File Naming Conventions, my two cents

OK, so not always the most thrilling subject, but after arguing with a post super about this, I wanted to give my 2 cents on file and sequence naming conventions, and for some of the reasons behind why I think the way I do. So first off is spaces, and I am a firm believer that there should be no spaces in your file/sequence names. I know that modern computers mostly deal fine with spaces, but to be on the safe size I think you should use underscores instead of spaces. Now file names should start with the job identification and name that your company specifies that you should figure out, and as much identifying info as you need. So lets say you are doing a short Star Wars commercial that is 2 minutes long and is job 040477, and it is titled Millennium Falcon Kessel Run in so I would say it should be SW_040477_120_MFKR_ to start. And a quick note, 120 for 120 seconds, and you would do 060 for a 60 second. And then as shown in my earlier posts about using PostHaste to set up sequences, I use STRINGOUTS, ROUGHCUT, OFFLINE and ONLINE as the nomenclature for the sequence. Now I have been told by a post super from television that they only use the job name, info and title and a version number, nothing else, but at least for commercial work, bts works and short films I have worked on, I totally don't agree. Personally I think if you can do it, ROUGHCUTS are for internal distribution mostly and the OFFLINE is when it starts going to the client, and should be much more finished, and have a decent audio mix, color correct, graphics, as much as you can get so you don't end up with the I don't know how to watch a rough cut lady. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MNg3sSZ9F8 And I think you need ONLINE to designate the final exports, so you can keep track of them, as sometimes you go back to Ofllines and keep working then make new ones, and just version numbers can be confusing. Honestly I have had 3 or 4 Onlines at times, because you can't guarantee the client won't come back. Now this is something else that I think should be in your filenames, especially with remote work, and that is Initials of the editor/graphics artist. And even more so because with the job I am on, we have a graphics guy, who has been doing the graphics, but not only is too busy, but the ProRES 4444 takes a long time to upload and download, so he has been handing off his After Effects Projects, and After Effects projects are big and unwieldy, and hard to break down into individual comps. This means different people are rendering out graphics, and to make changes, it would be easiest to have initials in the file name of the graphics. And our Online editor also prefers initials in the file name, so…

Does anyone else find that Media Encoder always freezes on a large project ingest in Premiere Pro?

I am setting up a project for a short film that my wife, wrote, shot and directed (I gaffed, key gripped and ACed) and decided to try ingest once again. Now I have already converted the iPhone footage to ProRES to get it 23.976 instead of variable frame rate, but since she is using it on an old computer decided to use the Proxy workflow and thought, why not try Ingest again. I knew I shouldn't but I thought I would try. Now I went for the ProRES Proxy LT codec, as I refuse to have any H.264 in my Porject, but of course halfway through compression Media Encoder locked up and I had to force quit. This of course messes up the whole INGEST thing and I ended up with some shots linked to the proxies and some linked to the original media and some without proxies at all. You can easily re-attach proxies and re-attach full resolution media as well here. Of course if the file names are the same, it is pretty easy to link between the files, but of course it didn't do files in file name order, so I had to figure out which files had a proxy, and then start the proxy creation again. In my whole career I don't think I have every had Ingest work all the way without a crash. Now I should have tried the new Beta and the Ingest settings, but since my wife is editing on an old version of Premiere I decided against it. And the fact that Media Encoder balks at any shot over 60 FPS, which they claim is the limit of Professional footage, it just won't work. So any slow mo you will be using full resolution.

No Film School interviews Lauren Dellara a commercial editor who uses Adobe Premiere Pro

Head over to No Film School and check out this interview with Commercial Video Editor Lauren Dellara who is cutting on Adobe Premiere Pro. Always great to see someone cutting something big with Premiere instead of AVID. I have grown to really love Premiere over either AVID or Final Cut Pro so I love seeing it used in commercial settings like this. Especially with Productions, the stability has improved so much.

Premiere Pro Beta New Feature the Graphics Tab which brings Spell Check & Search & Replace!

I have to admit I haven't been watching the Beta forum or the beta features recently (busy on edit jobs, and not even using 2022, actually the lead editor refuses to move above 2019) but I just saw this at the Beta Forum at Adobe User Voice. So all Premiere Pro & AE Mogrts will show up in the Graphics tab, and you can use spell check and Search and replace, which is huge! Wow, this is super powerful. And you can focus on specific tracks, so if you organize like you should... Now you can double click to CHANGE ANY TEXT! And Spell Check in 2 places! My only problem is that I have had issues sharing Mogrts with people, especially when not on the same Adobe Account or sending it manually. but for built in Premiere Graphics this is amazing. I have wanted a spell checker forever, now we need one After Effects! And if the other feature this could really use, would be a batch change for graphics styles. I would so love to be able to select multiple text instances and change the style on them all.

Worried about the future of Premiere Pro development when Adobe keeps telling me that by making things take more clicks it is actually better

Starting with the Adobe Premiere Pro beta and it's redesigned header bar, which their is a discussion on about at the Adobe Support Community for Premiere Pro Beta. Where adobe moved the workspaces to under a single button with no display for what workspace you are in. And when us users gave feedback their seemed to be a fight back. Ann (and everyone else) – I hear you about the change in muscle memory and requiring 2 clicks instead of one. I really do empathize – change is hard. I was an editor for 10 years before joing the software game and the placement of buttons is cemented in my brain. I too didn't like the workspaces in the dropdown menu at first. But I have been using it now for a few months (yes I still edit constantly) and I've found that I prefer the menu dropdown. It's a much better use of space, a cleaner look, and you can see all your workspaces at once without needing the overflow menu. I ask that you give it a chance and push past the innitial discomfort and really try this new arrangement. Also remember that this is not the end of the road. And getting reactions like this is exactly why we put it in beta first before just releasing and forcing it upon everyone. This was my first instance of Adobe telling me that more than one click was better than one click (and in this case wasting space and not displaying the current workspace). Now in this instance at least Adobe seems to have relented and is going to allow us to display 3 workspaces in the title bar, though not by default. And then at the Facebook Premiere Pro Editors user group, which I have subsequently left since my posts had links to this blog and I was told users didn't like that, and I my tone had to be calmer and more deferential to Adobe employees who post on it, when posting about the now completely changed methods for dealing with the damn (see that is what would piss them off) ALEXA AMIRA LUT, I was told the new method was faster, when it takes more clicks, so obviously it is not. Previously I could select all my footage and right click and Disable Master Clips. Now I have to right click go to drop down menu and select Interpret Footage, then in the subsequent dialogue go down to color man agement and select the Embedded AMIRA LUT drop down menu and then select none. IN NO WAY IS THAT FASTER THAN BEING ABLE TO TURN IT OFF FROM THE DROP DOWN MENU. Now the first example they fixed after user feedback. The second is part of a re-designed Color Management System, that doesn't seem to be documented at all by Adobe as of yet (boy they could learn something from Black Magic Designs about manuals especially for release versions, ha again something that would have…

Scott Simmons at Pro Video Coalition review the 16 inch Apple MacBook Pro M1 Max for Video Editors Part 1

Scott Simons has released the first part of a must read review of using the Apple MAcBook Pro M1 Max for Video Editors. Things sounds great so far, and it really gives me hope for the Apple Silicon iMac Pro and Mac Pro. Still hope that plug in makers start speeding up the process of re-writing their software for M1. It disturbs me that even companies like Maxon with Red Giant hasn't upgraded everything to M1 yet, even though it is a subscription, which means they really should be upgrading their applications quickly, because I am paying for them constantly. At least Adobe has the Beta of After Effects working on M1, but it is going to be limited on plug ins for sure.

ProVideoCoalition Adobe Insights on Performance Improvements for workflows and adobe sensei in Premiere Pro

ProVideoCoalition has an aticle on streamlined workflows with Productions in Premiere Pro as well Speech to Text using Adobe Sensei as well as the upgraded Roto Brush 2. I can honestly say I don't ever want to work without Speech to Text, it is amazing, and game-changing, it really is. And Roto Brush 2 I can't say that I think it is a better roto necessarily, but it is so much damn faster that it is mindblowing.

Knights of the Editing Table has a new tool called Grave Robber to Un-nest nested or Multicam Sequences in Premiere Pro

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gl8UE8d-RJ4 Knights of the Editing Table has created a new tool called Grave Robber for $15 (currently on sale for $12). It un-nest nested sequences or multi-cam sequences (not just flatten). This company is amazing, Excalibur has become my favorite tool for Premiere Pro in how it speeds things up. And they just keep coming out with new tools.