I have a project shot on a Sony EX3. SO I have XDCAM-EX footage.
Opened an Adobe Premiere project, set its Sequence settings to XDCAM EX HQ 1080i50
- Wondered immediately what that implied. Like OK the source is XDCAM-EX which is Mpeg2 encoding inside a MP4 container, but why does the Sequence care how the source is stored? Surely it only needs to know things like the format is 1080i50 then it can store any intermediate files in DNxHD or Cineform or whatever Adobe prefers. I am very confused by this kind of thing, just as I was in FCP. Maybe it’s obvious or maybe “I think to much”.
- Adobe has a thing called Import and it can (I discovered) accept MP4 files from XDCAM-EX’s BPAV folder-structures (deep down within the CLIPR subfolder). But I know that is a stupid way to go. The MP4 files are but the “essence” that is “stitched together” (mixed metaphors or what?) by the likes of SMIL and XML files. It’s only at the latter level that smooth continuum happens.
- Enter Adobe Premiere’s Media Browser. I “knew” there had to be something like that. I discovered it via http://wwwimages.adobe.com/www.adobe.com/content/dam/Adobe/en/products/premiere/pdfs/cs5-premiere-pro-sonyxdcam-wfg.pdf which itself I discovered via Bing search on [sony xdcam-ex adobe premiere cs5.5 workflow]. OK to get XDCAM-EX footage into an Adobe Premiere project you do [WIndow >Media Browser] or else Shift-8, then don’t expect some window popping-up or anything, just instect the [Media Browser] tab at the lower-left of the GUI screen. Drill-down to the required recording and double-click. The media appears in a Source Preview window (I wonder but don’t mightily care what Adobe calls it).
- OK I do care a bit really, and according to an Adobe video tutorial, it’s called a Source Monitor.
- Initially it was too zoomed-in, presumably displayig at 1:1 (pixel). “Zoom to Fit” was but a right-click away…
- You can drag from Source Monitor to the Timeline or to other places.
- I tried that with some EX3 footage where I pan across the front of the famous Wembley Stadium, UK. In Sony Vegas (my erstwhile “comfortable old shoe”) it snatches and drags. In Adobe Premiere, as in Sony Clip Browser, it pans smoothly. Guess where I’m heading…