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Premiere Pro from a Final Cut Point of View: Sequence Settings

Entry posted 10/03/11 by Trent Armstrong , tagged: Development
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Title
Premiere Pro from a Final Cut Point of View: Sequence Settings

Entry

TIMELINE / SEQUENCE SETUP

As a Final Cut Pro 7 editor, I am used to dropping a clip on the timeline and having FCP automagically set up the timeline to play my footage correctly.  This doesn't necessarily happen in Premiere Pro.  I did notice that Premiere Pro functions a little like After Effects in that it will try to match your footage settings if you drop a clip onto the "New Sequence" button.  However, it doesn't match the codec-- at least with DSLR footage it doesn't.  So that's where the next bit of knowledge comes in handy.

 

After watching some tutorials online, I found that there is a DSLR sequence setting.  It is necessary, however, to make this selection when creating a new sequence from scratch instead of trying to use the footage or changing the settings later.  Incidentally, it is not possible to change the sequence settings after the fact.  That is a big negative for me.  The workaround is to create a new sequence with the new sequence settings and then copy the edit from the old sequence to the new one.  Just be sure to delete the old sequence so there is no confusion.

 

SIDE NOTE:  If you need to change the frame rate of a sequence in Final Cut Pro, you can select your whole edit, Edit Menu> CUT the whole thing, change the frame rate in the sequence settings, and then paste the edit back into the sequence.

 

Creating a DSLR sequence causes Premiere Pro to play back your DSLR footage pretty well without having to transcode it.  This is a positive since FCP 7 doesn't play terribly well with Long GOP footage like h.264 and HDV.  I highly recommend transcoding your DSLR footage before editing with it in FCP 7 and lower.  FCPX seems to do well with DSLR footage, but I can't really speak to that.

 

Be patient with Premiere Pro when using DSLR footage.  It's not absolutely lighting fast, but it's totally useable and will save you the time you used to spend transcoding.

 

IMPORTING FOOTAGE

When you first import footage into Final Cut Pro, you are probably used to the clips popping right in.  I'm not exactly sure what Premiere Pro is doing when importing footage, but it seems to take a LOOOONG time to do so.  My guess is that it's building a database in the project file and maybe creating thumbs or a bit of preview information that Premiere Pro uses to be a little snappier when trying to play your content.

 

I really haven't had much of an issue when using DSLR footage (from our Canon 7D) or 48k WAV audio from our Tascam recorder in Premiere Pro.  There are certainly times when I have had to let Premiere take a bit to build thumbnails or render an effect in the timeline, but I'm building patience into my workflow as I continue to figure this thing out.

 

Please leave comments if you have any information to add!

Trent

Keywords
premiere pro, premiere, final cut pro, fcp7, fcpx, editing, after effects, editor, edit, sequence, dslr, import, transcode