Adobe finally released Premiere Pro June 2023 update (23.5) which took too long considering how bugged 23.4 is

The What’s new Page, shows the new features. But I was waiting for 23.4 for the fix for the export bug (spinning beachball on export page on every version past 23.1), but then it was totally bugged and would link to the first frame of a file instead of the inpoint. I am actually amazed they didn’t pull it in favor of 23.3 (even if you couldn’t export from that).

Metadata & Timecode Burn-In Effect is a nice update, though one I won’t use everyday.

Guidance for installing BRAW Plugin, seems superfluous. I already use the 3rd party BRAW Studio V3 from Autokroma, so i don’t want it to point me to the blackmagic version.

Improved timeline scrubbing and playback is always welcome, though let’s hope it also deals with pulling timeline tabs out of the timeline window when you are just trying to switch tabs.

Monitor your Team Projects save and sync status., sounds great, though I think they should add in a manual save function as I manual save so often to deal with issues, and have heard of people losing hours of work.

Chose Team Projects Auto Save Location, which should have always been there, but again you should be able to manually save as well.

AND FEATURES CURRENTLY IN THE BETA

Audio Auto-Tagging sounds good, though I never had a problem tagging myself, except when some clips were already tagged, and trying to select them all and it automatically not doing essential sound effect on the untagged clips, so maybe this helps with that.

SRT Support, or secure reliable transport to easily stream audio content to a ciwiing client on a local network or the internet if FUCKING HUGE! I currently use a Blackmagic Streamdeck to that, but to be able to do it right out of Premiere is a huge game changer for remote editors! And it has not been built into an editing program since Apple Final Cut Pro 7.0 (who knows how secure it was, but it sure worked).

Color Manager is also a big deal, as it finally lets you set input, working and output color spaces. Now if only I could get them to stop auto adding the fucking ALEXA AMIRA Tag, which drives me fucking nuts on a daily basis! Especially if you are conforming a bunch of different cameras, their should never be automatic clip color correction unless it is asked for!

Invite to Collaborate on Team Projects.

Restore projects through Recovery Mode. With background Auto Save could potentially be such an amazing thing for editor, to not lose their work, if it works at least.

Now lets hope I get access to it soon, been out for 3 days and I still can’t see it in my Creative Cloud App!

Randi Alman’s Post Perspective Virtual Roundtable on Editing and remote editing is a must read

Randi Altman has an extensive round table with many participants talking about current state of editing, with a whole lot of focus on remote editing. This is talks with editors and people on the technology end of post and it really does show that the future of editing is remote and hybrid, though of course some people will always prefer in person.

Personally, I am for fully remote at this point, but hybrid at some point, but since I have recently set up a real time remote workflow so I can live stream my cuts with ZOOM, and have the real-time viewing and feedback, while still staying remote.

I can honestly say I would not to be in an office all day with a mask on, but even with masks and vaccinations I wouldn’t feel safe, especially with the bathrooms in most office buildings. And the time I have spent with my wife and my dogs during the pandemic just shows me how much I don’t want to have to drive in Los Angles traffic anymore.

9to5Mac commentary on Apple’s Inflexibility on flexible working hours

Ben Lovejoy at 9to5Mac has a great article Comment: Apple’s inflexibility on flexible working seems likely to backfire, is really worth a read. I don’t see this as just applying to Apple but to the entertainment industry as well.

As an editor sure some interaction is great at times, but for the most part I am in a dark room by myself and I am so much more comfortable at home, and even better not having to drive. And I can work on my own computer which is set up exactly like I want. Now certainly there should be some discussion about equipment rentals since we won’t be in the office using their gear or bay (or need to have as many editing bays).

And yes there is something to be said for live screenings, but I really do want to setup a remote workflow so like the one Sofi Marshall talked about and I posted about.  Often times just screening for someone will make me as an editor see stuff that I need to fix, and I think doing a remote session would solve this in most cases.

Sure sometimes editors will need to screen in person, but with Covid-19 and mask mandates returning to Los Angeles on Saturday I don’t want to be in an office even fully vaccinated. And with me having had open heart surgery, I seem to catch everything I come in contact with.

 

Sofi Marshall’s Ultimate Real Time Remote Editing Workflow and how I am considering adapting it to my workflow

 

Sofi Marshall, Editor, Writer and Workflow Expert has an awesome post on the Ultimate Real Time Remote Editing Worklflow. You can check out her IMDB page to see her experience, which is extensive.

Now I talked a bit about this in my recent post on Work from Home thanks to the Covid-19 Pandemic. And I have been thinking about getting a workflow working because I would like to be able to work from home as much as possible.

And I too loved iChat theater in Final Cut Pro 7. It was amazing technology that worked really well when the entire Internet was so much slower.

As for the Workflow, obviously the BlackMagic Web Presenter has been updated to the Web Presenter HD to include the front panel, but there is another option as well that is either the ATEM Mini or the ATEM Mini Pro which are switchers and include picture in picture abilities.

Now the Mini Pro includes the ability to stream directly to YouTube, FaceBook or Twitch (or I guess you program some others like Vimeo but it isn’t easy, nor is that going to be all that secure) but the Mini for $295 seems like a viable alternative as it has the USB port to act as a web cam and it has multiple sources possible, so if you have a camera with an HDMI port and I have an old GoPro Hero 2 which has mini USB out and a usb for power.

Personally since I have an BlackMagic Ultrastudio 4k, I would hook this up to the ATEM Mini as my main source, and the GoPro as my personal camera, and then I would hook up the ATEM Mini to my Windows Surface and run Zoom on there to save resources on my editing Mac.

The one issue is the single HDMI out on my Ultrastudio 4k, so to get it to my monitor, I would have to take the HDMi out of the switcher which will likely put it on more of a delay from what I am editing, but this would only be necessary when live streaming.

And because of the Ultrastudio I would not be streaming any of my desktop, but the direct output from my editing system, though I would still uncheck disable video output when I background, so the output signal remains as a source.

Now with using my Windows Tablet as the zoom machine, I will have to use it as the audio monitor as well (though that precludes all the setup with Rouge Amoeba’s LOOPBACK which makes things easier) though not sure how great it will sound through the headphone port and have to check audio levels using the ATEM Software Control (which should work fine on Windows).

Best would be to cut off audio to the gopro and use a good mic through the switcher’s microphone ports, but that is of course an extra expense.

And honestly I should probably run the audio out headphone port into my Emotiva-XDA-1 and it’s connected heaphone amp, just so I can control the volume better.

Of course I have to hook it up and try it to see how it works, and if it didn’t I could do it all from my iMac, but that shouldn’t be necessary.

 

EDIT: Awesome, so Sofi Marshall has done a small update to the post to add the ATEM Mini as an option. Basically it works the same, with the ability to do picture in picture form multiple sources, but it has one downside. The ATEM Mini can only accept 1080 inputs, while the web presenter can accept 4K inputs, and the ATEM Mini is a bit larger as well. Good to know.

EDIT: OK so maybe the Web Presenter is the better solution. It has SDI, and I have SDI to spare on my Ultrastudio 4k, and it accepts up to 2160 60p video  and exports up to 1080 60p. The ATEM mini and Mini pro accept up to 1080 60p video, so it wouldn’t accept a UHD sequence direct from Premiere, but I would also lose the ability to have a camera on me via the switcher. Hmmm.