Adobe CS5 Designed for Your Canon Camera’s Color Space and Codec
Adobe CS5 is an editing software designed for your Canon camera’s color space and codec.
Dissent: Voicing opinions that conflict with those that are commonly accepted or officially espoused.
When my Elite Team and I started blazing this trail, we had already become dissenters. We embraced technology that in Hollywood was a joke, a fad, not viable. This is one of the great paradoxes of the human condition. On one hand, the movie industry is built upon the ability of diverse groups of people to conform to common sets of rules and principles.
Yet, there is an enormous benefit that awaits when somebody or a group is brave enough to disrupt this coveted social harmony and challenge prevailing convention. That is what all of you are, dissenters. Now that we all know who we are, why settle for conformity when it comes to software?
Smash Cut to:
Adobe CS5
The first time I saw our Act of Valor footage loaded into CS5, I was hooked as a cinematographer. The range, dimension, the filmic quality was so apparent. I went to Jacob Rosenberg who is the head of Bandito Brothers Post and asked him why this looks so different. He said two things: backward engineering and understanding the platform.
This is why CS5 is so special. Adobe went to Canon and asked them to open up their color space to them so that they could do their best to understand it and expand it. They worked together to find a cocktail to increase depth and dimension in this limited 8 BIT compressed color space. The next was to the camera’s codec. They designed Premiere Pro specifically to deal with the h.264 codec. How many times has this codec failed in Final Cut Pro?
How about an editing system that requires no converting? You can input directly from the CF cards if you would like. This is huge. We all know how long it takes to convert. Adobe is investing in their software as they see this as the future. Everything is shrinking to your desktop. Save time, edit faster, expanded organic looking 4:2:2 color space, filmic looking blacks, no conversion, REAL TIME editing without the barber shop blue scroll. WOW!!!
When we talked about doing the Hurlbut Visuals HDSLR Bootcamp and giving the students the ability to color correct their edited footage on a 25′ screen by the end of the day, CS5 and Premiere Pro was the only viable option. When I started to use it, I quickly understood the power of this amazing tool. Be a dissenter, go against the grain, go the distance, and expand your creativity.
Schedule 1-on-1 Video Call with David Cole
Looking for mentorship in the film industry? Schedule a 1-on-1 meeting with master colorist David Cole (The Lord of the Rings) today! This is where you can get expert advice from an industry professional on your career or a particular project.
About Filmmakers Academy Master Colorist David Cole
David Cole began his career in 1996 in Melbourne, Australia in the telecine department of AAV Digital Pictures. While maintaining his position as a colorist, his role expanded to Technical Director of Digital Film. He also assisted in the visual effects department as a Technical Director, writing scripts and other tools for the CG group.
In 2001, Cole joined The Post House Ltd in Wellington, New Zealand, as a Lead Digital Colourist on Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring, and over the next several years helped pioneer DI in Australia and New Zealand. In 2004, Cole joined Weta Digital as Supervising and Lead Digital Colourist, setting up and leading the DI division for Peter Jackson’s King Kong, for which he earned a nomination for Outstanding Color Grading – Feature film, from the Hollywood Post Alliance Awards in its inaugural year.
Cole moved to Hollywood in 2006 and joined LaserPacific which later became Technicolor. In 2013 Cole moved to Modern VideoFilm and in 2016 started at FotoKem. Since arriving in Hollywood he has graded such films as Dune, The Tomorrow War, Minari (HPA nominated), TRON: Legacy (HPA nominated), Pride and Glory (HPA nominated), The Book of Life, Kong: Skull Island, and multi-Academy Award-winning Life of Pi (HPA win – Outstanding Colour Grading – Feature Film).
Filmmakers Academy Premium Post-Production Courses
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shane – sorry about leaving so many comments on your last post, i was zonked out yesterday. that said, this post came at the right time for me, thanks. i’m in the midst of planning to build a new rig and wavered between going FCP since it’s “industry standard” or going Premiere CS5. I much preferred going the CS5 route since it can go on PCs, where i buy the most processing bang for the buck.
I tried CS5 out last weekend on my friend’s computer to edit my film school app short (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuQUPkfQ5SE&hd=1); wow, i’m sold. i really liked working with it. i was pretty impressed with how much i could push the footage limits with the color correction curves filter before I started to get noise. thanks again.
Tim, no problem man, you are passionate, you are inspired, you are an artist, go out there and tear it up.
Shane, your passion and willingness to dissent is just awesome! I’ve been pinned to your blog since you first started posting about DSLR cinematography, and have been a longtime Premiere fan myself.
So how do we convince Hollywood and industry pros that this is a better platform to adopt? I mean, it would be nice to someday be able to be hired as an editor without the silly “must use Final Cut Pro” requirement. Do you think Premiere is a better platform than FCP for editing other stuff too…like features? Do you think the industry will make the switch?
Richard Allen Crook, Hollywood is a very difficult animal to predict. I will continue to bang the drum, rattle the triangle for dinner until they all show up at the table and say WOW, this is possible, and it is coming.
Shane, I made the switch from Sony Vegas to CS5 with a new graphics card and I have been very happy with my switch. Sony missed the boat and spent too much time on 3D and less on getting .mov files to play natively, I guess they wanted to sell more 3D TV sets.
Amen, brother!!! Thank you for finally posting this! I have been preaching CS5 with these cameras for awhile now, and here is some proof for the pudding! Thank you, Shane. You continue to lead the way in the good fight. Would it be cool if I spread this post like wildfire?
This is actually why I switched from Premier to Final Cut Pro… 12 years ago. Adobe had dropped the ball and FCP was built from the start to work flawlessly with the DV/Firewire combo. Sounds like maybe things have flipped once again – unfortunately I still have such bad memories of trying to make premier work reliably that I find myself hesitant to give the new one a try.
Hi Shane!.
This is a hard subject for me.. I switched from Premier to FCP many many many years ago, and I said that I wouldn’t look back again because Premier was real crap.
However I been hearing so much that CS5 is much more superior than FCP, so I definitly need to give it a try.
We have 4 FCP workstations, so switching to CS5 won’t be cheap for us, besides I’m a FCP certified user and the learning curve for me and all my team is something else that worries me.
Missing the elite team!
JR
Jerry Rojas, great to hear from you. How is Mexico treating you and your family? I completely understand. It is the story not the tool that makes you great. We miss you too.
Couldn’t agree more. I was using 5Dm2 footage with CS4 and it was a downright miserable experience. Crashes, conversion problems, “…why doesn’t this just work when it says it should? $%^#@ Adobe – Augh!” Now that I have CS5 (and a high end Nvidia card to support the Mercury Engine) things are so much better. It was totally worth the money to upgrade. I dump footage from the camera to my computer and just edit. Looks great. Always works. That and I can buy the same computing power for about 1/2 to 1/3rd the price. The only thing better might be Cineform, but I don’t tweak color very much in post.
I’ve used Premiere since version 1.1 back in 1997. It’s gotten better every year, went Pro, and now clearly surpasses FCP.
It’s also cross platform, works better with the rest of the Adobe suite (Dynamic Link is incredible), and can handle HDSLR footage, 4k RED footage, all without transcoding. It’s incredible.
Also, if I understand the technical side correctly, it can take advantage of as many cores as your computer has, while FCP is 32 bit and single core only.
Give it a shot!
I was weened on Avid, personally new the boys + girls behind FCP, then became a consultant to Avid, and in the back of my brain new that Premiere Pro was the one app that put the soul back in editing. I have used every version they ever made but CS5 has set the bar up into the stratosphere for all the others to only dream of reaching. Now why isn’t everybody using it?
Competition in action, Adobe saw an opportunity and took it.
Now it’s up to Apple to catch up. In the meantime they do risk losing some real ground.
When I went freelance last year, indeed, I faced some tough choices:
– Full frame sensors versus 2/3″ or smaller
– 64-bit (CS5) versus 32-bit (FCP)
– It works (CS5) versus “It will be awesome” (FCP)
– Windows 7 versus Mac
– Cheaper (PC) versus way-too-expensive (Mac)
In the Dutch media industry it’s either FCP (film) or Avid (broadcast) that are the current standards. How many times I have had to explain myself for working with CS5, while there is no other alternative suite that is that well integrated… Kudos to Adobe! Now, back to work and stay ahead of the curve!
LOL. Its funny how everyone is jumping the FCP boat. Steve Jobs already said that the new FCP is coming early 2011. You know how apple does it. They trailblaze and trendset. As soon as it drops this whole Premiere thing will be done. Dont come crawling back when FCP has features in it that make you wanna bite your tongue. Remember that new Canon plug-in for FCP? Ok, now imagine how it’ll be once they’ve redone the entire software over. Please believe Apple and FCP recognizes what Premiere has been able to do, and will come with something even better. P.S. Premiere is a great product, i have the CS5 collection, but the difference is that my workflow may be a little faster but not better on Premiere
Carlos B., I love Apple, everything I have is Apple, iphone, ipad, imac, MacBook Pro, you name it, there is a piece of fruit, but I am not about waiting, ever. If CS5 for $500.00 gives me everything that I wrote about, and that gives me more range in my cinematography, then I am in till FCP version 8 comes out.
Great post Shane! I’m stuck using FCP at my regular paying gig because we only have CS4 there. I’m lobbying hard for the upgrade to CS5. I’ve completely switched to CS5 at my home editing suite. The integration of Premiere with the entire Adobe suite is awesome and now with the Mercury Playback Engine, it’s impossible to ignore. I agree with you whole-heartedly, go with what works the best. The consumer doesn’t care how the sausage is made.
“I have a dream, that one day producers will judge us not based on the color of their platform, but by the content of their skill. I have a dream today!”
I think that with the invent of Premiere CS5 should come a respect for the platform and those who choose to use it, that’s all. When hired to produce a commercial, there shouldn’t be a gasp and a shock when someone says they’re editing on Premiere. When a ACE editor decides to edit on Premiere, he shouldn’t be stripped of his status and banished to a deserted island.
It would be nice if it didn’t really matter which platform you use, and I think Premiere is on it’s way to becoming a part of the accepted professional NLE mix…not a REPLACEMENT.
But if there’s one thing I noticed in this game…is there’s not only monetary and skill investment in a particular NLE, but there’s an EMOTIONAL investment as well.
That means we should all just go with what we’re comfortable editing with and respect what others edit on…and leave the gasps and squabbles to “what is better” behind us.
Richard Allen Crook, I could not agree more with this. It is the story, not the tool that makes the project great.
You need a Nvidia card for h.264 to play real time. I just bought a macpro and it cant play h.264 real time in premier regardless of its hi power ati card. Apple doesnt sell macpros with Nvidia cards anymore lame.
Good News
My editing history:
Premere 2.0 -> Avid Xpress DV -> Final Cut Pro 3 -> Premiere Pro CS5
I personally switched from FCP to Premiere Pro CS5. I’m tired of Apple and saying byebye to Final Cut Pro:
Well, I’ve used Avid, FCP and Premiere. Being working with CS5 for the personal stuff but converting the footage to FCP Apple ProRes for the Professional work. None of the people I work with has embraced Premiere yet. But we can work with it definitely for faster stuff. Will FCP stop evolving? I guess not. Apple promised a new FCP release next year and probably FCP 8 will catch up, so if a post house is built around FCP and uses the H.264 files from the canons, well it might be worth the wait. http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/10/05/18/apple_scaling_final_cut_studio_apps_to_fit_prosumers.html
Shane, YES!! Dissent!!
When I get funding for my “Supernatural Western” I will call you and you need to get all of your 15 Rigs ready! Lets strap 5 of them to a horse and see what we get. Ready to try major out of the box things with my next film.
It only has a 5 million budget but I can dream of getting you to lens it ;)
The future is wild and bright!
Jay Galvan, WOW!! that sounds crazy good. Out of the box is why I am here. Let’s see where this takes us.!!!
I don’t don’t doubt for one minute that CS5 is everything editors around the world have been waiting for, but I’m with Carlos B. on this one, Apple is a company that has provided the world with truly awesome technology and I can only hope that their team is going to address all the needs in it’s upcoming FCP version, if not, I will then consider jumping ship. I feel I owe it to Apple to see what they have in store.
Love your blog. It’s very cool of you to share your professional knowledge in this way. I’m a long time reader, first time poster…
It’s great that you can just drop H.264 footage into a Premiere time line and start working with it, but I’m bit confused. From what I understand H.264 isn’t really meant for post work as its a finishing codec, so is the true benefit of this feature just for quick on set assemblies without transcoding, or is CS5 doing something to the color space that’s going to allow you to stay with H.264 through all stages of your post work flow thereby nullifying the need to convert to something like prores at some point?
Morley, I want to thank you for your kind words and support. So glad to hear from you for the first time. I hope you continue to collaborate with us. I have contacted Mike Kenper at Adobe to ask him your questions, he will holler back at me soon. Stay tuned.
Morely, I contacted the Adobe CS5 guru Mike Kanfer and this is what he had to say about your question. I love this guy. He rocks it out.
Yes, H.264 is definitely not considered a finishing codec, but to be clear, Premiere Pro does not use it in that way. The H.264 is read natively by Premiere and once it is decoded into the app. it “resides” internally in a 32 bit float extended color space that is unmatched for color fidelity and dynamic range. Your tests at Laser Pacific have proven that. There is no need to transcode to Pro Res, although if one prefers to work with that type of intermediate, the Adobe workflow can handle it just fine…ProRes is a great intermediate codec, but depending on the original content, some information might be lost compared to how Premiere Pro decodes the same file. For a full explanation, please refer the poster to my longer explanation below:
Adobe CS5 reads the H.264 files natively into Premiere Pro and After Effects at the highest possible quality. Our color gamut and dynamic range for tonal detail from shadow to highlight is unsurpassed. There is even support for over-brights beyond 100% in After Effects. i.e. in plain English, we squeeze more out of these files than anything else out there! Shane Hurlbut’s filmout tests at Laser Pacific have verified that our interpretation of the H.264 is the smoothest and most filmic representation available. The magic comes from the use of proprietary interpretation algorithms and I might also mention that we bypass QuickTime for this process, which avoids the whole gamma conundrum. Once the file is living inside our apps on the timeline or project, we deal with the image information at the 32 bit float level. Now that is not saying we can make an 8 bit H.264 DSLR video capture look like perfectly shot IMAX footage scanned at 16 bits, but what we do offer up is the ability to edit, apply effects and color corrections within our apps. at an unprecedented level of quality. So edit, do your VFX and color correction in Premiere Pro and After Effects with confidence that you are getting the best results. Now for the next step…we have all the typical options for exporting these files, so if they have to be passed on to another vendor for DI or another system, use the best option that suits you. For Shane’s bootcamp, we exported edited Premiere Pro projects to industry standard uncompressed 10 bit DPX files, which were then color corrected by a Quantel Pablo and projected on a huge screen. They looked absolutely amazing. Cineform is also an amazingly good compressed or uncompressed intermediate codec that rivals Pro Res and DNX and works great with CS5 on both Mac and PC. If you have Final Cut Pro on your MAC, you can choose to export all the various flavors of Pro Res through our Media Encoder, if that works better for you. Then, and only then in the process would you want to choose it as an output option. Converting your files to Pro Res beforehand for use in Adobe CS5 works great, but will not take full advantage of all the image processing that we offer by working natively in H.264. What you NEVER want to do though is to output H.264 as an intermediate. As the blogger mentions, yes…it would be like re-compressing an already compressed format…like saving a JPEG as a JPEG again. One caveat here is for the PC folks…Adobe can’t directly output Pro Res through the Media Encoder on Windows for obvious reasons (Final Cut is only for MAC), and that is where the Pro Res codec is supplied. So if you are on a PC, I recommend that you use uncompressed 10 bit DPX output as an intermediate (now available in Premiere Pro’s 5.0.2 free update which includes timecode support), a Cineform workflow, or use AJA’s KiPRO in conjunction with Adobe CS5 to layoff your finished timeline to Pro Res through this amazing and affordable device.
Shane I command you for being honest and living outside the box. By you validating that the CS5 platform offers way more for all DSLR’s I’m all in. So for now on no more converting Clips, still waiting for your next Bootcamp dates so I can start planning.
Didier Clermount, I thank you so much for your kind words and support. I am loving that Adobe is making the lives of people that shoot on the 5D easier and better quality. The revolution continues.
Wow… That’s great information, Shane. Thank you so much for taking the time and please pass on my thanks to Mike Kanfer. It’s nice to get the reassurance and have the confidence that one is able to get the best possible image quality using this work flow. This is going to make things so much easier.
Cheers!
Hey everybody,
I just won a copy of Adobe Production Premium CS5 and I am going to need a new computer that will support the software. Could anyone give some suggestions on computer specs or particular models? My budget would be on the lower end as opposed to the higher end machines.
Thanks for your help,
Shaun
@Shaun
A good place to start is the Adobe system requirements page for production premium.
http://www.adobe.com/products/creativesuite/production/systemreqs/
From there you should be able to then source a system that suits your needs either online or locally. Keep in mind that these tend to represent minimum requirements. More ram is better. 64 bit operating system is a must and more cores will help with previewing and rendering in Premiere and After Effects. Hope that helps.
Shane, again thanks for the amazing info. That response from Mike Kanfer was very eye opening for me and will now change my workflow. I’ve been taking my h264 footage and converting to CineForm to use in CS5 and then do my edits and color correct on CineForm files. I do notice performance to be better with CineForm files, but had no clue there was specific algorithms used for Canon footage. This little detail you provided was priceless!
Shaun,
Congratulations on your win! I have been researching the issue for the past month and half and found these links to be particularly helpful for planning to build a system that maximizes performance to the last penny of every dollar, especially the first one:
http://www.studio1productions.com/Articles/PremiereCS5.htm
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/adobe-cs5-cuda-64-bit,2770.html
the best news: you don’t need no stinkin’ top of the line video card to take advantage of the enormous performance gains yielded by hardware acceleration. i was so excited to hear that a $90 video card performs just as well as a $500 video card, since apparently the onboard VRAM speed matters much more than GPU speed. So get yourself a GT 240 with at least 1GB DDR5 ram and you’ve already bought yourself a 2 drive RAID setup with the money you’ve saved. talk about awesome.
Hi Shane – thanks for pushing the envelope yet again!
A very quick question; do you run CS5 on your MacPro or on a PC?
I just got a MacPro to run FCP (I normally edit in Sony Vegas for its workflow speed and the great audio handling, but I have to open some projects in FCP) – I run BootCamp to allow a Windows 7 64-bit partition too.
Currently use Cineform for all HD projects.
Been noticing the comments about needing an Nvidia card to make full advantage of the Mercury engine… have you run any tests to see if the ATI graphics card in a MacPro can perform OK, or would it be best to have CS5 in a dedicated PC with Nvidia card?
Thans,
Andy
Shane, woot interesting news from Adobe on CS5 handling of Canon h264, it’s pretty much what I’d concluded. Canon’s shoot h264 AVC, use BT709 primaries BUT use BT601 matrix, this comination is suggested to be uvYCC specification, extended colourspace.
I found loads of codecs including QT just decode as BT709 and loose the extra data.
However using a free 3D LUT generator like yCMS comined with AVISynth and I can get a lot of extra out of Canon’s h264 than just decoding with QT.
Still testing but a bit here: , the link to the Flickr site ‘Frames’ has some .png’s off a T2i and this thread here: &
Yes test are to RGB but currently testing keeping the extended data in a uncompressed YCC intermediate so as to try to avoid incorrect handling by codecs reading just as BT709.
andy mac – according to , not so sure if you’ll get an ATI card to work. premiere’s mercury engine’s restricted to the Nvidia proprietary CUDA core. although apple machines are great in terms of design and OS (i personally like OS X better than windows), i never understood why apple’s always been behind the ball with actual raw computing power in all regards.
Shane thank you for replying, and also thank you for writing to Adobe great information. I wanna also say that your blog/site is #1 in my book.
GOD Bless
Didier Clermont, you are so welcome and I thank you for your support. Adobe rules, customer service wise, educational wise they are knocking it out also.
Hey Shane,
Sorry I missed your webcast on Tuesday with Jacob. I was registered to watch it but got called out to do a shoot. Is there anywhere I can view it now?
Nevermind, I just realized it’s NEXT week. Doop!
Matt Short, Yes it is next Tuesday the 14th, looking forward to fielding your questions.
Thanks Shane,
Apple has no more excuses, In fact just today their was an update to Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 (5.0.3) update for Mac Users performance improvements, bug fixes, and Quadro 5000M and 4000 CUDA support
Adobe loves MAC users, Does Apple?
Shane,
I just want to thank you.
I can not express how greatful i am for all the knowledge that you share at this blog. Just finished my first music video (max low budget ;)) but it would not look half as good as it looks if I had not opportunity to read your blog. Keep on with your great work – there are lot of people admiring what you are doing and not neccessarily expressing it loud ;)
Tomasz Kosek, I appreciate those kind words and support from you and all of our co collaborators. You all ROCK in my book. I am glad my information is helping you create. More to come.
Hi Shane,
I read an interesting comparison on Paul Joys blog talking about exporting the 5d footage from Adobe Media Encoder and also Compressor. He has come to the conclusion the Adobe Media encoder does not fare as well as Compressor when trying to make standard 1280×720 H.264 quicktime files for uploading to Vimeo.
“It seems that even though the footage within Premiere itself is holding up really well it’s degrading more upon export than my FCP workflow. I spent many hours testing lots of different export options, codecs and formats as well as playing with options in the preferences, I still couldn’t export a file that matched or exceeded the image quality in the file exported from FCP.”
http://www.pauljoy.com/2010/12/hdslr-encoding-wars-premiere-pro-vs-final-cut-pro/#more-3345
Do you have some magic recipe that allows for high quality encodes? Have you experienced the same results as Paul?
Thanks
Hi Shane,
I am glad to see that industry professionals are onto Adobe and their CS5 platform. I have cut on most of the ‘industry accepted’ platforms (I own two Avid’s, have worked on FCP and others) and about two years ago I moved to CS4. The biggest reason was that, since I saw that the product had matured rather quickly from it’s early days, I could work in Photoshop or After Effects and import the files directly to the Premiere timeline and then have them update when changes were made. I can’t tell you how many years I’ve wasted with rendering, exporting, importing… OMG.
Well, I still use Avid when I need to, but I am firmly in the Adobe camp. And the benefits from CS4 to CS5 are AMAZING. I’ve cut commercials that air all over North America on CS5. I love so many things about CS5 that I can’t begin to even list them, but I will say this: If anyone thinks that CS5 is not ‘professional’, boy are they missing the boat. And it’s only going to get better. And with their native integration of other formats, like Canon & DSLR (Nikon anytime soon?) it’s truly the place to be.
I quite often shoot DVCPro HD and CS5 handles the P2 files like butter with it’s Mercury Playback Engine, in fact I recently did a 4 camera Multicamera in Premiere (okay, they could make this a bit better but…) and it was 1080 DVCPro footage and the software didn’t skip a beat. And now with my Nikon D7000 I am experimenting with HD-DSLR and so far… wow!
I just listened to your webcast, amazing stuff.
Rock on!
I have only one big problem with Premiere Pro CS5 and it seems a truly bizarre one given that this is an Adobe product and that is as follows: Where is all the training material and learning aids – where are the books and/or DVD’s which tell you how to use it properly ?? Apart from Adobe’s own “Classroom in a Box”, there appears to be pretty much nothing available (whereas if I want to learn Photoshop CS5 or Lightroom 3 or Final Cut Pro, there is an incredible array of options). I do not understand what is going on here (the only books etc I can find on Premiere date back to the old versions released in 2002/2003) !! Bizarre.
Damen Stephens, here is everything that we have found that can help get you up to speed on Premiere Pro and CS5. Jacob Rosenberg’s book Premiere Pro Studio Techniques, is considered one of the best book ever on Premiere Pro … as in THE BIBLE on the editing technique and workflow basics of Premiere Pro (which really have not changed).
SEE:
And don’t forget the most amazing FREE resource out there for all things Adobe. Adobe TV (tv.adobe.com) which has hundreds of videos both long and short and everything in between on Premiere Pro. Whether you are interested in beginner’s tips for navigating the program or advanced DSLR workflow, it’s all there. Just go to that site, and search away. See the end of this thread for some suggested links.
And for those who want to pay their hard earned $$$$ for even more in depth Premiere Pro CS5 training with either DVD’s or on-line courses, there is:
TOTAL TRAINING.com
video2brain.com: http://www.video2brain.com/en/products-28.htm
and LYNDA.com: http://www.lynda.com/search?q=premiere+Pro&x=0&y=0
But that’s not all folks, just to get jump started, check out these specific links on Adobe TV…ALL FREE:
ADOBE’s REFERENCE MATERIALS
· Switching Website (FCP diehards switching to Premiere Pro)
http://www.adobe.com/products/premiere/switch/ This site has workflow guides that help users get up and running on Premiere.
· We have created a 7-part video series to help FCP uses make the transition. You can find them here:
KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS:
DETAILS ON KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS (can print as a .pdf):
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/premierepro/cs/using/WS1c9bc5c2e465a58a91cf0b1038518aef7-7c2ea.html
SWITCHING FROM FCP OVERVIEW:
BASIC EDITING w / PREMIERE PRO:
SETTING UP A NEW PROJECT:
AUDIO and PREMIERE PRO:
THE TITLE TOOL:
EXPORTING and OUTPUT:
VIDEO ON CUSTOMIZING PREMIERE PRO:
http://layersmagazine.com/customizing-premiere-pro.html
· For those editing HDSLR video media, we have a ton of resources to help them learn Premiere without having to transcode first: http://www.adobe.com/go/dslr
· Finally, we just completed a 4-part webinar featuring Final Cut editors who have made the switch. You can view the series info here:
I made the switch from FC to CS5. No regrets. Loving it.
Loving CS5.
Hi Shane (or anonymous Adobe representative ??… ie. Adobe=”we”),
Thanks VERY much for the incredibly comprehensive response to my question/statement about the seeming paucity of learning aids re: Premier Pro CS5 – it appears I have gotten into the bad (but generally understandable) habit of believing that if you don’t have to PAY for it (the training) it must be bad … no wonder I have no money, LOL !
I do still think it is a bit of a pity that there is not (YET) one single course or volume (like Scott Kelby’s excellent tome on Photoshop CS5 for instance) for Premiere CS5, but I look forward to going through the links you supplied (especially the Adobe TV ones – I can’t argue with “free” if they are also good!) and learning more ….
Thanks once again,
Damen Stephens
Damen Stephens, you are very welcome and thank you for your support.
Shane,
months ago I made the choice to go with CS5 for the obvious reasons. I’ve been a great believer of the fantastic game-changing world of the Canon DSLRs, and now I know I was right to be a believer, I don’t have to convince you, Shane… But I do have to say that I did run into issues with CS5, and I can’t seem to be able to solve them. I’m sorry about the length of this post, but bare with me please… Here’s the step-by-step story of my tests here:
1- Shot stuff with my 5D on 1080p 24p, all with Pic Style neutral sharpness and contrast all the way down (left)
2- I downloaded the CF cards on my external drive on set.
3- Renamed and sorted the files.
4- Went home and plugged the drive on my Mac Pro
5- Launched CS5 Premier Pro,
6- Opened a new project DSLR 1080p 24p
7- Imported the assets in Premier Pro with PP media browser
8- layed selected files down on the sequence time line.
Now, at this point, you need to know that I did nothing to the files. No coloring, no effects, NOTHING. I just wanted to test my workflow.
9- I then exported the project sequence (FILE-dropdown menu/export/media…)
10- export settings window opens…
11- on the right side on the export settings window, in the FORMAT drop down menu, I selected “DPX”, and then, in the PRESET dropdown, I selected “1920×1080 24p Full Range (Max bit depth)”
12- Below, in the FILTERS/VIDEO/FTP section, I left untouched.
13- And below that window, I checked “Use Max render quality”
14- Clicked EXPORT, after I’d renamed and specified where to send that exported sequence.
15- I then took that DPX sequence project to the post prod facility I deal with, and swung it on the Speedgrade DI (the big version…)
15 steps to conclude that the DPX files ended up being unacceptable for a film finish. It looked like staircases on the scopes, and the noise and compression big and ugly. We then decided to just import the H.264 files that I also had on my drive there, right into the Speedgrade DI. And the results were, by far, a zillion times better. The scopes were as they should be, the night stuff shot at ASA640 was beautifully silky and the noise/grain very “film-like”. So we ended up going that route on that small project, from Speedgrade to HDcam…. Back to tape… But no CS5 in this workflow.
I know I must be doing something wrong somewhere… Did you spot anything “bad” in my steps? Did anyone see anything? Bewler…? Could something be wrong in my computer? (Brand new Mac Pro…) Anything?
Thank’s for your patience…
Francois
Hello! I yesterdaydiscovered your page via bing. What a wonderful blog you have! I appreciate it very much! Thank you for putting out such precious comment to the whole internet world!
Jeff Tantillo, you are so welcome. Thank you for your support.
Can anyone answer Francois Archambault’s question?
You forgot to mention PRICE. As a student, I picked up the production bundle for $349, with Premiere, After Effects, Photoshop, etc. My main interest is photography now, but I started with video (then got into still, and am going back to my roots). Originally I planned on getting Photoshop, which is $200 on it’s own, as a student, and then Final Cut. However, the price of Final Cut is just too much for a hobby. The extra $150 for Premiere, After Effects, etc., was a no-brainer. However, despite the positive points you mention, Premiere is a joke compared to Final Cut when it comes to EDITING. Yes, it’s nice to drag and drop your clips into Premiere and work with them directly. Beyond that, however, Premiere is a toy and a P.I.T.A, not to mention highly unstable.
Shane ,
You were absolutely right about CS5.5 Premiere Pro. I bought it, and a rock & roll concert I was working on that was shot in HDSLR /H:264 codec was taking me forever trying to edit it in FCP7. When I bought CS5.5 and loaded all my raw footage into Premier Pro it only took 8 hours to edit the whole damn thing. I was wasting all my time rendering and converting a format that FCP just as you have said , does not like it. FCP7 is starting to suck. Soon as I learn all the bells and whistles of CS5.5 , I am afraid that FCP will slowly fade away in the sunset. My 60D and 5DMKII, and 7D work flawlessly in CS5. Shane I am so glade we have people like you and Vincent Lafore to teach us all about the new way to creat films and videos in a more professional way. It is damn sure faster to say the least. Please keep up the good work, we are now teach HDSLR video production here in Texas to High school students and college students as of this month. You and the Elite Team are great folks to have for a mentor.
Sincerely Best Regards to the whole team,
Ron Whitting / Executive Producer-Owner
A.F. Productions / AFP-HD / AFP SPORTS
Tyler, Texas
Ron Whiting, once I switched I never went back. It is built for hdslr’s. So easy and fast. Thank you so much for all of your kind words. Vincent is a great educator. I know we will continue to push the limits.
Shane,
Hope all is well at your camp. We have been fighting huge wild fires for the last three moths. Boy it has been hot hear in East Texas. Now to the reason I am making another comment to you on your blog web site. The Premiere Pro CS5.5 I switched to on your recommendation. I am so glade I listened to you and took your sound and solid advice. MY work flow speed has increased by at least 4 to 5 times faster on every editing project in HD. PP CS5.5 and HDSLR HD camreas are a team forever. Thanks to you and Vincent, and Phillip Bloom the three Kings of HDSLR Video Production we other Professionals around the country have a place to go to to learn from you trend-setters. Myself and all the Professionals I hang out with in Dallas have all figured out that with CS5.5 Premiere Pro all things video are possible. We are planning a yard sale for anyone that newbie that would like to buy FCP7 and Studio 3 real cheap. I have yet to find a video codec format that PPCS5.5 can’t handle. Tell you E;ite Team hello from all of us in Tyler and Dallas, Texas and have a sage and great rest of the year.
Ron Whititng/ Executive Producer-Owner
A.F. Productions/AFP-HD/AFP Sports
Tyler, Texas
Ron Whitting, great to hear from you. Thank you so much for those kind words of support. Heading to Dallas tomorrow to shoot a Miller Lite spot with the Cowboys. I will be there till the 13th.
9/09/2011
Friday night
Shane,
Are you shooting the spot with the Cowboys or the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders…..HMMMMM. Either way it is still a winning combination. I am only a hour and a half from you. Call me if you have time.Your welcome to call anytime. day or night.
903-597-4289 in Tyler, Texas
Ron Whitting/ A.F. Productions
Tyler, Texas
Ron Whitting, Hi my friend. I am in Austin this weekend and then shooting Monday in Dallas at Cowboy Stadium. Then we have a Helo shot on Tuesday am and then I am back to LA.
So any other thoughts on this comparison now that FCP X is out and has been tweaked for over a year? I would love to hear it from the standpoint of the pulse of the industry, and not just what works better specifically with Canon DSLRs–especially since camera technology is rapidly changing. Also while I use DSLRs, like you, I’m sure you are using different cameras for different projects.