Hey there Adobe Première guru's ...

I have a challenge for you ...

I have have ben "hit" with a trick question with Adobe Première Pro CS4.

I work for a Skydiving part-time and they asked me if I could help them setup the new workflow with this exuipement :

Camera : Sony HDR-CX300
Editing software : Adobe Première Pro CS4

They need to be able to set up a work flow to get a finished DVD of a 12 min clip in under 15 min.

I will have setup a timeline with intro+extro titles etc as a "template". All the footages is filme in sequence with what will be edited no real editing will be necessary. For the Editing part I only have one question :

. How can you add a clip in the timeline with a "auto cross dissolve" or do you must do a In and Out and add the effect on the timeline only. In final-cut you can insert with transition ... How can you do that in Première.

The real challenge is the export part. They need to be able to export and burn the DVD as fas as possible.

Who can do it the fastest ... and how ;-)

thank you for you input.

The editing part of the challenge is easy enough. You can insert (ctrl-V) the diving scenes into the sequence, between the titles. For the transition, you have to add it, but it's just a matter of moving the time indicator to the cut, then Ctrl-D to apply the default transition.

Open Encore,then import the sequence as a dynamic link and click build.

The hard part I think will be transcoding the sequence to Mpeg-2 in the time allotted. This is almost wholly dependent on the processor and the disk setup. I have a Q9450, and I don't think it could do it in time. Maybe an i7, but I can't say.

If you shoot in SD, this might speed things up, eliminating downconversion.

One way to speed up the transcode might be using a dedicated card like Matrox, but more experienced users will have to chime in here.

To do it in 15 mins, you would need an hdmi-to-HD-SDI converter and feed from the camera into a live graphics overlay box which then feeds a dvd recorder with SDI input. You are looking at several thousand $$$, essentially broadcast equipment.

Using Premiere & Encore: you are looking at 2-3 mins to ingest; 5-10 mins to encode in Premiere/Encore; 2-4 mins to build the dvd image; and 2-4 mins to burn the dvd. These times are based on using fast to very fast desktop PCs.

Another option to look into, TMPGEnc Authoring Works. If you record in SD on the Sony cam, the files might be mpeg2/dvd compliant, which means Authoring Works will ONLY encode the titles and transitions. I have used AW many times for dvds and it works great. (and its only $100)