I would recommend using a separate piece of audio editing software to do this. Adobe Audition is great, but even a more simple free program like Goldwave can probably do this. Copy each channel of the stereo track independently and paste them into separate mono files. Save each one independently and import them as two separate files. This is probably the easiest and most effective way of doing this. Hope this helps.

Its working now, for reasons unknown... I dont think I did anything in particular, but all the mono clips sprang back to life.

But yes I think I will do that in the future, Premiere seems a bit finicky now.

Steven,

Thank you for the kind words. I appreciate them.

James,

I missed the part about the DV codec. Hopefully someone with more knowledge can help on this one, but it's my hunch that unless effects are applied/rendered it doesn't make much difference. After all, the transfer from DV camcorder to computer is bit-for-bit.

I do remember something I read about a comparison between the Avid codec and another one, which may have been Final Cut Pro. If I remember correctly, the Avid codec gave a slightly softer image while the Apple codec emphasized edges more. Basically it was a matter of preference.

The DV codec Adobe chose for Premiere Pro is from MainConcept.

And I can't tell if it was DV or MPEG-2 blockiness the editor at your station was referring to from your post, but if it was DV then I think he was mistaken. I can't believe Premiere users would have put up with the application if it was that bad at DV editing.

Hope this helps.

hi chris,
thanks for the detailed reply...

in regards to question 6, i meant to say do you need to buy any additional plug-ins, software or hardware to do the types of editing i mentioned. it seems the adobe collection is pretty complete. i have premiere 6.0 & like the layout & features of it so i want to upgrade it now i'm doing more "professional" work.

i downloaded the trial of premiere pro 1.5 but only got to use it a couple of times as i went away for a while during the 30 days of trial! from memory it was reasonably similar in interface to prem 6.0

now my next questions are regarding what PC set-up/hardware etc to use for it but i'll start another post regarding that one.....

I'll put in my two cents worth here. The package is complete. You don't need anything else (except perhaps the Dolby Digital 5.1 encoder ).

Having said that, there are numerous plgins that people like to use. Some with Premiere Pro, but mostly with After Effects.

Tracode's "Shine" is commonly used, and Profound Effects has some interesting products. But these can be added as you expand your knowledge and reach. If you find yourself limited by what the programs can do, there are plugins available to help out.

So start with the basic Pro package, and grow as you need to.

Project Dimentions Problem
 

I’m having a problem with starting a project. I shot something on miniDV, in "widescreen" mode on my sony trv, which I suspect simply cuts off top and bottom of the frame. Im having trouble starting a project that matches the dimensions and aspect ratio of the video I shot. In the scene monitor, the black regions on top and bottom of the frame are missing, and the widescreen video is simply stretched to 4:3.

I tried standard, and I tried widescreen, and neither of them work correctly.

Any ideas?

URGENT: Mpeg1 out of sync issue
 

Hello all,

From Premiere Pro 1.5, I am trying to render out an important video section as an mpeg1. It is only 5 minutes of video, but once it's rendered and viewed, the video and the audio become out of sync very rapidly.
The file size must not go above 80mbs, so what are the absolute best settings in Pro 1.5 for an mpeg1 render to ensure the video and audio remain in sync?
Any help would be very, very appreciated because this is an urgent problem..

Thanks!

problem fixed.

nevermind....

I use a small tv hooked into my DSR-11 DV/DVCAM deck which connects thru Firewire to the computer. Video plays out thru Premiere Pro just fine. (works with Scenalyzer, my DV capture app as well)

many thanks

i will try firewire thru XL2 to tv.

Camera shake? Pre or Post?
 

Hey guys, I was just wondering if you knew of how to get the camera shake effect...

Ie. in Sin City when the car zooms by the camer, it shakes to the left and right a little...or when something huge is dropped in front of the camera it shakes a little. Alot of movies utilize this and I was wondering if its a post effect or does the camera actually have to be shaken during the scene?

Thanks

I'd say the effect you saw in Sin City was done in post. In most cases for quick little shakes to show a car going by or a person hitting the ground, you would do in post.

You could accomplish this in Premiere by zooming in your video just a bit and then keyframe animating the video shaking and you would probably want to add a bit of blur to the shot. That's all up to you though.

Im sure there are some plugins that will give you this effect easier, but if you want to have a full customizable shake that's the way to go.

By the way, Sin City was amazing.

Thanks for the info!

And but I have to disagree with you about Sin City...it wasn't really that amazing...

it was more amazingly BREATHTAKING haha

I was simply stunned with what they accomplished there. Even though Rodriguez may have pulled out....I still respect what he did with this movie...low budget killer. All digital. All greenscreen.

Simply Brilliant.

Hi Vance,

What settings are you currently using?

It can be sometimes hard to find the right formular, I sometimes find the best thing to do is to do a number of tests on a 1minute segment using the different settings. That way you can find out which one best suits you and your video.

Thanks,

What kind of source files are you using, and what are the audio and video settings on those? I'm not too knowledgeable about the "gotchas", but varying combinations of source file properties -- such as timebase and interleaving -- and your project settings can sometimes cause synch issues. In particular, PPro does not natively handle mpeg sources properly. You'd either need a separate application to first convert to AVI or obtain a plug-in to allow native use of mpeg.

Converting from 1.5 to 1.0
 

I just recently realized the problems with 1.5 and 24p footage (i just got an external monitor). I want to somehow export my sequences or project from 1.5 to 1.0. What's the best/easiest way to do this? I tried EDLs and AAFs but 1.0 doesnt support EDLs. With AAFs, it clumps everything together in one group. Anyone have any ideas?

It can not be done as far as I can tell. You could trim the project, and then take the footage into a new 1.0 project. But there is no other way to "downgrade" a project.

What about..
 

exporting a sequence (quicktime maybe?) and importing that into the project in 1.0? Will that get rid of the flickering and the screwed up pulldown? Or what about exporting the sequence as a bitmap, importing it into after effects, converting the bitmap sequence into a movie, export it using a lossless codec, and importing that into 1.0? then, exporting only the audio of the sequence from 1.5 and importing that track into 1.0 and matching that with video that was exported from after effects. would any of these things be a workable solution? aside from losing timecode... but would it get rid of the flicker on overexposed areas and would it bypas the pulldown that 1.5 executes on the video? I'm going to try it but just wanted to know if there is anything i should look out for.
1.5 does the pulldown after you render, right?

oh by the way....
 

... i shot 24pn not 24pa that's why i'm having the pulldown problem...

what's a good lossless codec in premiere? i'm not familiar with which ones are lossless and which arent....

thanks

paul

huffyuv is one of the most popular lossless codecs.

You will have to do a google search to find the download link, but that's one of the best lossless codecs you will find.

24P, After Effects, Premiere Pro
 

I shot my footage with a Canon XL2 in 24P. I imported the clips using Premiere Pro 1.5. I'd like to take some of my footage clips, import them into After Effects 5.5, and render video to be used in the Premiere Pro project. Is this possible? i.e., does After Effects support 24P footage? Will I have problems rendering 29.97 video and editing it alongside my 24P footage in Premiere?

Thanks.

Hi Aaron,
I'm only (somewhat) familiar with AE 6.x, but I'd be surprised if 5.x couldn't do 24p. What I don't know is if the older versions of AE would support 24pA (2:3:3:2) since I guess that is a fairly new pull-down scheme. If your footage is 24pN (2:3), you're probably ok. You should be able to open up AE and check the Interpret Footage dialogs for imported clips to see what your options are.

Aaron,

Page 87 of the After Effects 5 manual explains how to remove the 3:2 pulldown. Pete is right about the 24Pa pulldown, though. I don't know if AE 5.5 can handle it or not, you'll just have to try. I know AE 6 can handle 24Pa, as it is included in the manuel.

As always why not run some tests yourself? Do a small scene where you would
need this functionallity and do it once with no camera shake and do a take
with on-set camera shake.

Then see how easy it is to manipulate in post and how both look?

I know that most shaking on the Star Trek series (inside the ships) where
done by mostly shaking the camera's, sometimes combined with shaking the
actual set to improve acting performances and such.

Premiere and dead pixel plug-in
 

Does anyone know how I can remove a dead pixel from my footage? Does premiere pro 1.5 have a plug-in for it as FCP? It's only a sinlge white speck, but it's enough to annoy the hell out of me.

It's better to get your camera serviced and have them mask that pixel.
Otherwise it is probably a very tedious manual job. I'm not using Premiere
anymore, so can't tell you if it would have such a feature.

In theory all you need to do is blend the pixel with some surrounding pixels,
if you can get a filter to do this small enough and always at that spot you
should be done.

I don't know of any plugin for Premiere Pro that will do this. But I do know that After Effects has a clone stamp tool (aka Photoshop's clone tool) that you can use to clone pixels and repair images. It has some options to help automate cloning so that it isn't as tedious as it sounds. Of course it depends on the footage as well. If your camera was locked down it will be easier than if it was moving.

Should be able to do a blur to hide the pixel -- if nothing else, could just duplicate the clip onto another layer, blur, and make all but that spot transparent.

Vritualdub and Logoaway filter
 

Virtualdub and the Logoaway filter can also do an intelligent blurring.

Just make a track matte, or image matte, and use it. Put a second copy of the clip above the original. move it one pixel to the right or left, and use the same matte in every project until you get it fixed.

You could try "RE:Fill"

http://www.revisionfx.com/rfil.htm

Yes I agree...trial and error is the best method to acheive a desired effect...

And I know what you are talking about with shaking the set for the actors to realistically move...but in my case I plan on shooting a scene where a car speeds by the camera and the camera sorta rocks left and right to give a greater feeling of speed..(similar to, dare I say, the Fast and Furious "movies")

I will definatly try out different things though to acheive the desired result.

Thanks for all your comments and help!

Capturing Problems
 

I am using Premiere Pro 1.5

When using batch capture, the tape will move to the proper location and I can see the clips with audio being played and the software capturing. It seems to be capturing properly, however once capturing is completed, when I play the video, its all rainbowed but the audio is good.

In the past, I've manually (non batch) captured before and it worked fine, but even now, manual and batch will not work and I don't know why its not working now.

Hi Joe,

I've never come across this sort of problem. There are some things that you might want to try. In no particular order:

1. Try the tape in a different camera
2. Try a different tape
3. Try a different Firewire cable
4. Try a different Firewire card
5. Re-install Premiere
6. Check to see if it works OK with Windows Movie Maker
7. Check to see if your video file plays back OK with Windows Media Player

How are you monitoring your footage, through your TV, or just on your PC monitor?

What do you mean by "rainbowed"? I presume you mean its record the footage in different colours than expected?

Hope this helps. Please post back your results,

Thanks

Capture problems
 

The tape plays fine in multiple TVs and plays fine on the Capture portion of Adobe Premiere. As it is capturing, the video plays fine, however when I play the saved file that I have just captured is what is completely pixelated in colored snow (nothing can be made out), but the audio is heard just fine.

So I decided to save the files onto my C: drive rather than my other harddrive. It captured fine, and this time it works,and also when I play the avi file on windows media player it plays just fine.

i'd really like it to work on my 2nd harddrive (D:)

some more info:

all these files that I batch captured to my 2nd harddrive (D:) that do not play.....well, when I transfer them to my C: they play just fine.

any thoughts?

How strange????

Lets try and pull Premiere out of the equation. If you capture using Windows Movie Maker to your D: drive is the file it creates "rainbowed"?

If the answer is yes, then it would suggest maybe that the problem is with something else, which is not releated to Premiere. (Possibly harddrive, Firewire card, or maybe something completly different???).

If the answer is no, then it would suggest that Premiere is skewing up the file on capture.

Let us know how you get on.

capturing problems
 

i captured using windows movie maker and saved the file to my 2nd harddrive (D:) which resulted in the same problem......snowy (colored) video.

But when I save to my C: harddrive, it works just fine.

Hi Joe,

Thanks for the info.

So it looks like that the problem is not to do with Premiere, as the same thing happens in Movie Maker.

So its looking as though its the disk that is causing the problem. But why, I do not know. Or maybe its the codec?

I guess there could be an outside chance that it is the firewire card?

I guess on the disk front you could try, defraging, and checking for errors on the disk?

You could maybe try un-installing and re-installing codecs, specifly the Microsoft DV codec (that is if you are runing premiere on its own???)?

You might also want to try a different firewire card?

Have you done anything differently to your system, whihc might have caused this problem? i.e. installed/ un-installed any software or hardware?

Thanks,

any adobe premer. pro users?
 

i just picked it up. a lot better from the pinnacle s**t i was using. a lot more confusing. still getting used it to. but it seems simular to my partners final cut pro....

any tips?

It is fairly similar to FCP. There are advantages and disadvantages in both applications.

Drop by my site for lots of links to tutorials and other resources. There are a lot of us out there.