Ok, so you have decided to edit a video in Premiere Pro. For the sake of argument let's pretend you are using 2.0, which is rather similar to CS3.
If you are coming from AVID or Final Cut, you may be surprised to see some of the choices Adobe has made in their features, or lack of a few seemingly key features. Believe me, you can get used to anything, and once you do, it's no big deal.
Coming from Media 100 there were a few features I could not believe Premiere was lacking. But Media 100 used to cost $10,000, Premiere is a $800 program.
Ok, let's back up.
Before you even import any media, you need to get comfortable with the interface. 2.0 and CS3 have adopted the interlocking windows of all current Adobe products. If you move one window the adjacent windows move in proportion. It reminds me of one of those puzzles where you have sliding boxes which when unscrambled make a picture or a face. Hey, remember those toys with the man's face and the magnetic hair with that pen...I get easily distracted, bear with me.
If you are using two monitors, or one large screen, play around with the window positions and save your workspace. The default editing, audio, color correction workspaces which come from the factory are ok, but you may find something which works for you. I seem to save a new workspace every few weeks. On my laptop, which lets me plug in a external monitor, it has been a bit tricky. The widescreen laptop screen only goes up to a certain resolution, while my external 19 inch monitor has a higher resolution.
Once you have a workspace you like, set your preferences. Given a Windows computer's propensity for crashing, I like to set my autosave interval to 5 minutes and the number of saved projects to 50.
A final custom setup is your keyboard preferences. you can in fact learn about features of Premiere by studying the keyboard preferences menu. The Adobe manual is certainly of little help (ouch!).
The default keyboard shortcuts may make sense, for example I for mark in and O for mark out, but you should do what makes sense for your mind-finger connection. As mentioned above, I used Media 100 for 5 years, so my brain became accustomed to the non-customizable keyboard shortcuts for the most common editing commands. Thus, I setup the Premiere keyboard as closely as possible. That way I do not have to memorize very many keys, as they are second nature.
You can purchase pre-labeled keyboards, reminiscent of the old Sony 9000 edit controllers, but again, the commands are pre-set and non-changeable. Once you memorize the key commands, and in reality your fingers have a memory of their own, you don't even have to think.
I set the most used commands so that with my left thumb hovering over the space bar, my left ring and middle fingers rest over the W, E, S, D keys, with easy access to the 1,2, F1, F2, F3, F4 keys. My right hand is usually on the mouse. I have a Microsoft mouse with two assignable buttons near my thumb, which I have assigned to + and - for easy zoom in and zoom out. Oddly, the Microsfot Intellipoint plugin can make Premiere unstable, but boy are those buttons convenient. When my right hand is not on the mouse, it hovers over the arrow keys, with easy access to CTRL / which is my razor tool.
The final useful buttons are the J, K, L buttons which are play forward/shuttle, play backward/shuttle and stop. These are factory default and they somehow make sense.
In case you are wondering, here is what I have my other favorite buttons do:
1 - insert 2 - overlay F1 - mark in F2 - mark out F3 - go to in F4 go to out
W - target higher video track S - target lower video track
E - target higher audio track D - target lower audio track
CTRL D is a most used command to assign the default transition at the current edit point on the targeted track, and CRTL SHIFT D for the default audio transition.
V, N, C and M/Shift M are useful commands as an alternative to clicking the toolbar.
Don't forget to save your keyboard profile for future use.
These few setup routines can really improve your efficiency, save you unnecessary mouse usage and reduce editing time.
Now, if I could only remember the keyboard command for "windows XP, please don't crash."
Thanks for reading.
Mike Cohen
Digg it
Stop the Windows bashing.
My small video production company has 5 Windows machines (4 desktops, 1 laptop, 4 on XP Home, 1 on XP Pro). We've been running Premiere et al starting with 6.5 back in 2002. All 5 machines are rock solid. We have *one* machine that has blue-screened twice in that time. The Adobe apps do crash now and then but it is pretty rare and I tend to believe it's an app issue not an OS issue.
Mike, are you a Mac user primarily? I only ask because I hear all the time from Mac users how terribly un-stable WindowsXP is.
I'm not any kind of Windows Zealot, but WindowsXP has served us very well.
Windows bashing, maybe more in fun than in reality...
Windows XP Media Center works really well with my edit system. I cut on Sony Vegas, and my only complaint is speed. On some of my complex HDV edits, my system can choke, but for the most part, this laptop has served me well for the past two years.
The line between Mac and PC had started to blur until Vista, but since that doesn't apply to me and most of the Windows world, I think we can agree to disagree about who is better. I spent all of 2K on my laptop and software, so you can brag all you want -- i'll let you brag, and keep my money.
Oh, by the way, I've got to get back to work...
TJ McCormick
Inside-Vegas producer
www.Inside-Vegas.com
XP Solid... Mac Animals Not So Much...
Mike... Thanks for showing some of these guys the way to a great suite of Adobe products. Premiere Pro and the rest do a great job for me. You talk about deficiencies, but never illustrate. Fill us in please. Also, you never mention that if you own one of those overpriced Mac's, you can still use Premiere Pro.
I go along with these other guys. I've been on XP since it came out and have never crashed... I mean never! Twice now, I've been on the phone with my FCP friend and while he was playing a clip for me to hear... his Mac went down hard! Not just FCP freezing up, his whole OS. He then says, "!#%*), I hate when this happens!"
Recommend that you not tilt at the PC/XP windmill and find another, more valuable and valid cause to work on.
Ron
It happens to both flavors, and other times it doesn't
Wow, guys, lighten up. Ok??? Man, Mike's remarks are not even in line with your reaction to them. He is entitled to his opinion and his statements are not at all without merit.
I use both Macs and PCs. I have yet to have my Macs crash on Tiger (which I have been on for a long time now -- and no, I never did "upgrade" to Quicktime 7.4) and it's been years since my PCs saw a blue screen of death.
A couple of years back, I had some issues with Photoshop causing a memory leak on my Mac and causing one of the nastiest freezes you ever saw -- which required actually unplugging the machine as absolutely nothing else would work. Ouch! Solution? Use Photoshop and quickly close it after you finish the job, never leave it open. Mac's fault? Hardly. Blame Adobe for that one.
My PCs under Windows XP have been very solid. (Never had the guts to go to Vista. Or is it that I have too much brains to go there? Either way, having read the on-going horror stories since it appeared, I have saved myself the trouble.)
But neither my Macs nor my PCs have been as rock solid a platform as Linux. Now *that's* the benchmark that both Windows and the Mac could aspire to and have yet to attain.
My point? Some people crash and some don't. There is a lot more involved in these things than dissing someone with "Well I don't crash" claims. None of this stuff is one-size-fits-all.
I experienced crashes and hangs with XP. But after a few months of sorting through things and seeing which things I changed or added that affected my system in certain ways -- and finding the workarounds for them -- I haven't crashed in years.
I can't remember the last time I crashed on my Macs.
But hey, I can always point you to either Mac or PC users all across the COW who are having issues and to whom (if I wanted) I could point implying that because of them, their respective system sucks.
But there are users of all levels on all platforms and religion is something better left for holier things than computers and software. So please understand that Mike has given his opinion. He is entitled to it. You can have yours but no one person's experience is or can make the claim to be the definitive one in all cases. One-size-fits-all is only valid as a recipe for a world in which most people are dressing funny.
Best regards,
Ron Lindeboom
www.creativecow.net
publisher, Creative COW Magazine
Show Some Respect
Between the snide remarks about our chosen platform and the "damning with faint praise" of our chosen editor it's hard to see any value to an article like this. If you have no respect for Premiere Pro or XP, or by extension, those of us who use them, next time just let your dog eat it and save us the aggravation.
OK, you don't like them. You'd rather lay in the road and let cars run over you than use Premier. But it's our working tool. We spent our money on it. We use it every day. We're pretty damn happy with it, all in all.
You accepted the job. So do the job, without the snide remarks and superior attitude.
PLEASE FOLKS WHY TAKE SHOOTS AT A CONTRIBUTOR
I like the COW quite a bit for what it stands for and the principals on which it stands. Why is it that everyone is taking shots at Mike. He was simply attempting to express a view and some helpful suggestions. To be so viciously attacked by other COW members is neither in the best interest of the COW nor does it underpin an open forum for fostering input and sharing experience.
I am really disappointed that Mike's subtle hint to XP's stability (although better than former MS OS's) and his one liner aobut Adobe support, have been the major focus of everyone's coomments! Both "mentions" are certainly more true than not! He only made a comment folks, it was not an attack--not even a hint of one. HOLY COW!!!
My opinion is that the comments made in response to his article are entirely inappropriate in the setting of the traditional values of the COW.
Ron, I feel he deserves an appology!
Mike is less defined by his tools than by what he produces
nail on head
Ron summed up my philosophy about tools and operating systems. I say, use whatever you need to to get the job done. If a client's vision of a graphic could be realized with a Commodore 64, luckily for me I have one in the basement, in the same box as my Intellivision!
No Problems For Me
In response to Ron Lindeboom and John Beck...
I believe you're putting too much on my response to call it "attack"... my response contained only things that were true for me, things I experienced, and simply expressing my opinion. (As you said, Mike should be able to express his opinion, that should be true for all of us, right?). I also thanked Mike for doing the article and highlighting software that I believe does a great job.
So... no "attack" at all. The Mac vs. PC "war" is wearisome, even silly... and when it gets furthered by primary contributors, I think its okay (even important) to present other viewpoints.
I like what some are saying, that no computer, OS, software package is perfect, and that is absolutely true. I'm certainly sorry if somone's feelings got hurt by my comments (I really doubt that my entry affected Mike that way). What I would really wish is that we see the good, and quit picking on the "bad" (either perceived or real). Then, I believe we would experience great dialog and learning together.
Mac's are beautiful machines... and Apple has led the way on many fronts. The PC "world" is very important for us all, and without it, we wouldn't be doing what we do today. How about we forget the cheap shots, and let's work together!
Ron
God bless both Microsoft and Apple me says...
Ron Lawson said: "Mac's are beautiful machines... and Apple has led the way on many fronts. The PC "world" is very important for us all, and without it, we wouldn't be doing what we do today. How about we forget the cheap shots, and let's work together!"
I couldn't agree more, Ron. Without Apple, Microsoft wouldn't have done what they ended up doing and without Microsoft, Apple would have long ago grown complacent in its own self deification. With each of them there to irritate and spur on the other, the users have benefitted.
In contrast to your opinion of Mike's comments, I just don't find them very serious at all and hardly worth the amount of attack (and yes, I see it as that) that ensued due to what he said.
Thanks for your opinion,
Ron Lindeboom
Exactly...
Thanks, Ron. We are in sync!
If Mike's comments...
"Given a Windows computer's propensity for crashing."
and
"Now, if I could only remember the keyboard command for 'windows XP, please don't crash.'"
were not serious, then there WAS too much made of them. Even if there was some "half-serious" to the jokes... that's okay.
Now, can anyone tell me the keyboard command for "Mac OS X, please don't crash"? ... I have a friend that could use it! (laugh here... just a joke)
Ron
If you find it, Ron, please let me know...
Ron Lawson said: "Now, can anyone tell me the keyboard command for "Mac OS X, please don't crash"? ... I have a friend that could use it!"
If you can find it, then remember to let me know, too!
Just after saying yesterday that I hadn't crashed in a LONG time, sure enough...crash!
But in fairness, once again, it is due to Adobe's crap code. The Adobe auto-updater came on even though I have it set not to come on in my prefs (I learned long ago that is a "Bozo No-No" on a Mac). Man I hate these "Are you sure you really want your prefs set this way?" programs. "We're really sure you didn't mean that and so we will trash your prefs and auto-start the way we want to."
Have fun, Ron.
de Udder Ron
Wow
Having just now read the thread of comments to my original post, I am amused. I am a 100% PC, Windows XP, Premiere Pro user. This combination allows me to turn out successful projects and generate revenue efficiently.
Any perceived negative comments about software, OS crashing or whatever are what I like to call sarcasm. I use it frequently!
I will admit my computers are loaded up with various useful software, which may impact stability at times. I learned recently that the Microsoft Intellimouse software that my favorite mouse uses can in fact make Premiere unstable.
Back when I used Media 100 on a Mac exclusively, that system was pretty stable, except when a SCSI cable went bad and then all hell broke loose.
Thanks to everyone for your positive and negative comments. I am a big believer in freedom of expression, and not easily offended! Don't hold back.
Mike