Editing Tutorial

I encourage you to follow these steps closely for the first assignment and then to use this post for reference for future assignments.

Before going into details for each step this is an overview of what we are trying to accomplish for each assignment.

1) Record your film.

2) Transfer/Backup your data.

3) Set up your Premiere Pro project.

4) Import your footage.

5) Edit your film.

6) Export your film.

7) Upload your film.

8) Embed your film.

9) Sleep.

Now for the details.

If you still need help with the first step depending on your learning style you can revisit the Camera and Tripod Video Tutorial or you can set up an appointment with me to get you up to speed on the camera and tripod.

The next step is to transfer the contents of the 32GB Sandisk SD Card to your external hard drive.  All of the Dell computer monitors in the lab have and SD card slot on the left side of the screen.  Additional SD card readers are available for checkout from the equipment room.

1) Remove the SD memory card from the camera.

2) Insert the SD card into the slot on the side of the Dell monitors that says “SD”. The label of the card should be facing you.

3) Verify that the card is recognized by the computer and that you can browse the contents using Windows Explorer.

4) Prep your hard drive by reformatting it using the ExFAT file system. *WARNING* reformatting your drive will erase the contents of the drive so move anything that you want to save off of the drive first.  If you require assistance with this step I can help.  The ExFAT file system will allow you to use the drive on both Mac and PC systems and does not have file size limitations which is ideal for video work.

5) Create a new folder on your external hard drive for each assignment.  Create a sub folder and name it “Media”.  Copy the entire “PRIVATE” folder from your SD card to the Media folder on your external hard drive.  Stay organized!  I’d recommend something like this: External Hard Drive->Assignment Name->Media->Date_A1.  When the copy has completed you have successfully backed up your work and your media is currently in two different physical locations which is a good media management strategy.

PP6CopyCard

6) Browse to the destination location on your external hard drive (External Hard Drive->Project Name->Media) and verify that the full contents of the card have been transferred to your external hard drive.

7) Safely remove the SD card from the card reader by clicking the “Eject Media” button in windows and then by physically removing the card from the Dell monitor.  Don’t erase the card yet.

The next step is to set up your Premiere Pro project.  Every camera has a unique workflow.  These steps are meant to be used with the Sony FS100 cameras that are supplied by the department.  If you are using your own camera you will need to learn the workflow that pertains to your camera or set up a meeting with me.

1) Launch Premiere Pro.  The fastest way to do this is to search in the start button on Windows.  You can also browse to Start->All Programs->Adobe Production Premium CS6->Adobe Premiere Pro CS6.

2) When Premiere launches select “New Project” and enter a project name and select your project folder on your external hard drive as your location in the general tab. Verify that the scratch disk settings are set to “Same as Project”.

PP6ProjectName

3) Select “AVCHD 1080p24” for your Sequence Preset. *THIS PRESET IS SPECIFIC TO THE FS100 CAMERA AND THE DEFAULT SETTINGS THAT WE HAVE SET IN THE CAMERA*

PP6SequenceSettings

4) Click on the “Settings” tab and delete audio tracks 4,5,and 6 since we will not be mixing surround sound audio.  Click “Ok”.  You have now successfully set up your project.  You need to do this for each new project (assignment).

5) To prevent your audio from coming in as a stereo pair (for instance if you recorded using two microphones or using Dual Level Mono).  Click on Premiere Pro->Preferences->Audio and change the “Stereo Media” dropdown to “Mono”.

The next step is to import your footage from your external hard drive into your editing software.

1) In the bottom left hand window of the user interface select the “Media Browser” tab and navigate to the AVCHD folder that contains your media that is saved on your external hard drive. In my example the AVCHD folder is located at External Hard Drive->Project Name->Media->Date_A1->Private->AVCHD.

PP6MediaBrowserAVCHD

2) Now you can either select all of the footage (Ctrl+A) or browse through it to decide what you want to import. Once you have selected the clip(s) that you want to import right click on the clip(s) and choose import.

The next step is to Edit your footage.  We’ll go over the basics in class and if you need to review or would like to learn more on your own I can’t recommend the lynda tutorials that Middlebury subscribes to enough.  To access the lynda tutorials follow the steps below.

1) type go/lynda into a web browser.

2) Enter your middlebury username and password.

3) Browse to the “Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 Essential Training” or follow this link once you have already logged in to lynda.  In Chapter 1 I recommend watching “A tour of the interface” and “Adjusting essential preferences”.  Browse the rest of the tutorials as needed.

The next step is to export your film once you have finished editing.  We are going to export two files.  The first one will be considered a master file.  It is the file that you should use to make all future conversions and is also the highest quality file that will look the best when played at full screen on a laptop.  The second file is optimized for playback on Vimeo.com.

1) Render your sequence and Save your project.

2) Browse to File->Export->Media

PP6_Export1

3) Choose “H.264” from the “Format” dropdown.

PP6_Export2

4) Choose “HD 1080p 23.976” from the “Preset” dropdown.

PP6_Export3

5) Export. This is your Master File.  I suggest that you name it “assignmentname_master” for future reference.

6) Browse to File->Export->Media

7) Choose “H.264” from the “Format” dropdown.

8) Choose “Vimeo HD 1080p 23.976” from the “Preset” dropdown.  You may need to scroll down to see this preset.

9) Export. This is your Vimeo file that you will use to upload to Vimeo.com.  I suggest that you name it “assignmentname_vimeo” so you can locate it later on for uploading.

The next step is to upload your film to Vimeo.com.

1) Create a free basic account on vimeo.com.  The free account has a 500MB upload limit per week and does not allow HD embeds.  Both of these limitations are perfectly fine for our purposes.

VimeoJoin

2) Click on the “Upload a Video” button.

VimeoUpload3) Click “Choose a Video to Upload” Browse to the vimeo file export that you created.  It should be located in External Hard Drive->Project Name->.

4) While the video is uploading, name it, write a brief description, tag it if you want, change your privacy settings (just make sure that we can view it on the blog), and choose a thumbnail image to represent your movie.

The next step is to embed the video into the blog.

1) type go/ss1 into a web browser. (chances are that if you are reading this you are already there)

2) log in to the blog using your middlebury username and password.

3) Once you are logged in you’ll see the option to add a “New Post”.  Don’t add a new page.  If you don’t see this option and you are logged in you were probably not yet registered for the class when I made everyone site editors so email me.

WordpressNewPost4) Embed your video using the instructions on the first welcome post on this blog.

5) Publish your post and view it to make sure that your assignment was embedded.

Now you can reformat the SD card in your camera to start fresh for the next assignment.   Repeat this process for each assignment.

-Ethan

 

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