Ricoh Theta S and the new Nikon KeyMission 360 were the most popular entry-level cameras mentioned in Jeff's session. As far as 360° stitching software, Autopano seemed to be the most commonly used.
One way VR/360° video behaves differently from 2D video is when it comes to effects. Simply put, the seam where 360° media connects causes all sorts of problems for traditional effects. Adding things like blur or sharpening require effects specifically designed for VR/360° media. That's where Mettle comes in. Mettle is a VR/360° effects and transitions maker that is well-known and well-trusted by VR/360° filmmakers. (I'm really looking forward to visiting the Mettle booth at AVW Expo Night!)
InFocus: The Premiere Pro Pancake Timeline
Pancake timeline is unique to Premiere Pro CC thanks to it's customizable panels. I often see editors copying and pasting, or dragging clips from one timeline to the other. This isn't wrong, but it's not the most efficient use of the pancake timeline. In this delicious session, Scott Simmons equipped attendees with the full power of pancake timeline editing.
To make traditional 3 or 4-point edits with the pancake timeline requires the "source" sequence be loaded in the Source monitor. From there, the sequence can be opened as a Source Monitor timeline by clicking on the Source monitor wrench, and selecting Open Source in Timeline. You will know you've done this successfully when you see a red playhead and "(Source Monitor)" appended to the Sequence name in the Timeline panel.
Source Monitor timelines are additionally powerful because they can be used as windows into other Premiere Pro CC projects. When you open another Premiere Pro CC project in the Media Browser and double-click a sequence, it will open as Source Monitor timeline. You can add this sequence to your stack of pancakes in your current project!
In a World… The Secrets of Successful Film Trailers
Paul Murphy began his trailer editing session with a burst of energy. It was nice go from two highly technical sessions with Scott Simmons to Paul Murphy's session, which focused more on the principles and theory of editing. This is party of the beauty of Adobe Video World.
Paul has a background in writing. So part of his creative process is writing out a log line — a one-sentence summary — for his trailers. This is an excellent way to help you articulate the theme of your video, and keep it in mind as you begin cutting.
Paul's method of writing doesn't end with the log line. He continues with breaking the log line down into dramatic acts, and writing out a description for the beginning, middle and end.
Good trailers shouldn't have resolution. The whole point of a trailer is to tease the viewers to watch the film. To this point, most of the material used in a trailer comes from the film's first and second acts, and not the third. Check out this awesome article that Paul shared. It's a New York Times article that dissects the trailer for Argo, and organizes all the shots by act. Notice that most of the shots are taken from the first two acts.
Couldn't think of a better way to end Adobe Video World Day 2. This is what it's all about right here.
Premiere Bro's attendance at Adobe Video World is sponsored by Adobe, Future Media Concepts and JK Design.
