Adobe Premiere

If you need to transfer analog video—consumer-level VHS, SVHS, Hi-8, or professional-grade video such as Beta-SP—you need a video capture card with analog inputs. Most such cards have consumer-quality composite connectors as well as S-video and sometimes top-of-the-line component plugs.

Check your card’s documentation for set-up and compatibility issues.

With analog video, you have only one capture option — to do it manually:

1. Open the Capture panel (File > Capture).
2. Use the controls on the camcorder to move the videotape to a point several seconds before the frame you want to begin capturing.
3. Press the Play button on the camcorder, then click the red Record button in the Capture panel.
4. When your clip has been captured, click the Stop button in the Capture panel and on the camcorder. Your clip will show up in the Project panel.

Instead of manually logging in- and out-points, you might want to use the Scene Detect feature. Scene Detect analyzes your tape’s Time/Date stamp looking for breaks such as those caused when you press the camcorder’s pause button while recording.

When Scene Detect is on and you perform a capture, Premiere Pro automatically captures a separate file at each scene break it detects. Scene Detect works whether you are capturing an entire tape or just a section between specific in- and out-points.

To turn on Scene Detect, in the Capture panel, do either of the following:

• Click the Scene Detect button below the record button.
• Check the Scene Detect checkbox in the Capture panel.

Then you can either set in- and out-points and click Record, or cue your tape to wherever you want to start capturing and click Record. In the latter case, click Stop when done.

Your clips will show up in the Project panel. No need to batch capture them—Premiere Pro captures each clip “on the fly.” Premiere Pro will name the first captured clip by putting a 01 after the name you put in the Clip Name box and then increment each new clip by one.

Think through how you’re going to name your clips. You might end up with dozens of clips, and if you don’t give them descriptive names, it’ll slow down editing.

You might use a naming convention for sound bites such as Bite-1, Bite-2, and so forth. Adding a brief descriptive comment, such as Bite-1 Laugh, will help.

Here are the steps to follow:

1. In the Capture panel Setup area, click the Logging tab.
2. Change the Handles setting (in lower right corner of the Capture panel) to 30 Frames.This adds one second to the start and finish of each captured clip, which will give you enough head and tail frames to add transitions without covering up important elements of the clip.

   Using the mouse drag method to change draggingnumeric values to changenumeric valuesnumeric values

   When changing the Handles value, you can click on the current number and type in a new figure, or simply place your cursor over the Handles number and drag it left or right to lower or raise the value. This method of changing a numeric value works throughout Premiere Pro.

3. In the Clip Data section, give your tape a unique name.
4. Log your tape by rewinding and then playing it.When you see the start of a segment you want to transfer to your PC, stop the tape, rewind to that spot and click the Set In button.
5. When you get to the end of that segment (you can use Fast-forward or simply Play to get there), click Set Out. The in/out times will display as well as the clip length.

   Three other ways to set in/out points

   There are other means to set in-points and out-points for selected clips: click the brackets ( { or } ) on the play controls, use the keyboard shortcuts—I for In and O for Out—or change the in/out time directly in the Timecode area by clicking on the timecode and dragging your cursor left or right.

6. Click Log Clip to open the Clip Data dialog box.
7. Change the clip name, if needed, add appropriate notes if you want, and then click OK.That adds this clip’s name with its in/out times and tape name info to the Project panel (with the word “offline” next to it). You’ll go there later to do the actual capture.
8. Log clips for the rest of your tape using the same method.Each time you click Log Clip, Premiere Pro automatically adds a number to the end of your previous clip’s name. You can accept or override this automated naming feature.
9. When you’ve completed logging your clips, close the Capture panel.All your logged clips will be in the Project panel with the word “offline” after each.
10. Select all the clips in the Project panel that you want to capture (see following Tip for three methods to do that).

    Three ways to filesselectingselect more than one item

    Windows and Premiere Pro offer three ways to select more than one file in a window. If the file names are contiguous, mouse-click on the top one and Shift+click on the last one in the group, or click off to one side and above the top clip and drag down to the last one to marquee select a group (I used the marquee select method—creating the gray rectangle—in the previous figure). If the file names are scattered about, click first one and then Ctrl+click on each additional one in turn.

1. Select File > Batch Capture.That opens a very simple Batch Capture dialog box that allows you to override the camcorder settings or add more handle frames.
2. Leave the Batch Capture boxes unchecked and click OK.The Capture panel opens, as does another little dialog box telling you to insert the proper tape (in your case, it’s probably still in the camcorder).
3. Insert the tape and click OK.Premiere Pro now takes control of your camcorder, cues up the tape to the first clip and transfers that clip and all other clips to your hard drive.
4. When completed, take a look at your Project panel to see the results. offline files have become movies.

With your camcorder of choice in hand, it’s time to venture off and shoot videos. If you’re new to videography, following these tips will help you create better videos. If you’re an old hand, think of this list as a way to snap out of your routine and juice things up a bit. Here are my shooting axioms:

• Get a closing shot
• Get an establishing shot
• Shoot plenty of video
• Adhere to the “rule of thirds”
• Keep your shots steady
• Follow action
• Use trucking shots
• Find unusual angles
• Lean forward or backward
• Get wide and tight shots
• Shoot matched action
• Get sequences
• Avoid fast pans and snap zooms
• Shoot cutaways
• Don’t break the “plane”
• Use lights
• Grab good “bites”
• Get plenty of natural sound
• Stripe your tapes
• Plan your shoot

Get a closing shot

Your closing images are what stick in people’s minds. You should be constantly on the lookout for that one shot or sequence that best wraps up your story.

NBC-TV feature reporter Bob Dotson (see Lesson 5 for his story creation tips) and his photographer never fail to find a closing shot. It could be as simple as someone closing a door, capping a pen, petting a dog, turning out the lights, or releasing a butterfly from their cupped hands. If you happen to see a Dotson feature story, consider its close. It’s sure to be memorable.

Get an establishing shot

An establishing shot sets a scene in one image. Although super-wide shots work well (aerials in particular), consider other points of view: from the cockpit of a race car, a close-up of a scalpel with light glinting off its surface, or paddles dipping frantically in roaring white water. Each grabs the viewer’s attention and helps tell your story.

Shoot plenty of video

Videotape is cheap and expendable. Shoot a whole lot more raw footage than you’ll put in your final production. Five times as much is not unusual. Giving yourself that latitude might help you grab shots you would have missed otherwise.

Adhere to the rule of thirds

It’s called the “Rule of Thirds” but it’s more like the rule of four intersecting lines. When composing your shot, think of your viewfinder as being crisscrossed by two horizontal and two vertical lines. The center of interest should fall along those lines or near one of the four intersections, not the center of the image.

Consider all those family photos where the subject’s eyes are smack dab in the center of the photo. Those are not examples of good composition.

Another way to follow the rule of thirds is to look around the viewfinder as you shoot, not just stare at its center. Check the edges to see whether you’re filling the frame with interesting images. Avoid large areas of blank space.

Keep your shots steady

You want to give viewers the sense that they’re looking through a window or, better yet, are there on location. A shaky camera shatters that illusion.

When possible, use a tripod. The best sticks have fluid heads that enable you to make smooth pans or tilts.

If it’s impractical to use a tripod try to find some way to stabilize the shot: lean against a wall, put your elbows on a table, or place the camcorder on a solid object.

Follow action

This might seem obvious, but keep your viewfinder on the ball (or sprinter, speeding police car, surfer, conveyor belt, and so on). Your viewers’ eyes will want to follow the action, so give them what they want.

One nifty trick is to use directed movement as a pan motivator. That is, follow a leaf’s progress as it floats down a stream and then continue your camera motion past the leaf—panning—and widen out to show something unexpected: a waterfall, a huge industrial complex, or a fisherman.

Use trucking shots

Trucking or dolly shots move with the action. For example: hold the camera at arm’s length right behind a toddler as he motors around the house, put the camera in a grocery cart as it winds through the aisles, or shoot out the window of a speeding train.

Find unusual angles

Getting your camcorder off your shoulder, away from eye level, leads to more interesting and enjoyable shots. Ground-level shots are great for gamboling lambs or cavorting puppies. Shoot up from a low angle and down from a high angle. Shoot through objects or people while keeping the focus on your subject.

Lean forward or backward

The zoom lens can be a crutch. A better way to move in close or away from a subject is simply to lean in or out. For example, start by leaning way in with a tight shot of someone’s hands as he works on a wood carving; then, while still recording, lean way back (perhaps widening your zoom lens as well) to reveal that he is working in a sweatshop full of folks hunched over their handiwork.

Get wide and tight shots

Our eyes work like medium angle lenses. So we tend to shoot video that way. Instead, grab wide shots and tight shots of your subjects. If practical, get close to your subject to get the tight shot rather than use the zoom lens. Not only does it look better but that proximity leads to clearer audio.

Shoot matched action

Consider a shot from behind a pitcher as he throws a fastball. He releases it, then it smacks into the catcher’s glove. Instead of a single shot, grab two shots: a medium shot from behind the pitcher showing the pitch and the ball’s flight toward the catcher, and a tight shot of the catcher’s glove. Same concept for an artist: get a wide shot of her applying a paint stroke to a canvas, then move in for a close shot of the same action. You’ll edit them together to match the action.

Get sequences

Shooting repetitive action in a sequence is another way to tell a story, build interest or create suspense. A bowler wipes his hands on a rosin bag, dries them over a blower, wipes the ball with a towel, picks the ball up, fixes his gaze on the pins, steps forward, swings the ball back, releases it, slides to the foul line, watches the ball’s trajectory, and then reacts to the shot. Instead of simply capturing all this in one long shot, piecing these actions together in a sequence of edits is much more compelling. You can easily combine wide and tight shots, trucking moves, and matched action to turn repetitive material into attention-grabbing sequences.

Avoid fast pans and snap zooms

These moves fall into MTV and amateur video territory. Few circumstances call for such stomach-churning camerawork. In general, it’s best to minimize all pans and zooms. As with a shaky camera, they remind viewers that they’re watching TV.

If you do zoom or pan, do it for a purpose: to reveal something, to follow someone’s gaze from his or her eyes to the subject of interest, or to continue the flow of action (as in the floating leaf example earlier). A slow zoom in, with only a minimal change to the focal length, can add drama to a sound bite. Again, do it sparingly.

Shoot cutaways

Avoid jump cuts by shooting cutaways. A jump cut is an edit that creates a disconnect in the viewer’s mind. A cutaway—literally a shot that cuts away from the current shot—fixes jump cuts.

Cutaways are common in interviews where you might want to edit together two 10-second sound bites from the same person. Doing so would mean the interviewee would look like he suddenly moved. To avoid that jump cut—that sudden disconcerting shift—you make a cutaway of the interview. That could be a wide shot, a hand shot, or a reverse-angle shot of the interviewer over the interviewee’s shoulder. You then edit in the cutaway over the juncture of the two sound bites to cover the jump cut.

The same holds true for a soccer game. It can be disconcerting simply to cut from one wide shot of players on the field to another. If you shoot some crowd reactions or the scoreboard, you can use those cutaways to cover up what would have been jump cuts.

Don’t break the plane

This avoids another viewer disconnect. If you’re shooting in one direction, you don’t want your next shot to be looking back at your previous camera location. For instance, if you’re shooting an interview with the camera peering over the left shoulder of the interviewer, you want to shoot your reverse cutaways behind the interviewee and over his right shoulder. That keeps the camera on the same side of the plane—an imaginary vertical flat surface running through the interviewer and interviewee.

To shoot over your interviewee’s left shoulder would break that plane, meaning the viewer would think the camera that took the previous shot should somehow be in view.

In general, you want to keep all your camera positions on one side of that plane, even when shooting large-scale events like football games. Otherwise viewers may lose track of the direction of play

There are exceptions. Consider videotaping a rock group performance. Camera crewmembers typically scramble all over the stage, grabbing shots from multiple angles, and frequently appear on camera themselves.

Use lights

Lights add brilliance, dazzle, and depth to otherwise bland and flat scenes. Consider using an onboard camcorder fill light and, if you have the time, money, patience, or personnel, a full lighting kit with a few colored gels. In a pinch, do whatever you can to increase available light. Open curtains, turn on all the lights, or bring a couple of desk lamps into the room. One caveat: Low-light situations can be dramatic, and flipping on a few desk lamps can destroy that mood in a moment.

Grab good “bites”

Your narrator presents the facts. The people in your story present the emotions, feelings, and opinions. Don’t rely on interview sound bites to tell the who, what, where, when and how. Let those bites explain the “why.”

In a corporate backgrounder, have the narrator say what a product does and let the employees or customers say how enthusiastic they are about that product.

Your narrator should be the one to say, “It was opening night and this was her first solo.” Let the singer, who is recalling this dramatic moment, say, “My throat was tight and my stomach was tied in knots.”

In general, even though your interviews might take forever, use only short sound bites in your final production. Use those bites as punctuation marks, not paragraphs.

Get plenty of natural sound

Think beyond images. Sound is tremendously important. Listen for sounds you can use in your project. Even if the video quality is mediocre, grab that audio. Your camcorder’s onboard mic is not much more than a fallback. Consider using additional mics: shotgun mics to narrow the focus of your sound and avoid extraneous noise, lavalieres tucked out of sight for interviews, and wireless mics when your camera can’t be close enough to get just what you need.

Stripe your tapes

Premiere Pro can automate much of the video capture process. But if your DV (digital video) tape has a gap in its timecode, automated capture might not work.

Gaps typically occur when you eject a partially recorded tape and then reinsert it. That resets the timecode to zero and can leave an unrecorded portion on the tape. Either of these means Premiere Pro won’t be able to automatically capture clips you’ve logged.

Striping your tapes before shooting resolves this issue. You can stripe tapes by placing a fresh tape in your camcorder, capping your lens, pressing Record, and waiting for your camcorder to record the entire tape.

This lays down a continuous timecode from beginning to end and ensures that there will be no duplicate timecodes or breaks in the timecode on the tape.

Rewind the tape and you’re ready to go. Now, as you use your camcorder, it’ll record new video over the black video you taped but won’t change the timecode.

Plan your shoot

When you consider a video project, plan what you need to shoot to tell the story. Videotaping your kid’s soccer championship match, a corporate backgrounder, or a medical procedure each require planning to ensure success. Know what you want your final video project to say and think of what you need to videotape to tell that story.

Even the best-laid plans and most carefully scripted projects might need some adjusting once you start recording in the field. No matter how you envision the finished project, be willing to make changes as the situation warrants.

Before you can edit your own video you need to transfer it to your PC’s hard drive. In NLE parlance, you need to capture it. Capture is a somewhat-misleading term used throughout the NLE world. All that Adobe Premiere Pro does during DV capture is to place the video data in a Windows AVI file “wrapper” without changing the original DV data.

The capture process in the analog world takes several steps: transfer, conversion, compression and wrapping. Your camcorder transfers the video and audio as analog data to a video capture card. That card’s built-in hardware converts the waveform signal to a digital form, compresses it using a codec (Compression/Decompression) process, and then wraps it in the AVI file format.

Three DV capturing scenarios

Premiere Pro offers tools to take some of the manual labor out of the capturing process. There are three basic approaches. I’ll take you through all of them:

• Capture your entire videotape as one long clip
• Log clips’ in- and out-points for automated, batch capturing
• Use the scene detection feature in Premiere Pro to automatically create separate clips whenever you pressed the pause/record button on your camcorder

To do this and the following mini-lessons, you need a DV camcorder. Most DV camcorders have a FireWire (IEEE 1394) cable that you hook up to your PC’s FireWire connector. If your PC does not have a FireWire connector, I recommend you buy a FireWire/USB combination card. Decent ones cost less than $20.

You can work with HDV (a compressed high definition video format) or with a professional-level camcorder with an SDI (Serial Digital Interface) connector and a specialized video capture card.

Premiere Pro handles HDV and SDI capture with the same kind of software device controls used with a standard DV camcorder. SDI requires an extra set-up procedure. Refer to Premiere Pro Help for more on that.

If you have an analog camcorder, you need a video capture card that can handle S-Video or Composite video connectors. Your only option with most analog camcorders is to manually start and stop recording. Most don’t work with remote device control or have timecode readout so you cannot log tapes, do batch capture devices and most do not use the scene detection feature.

Completing all the lessons in this book will go a long way toward preparing you for the Adobe Certified Expert (ACE) exam for Premiere Pro 2.0. I have included the exam objectives in the P Pro ACE Objectives.pdf file on this book’s companion DVD in the Adobe Certified folder. And I state the objectives individually in lessons as they come up. I have also included a collection of sample questions in the Adobe Certified folder.

Here is the first objective: Describe the process, tools and options Adobe Premiere Pro provides for capturing digital video by using device control.