Blackmagic Design has released the full version of DaVinci Resolve 17

 

So Blackmagic Design has brought DaVinci Resolve 17 out of Beta and released it today.

Check out the What’s New section for the new features, which are extensive.

Some highlights include

  • Next Generation HDR Grading Tools, let you grade in very specific tonal ranges, and control the exposure and saturation for each zone. (this is awesome, as I loved have more granular controls in speedgrade way back when).
  • Color Warper for Refined Grading.
  • Targeted Grading with Magic Mask. I have not tried this out yet, but look forward to giving it a try as anything to get better masks easier is a good thing and will speed up any work flow.
  • DaVinci Wide Gammut Color Space and Advanced Color Management
  • Updated 3D Professional Scopes
  • Additional LUT support (easier to make 17 point 3D luts from Timeline
  • New Viewer Wipe Modes including diagonal, venetian blond and checkerboard.
And many many more.
Looking forward to diving into the 350 page New Feature Guide and really seeing what this thing can do.

Post Haste from Digital Rebellion to organize your project with templates is the perfect tool to start any project

 

So I am starting my posts on Adobe Premiere Pro with a 3rd party application called Post Haste from Digital Rebellion. This was the first product I remember from Digital Rebellion who also makes the Pro Maintenance Tools that I will cover here at another time.

Once you donwload and install the program, which is free, you need to spend a little time setting up your templates, this means not only setting up a folder structure for your projects on the hard drive, but also setting up a project template for Premiere Pro (and After Effects if you would like), and I have shared my current template on my site (you can download it here) and will be going through it a bit in this post.

This is the screen that opens up. You can select your Project Template. It will automatically update the project number. My Project name includes the client name, so I don’t update that, but you can easily do it that way as well

This the template you can download (and you put in the template folder that is set in the preferences which I show below), and it shows the file structure I have created for my projects including sub folders, so that every project has things organized the same way. Anything that is named [template] is replaced with whatever you enter in Project Name on the first page.

You can see that there is a Premiere Pro project file included here as well, and I have layed that out as well (the file is for Premiere Pro 2019, and if you need a newer version, just open it and save it in the new version with the same name).

I have shown my Premiere Pro project organization here. I try to match us many categories as I can, so that starting at number 04, the categories match on the hard drive and in the project. I have also included folders RENDERS and EXPORTS. I set the scratch disc for Audio and Video to the RENDERS Folder.

And I export all my cuts to the EXPORTS Folder.

Now this is the first Preferences page, and here you can see I have moved my Template location to iCloud, so I can access it from anywhere, but otherwise it will tell you where your templates are located.

Here you can see the preference for Strict Naming and to automatically rename Template to the Project name, which actually means [template] will be renamed to the Project Name you enter on the first page.

The Parameters page of the Preferences deals with the settings in the first page and how you want the renaming to go into the folder and file names, as you can see I have set to just include the Project name in the template (use in path). I don’t use a date or editor name, and I include the client name with the project name it is just easier for me, but you can do it any way you would like. and you can also see the auto increment for project number.

For my filenames you can see that I use [template]_MASTER.prproj which is my premiere pro file and [template]_AE_MASTER.aep for the After Effects Project (which is just a basic project file, but I like it name correctly). Now as for MASTER is because I use a single project file that I keep using, but every day at the end of the day I duplicate the file, and rename MASTER to the date (year first of course, so for today that would be February 24th 2021, I would rename the file to [template]_210224.prproj and then I copy it to my Creative Cloud files, and move into an ARCHIVE folder to get it out of the way, so I have a daily backup.

I find that project organization is so important, and something that so many editors unfortunately completely ignore.

If you organize your project and files this way every time, then going back to a previous project is always easy as you will always know the organization, and where the files and sequences are. And within each project I always use the date in the sequence names such as 21-02-24 for todays date, so you can tell when the sequence is from, and then I add a version number after that in something like _V01. This means that all my exports will have names that match the sequences, so you can always go back to any days sequences.

And if you always use the same organization structure, you can hand it off to other people and all the projects will be the same.

_________________

This is my first post from Jonah on Premiere, and I hope you enjoy it. Feel free to let me know if you like the article or there is anything you are interested in me writing about.

I am going to write some posts about getting the most out of Adobe Premiere Pro, things to help with stability to fix issues as well as organization for when you come back to a project later

Jonah On Premiere

It is 2021 and I am a video editor who has been working in the field for 20 years now. I am both a good editor as well as very technically proficient, and I want to pass on some of what I have learned.

Of late I am mostly using Premiere Pro for work, so I have decided to do a series of posts about working with Adobe Premiere Pro. I want to talk about things that I have learned that will make things more stable, things that will fix issues, and organization that will help you or anything else if they come back to a project after you have finished.

I work mostly on a Mac (I know, I know Premiere works better on a PC), so will mainly be including Macintosh leaned directions, but will include windows when I have a chance. I do have a Surface 3 that I love, though it is a bit underpowered for editing.

These posts will always include the JonahOnPremiere tag, so you can quickly get to just them, and I plan to post every weekday at least once, though not every post will be with this tag, though I would like to make at least 3 a week.

Sony has announced the Cinema Camera FX3

 

Sony has announced the new FX3 Camera in the Cinema Line that has had more leaks of late than you can shake a stick at.

This is basically the video version of the Full Frame Sony A7s III. It has the same sensor and 4K capabilities, with more of a video focus, and places to mount external devices built in. And it is $3898.00 at B&H.

Impressive, though I would still go for the Blackmagic Design 6K Pro, but that has more to do with price, color space and the fact that I have EF lenses.

Reuben Evans at OWC’s Tech Talk Blog on what Top Pros want from Apple as a Platform

OWC’s Tech Talk blog has an article with Top Video Pros Weight In On Where Apple Should Take Its Platform. 

It is a good article, if a little too FCP X focused overall. I made my huge post on the problems that I have with extensive use of FCP X, and I wish Apple would deal with them before adding too much else, though collaborative editing might help with some of my complaints quite a bit, but there are still so many to go into.

I totally agree that Apple needs to knock it out of the park with a GPU, but not just for Cinema4D, but also for Premiere Pro (as well as DaVinci). And yea the CPU needs to really stomp ass with After Effects for sure.

An updated XDR display should happen quickly, and the new version should also be the basis for a new iMac Pro.

And yes the Afterburner card needs to be able to decode different codecs as well, not just ProRES, and that should also be either added to the iMac, or make a breakout box with BlackMagic and include the tech in that along with an HDMI out and in.

I really do wish I could afford a MacPro, though with the M1, it calls it into question. Be really weird if Apple ends up with the MacPro as the only Intel Mac, and a medium machine like the article calls for as M1.

Adobe Premiere Pro is adding an Adobe Sensei Speech to Text Auto Transcription feature, and I wish I was beta testing it right now

 

Javier Mercedes has this video on a new feature that Adobe is beta testing right now, automatic Speech to Text using Adobe Sensei.

Unfortunately it isn’t just in the Premiere Pro beta, you have to request access, because I could use it right now. 

This feature would be mind-blowingly amazing for cutting testimonials, which as a commercial/direct response editor I could use almost every day.

The video shows just how impressive this feature is.

It makes me wonder if they will expand on the feature to allow editing via text, or if the jumping to the place in the sequence via the text will be the extent of it.

I also would like to see the options for exporting the text, as I would love some way to automatically export these as documents that could be automatically uploading to producers.

*****

And here is the Adobe page for the new feature. You can also sign up for the feature there.

Blackmagic Design announces Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro

 
Blackmagic Design has announced the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema 6K Pro camera, and even more impressively released it at the previous price of the BMPC 6K $2499. This camera includes the same sensor as the 6K camera, but with some features people have been clamoring for. 

First off is the articulated screen which can tilt up or down (though not to the side for vlogging) which is hdr and 1500 nit brightness. This is huge, there have been kits to upgrade the screen in previous models, but this is built in.

Next are 3 motorized ND filters with infared, including, 2, 4 and 6 stops of ND.
 
The battery has been changed to the larger Sony NP-F570 battery, which should provide longer run times and the Battery Pro grip which adds 2 more batteries doesn’t replace the internal battery and lets the 2 batteries in it to be swapped while still recording.

Then we have an additional mini xlr input, for 2 mini xlr inputs.

 

And it will now include the color science 5 from the 12K camera, though that is also coming to the 6K and 4K models.

And you can aslo add for $499 an EVF eye piece with glass lenses that will shut off the touch screen when in use.

All this does mean the camera is even larger than the previous 6k model (which will make it interesting for stabilizers), and people are already complaining about the still having an ef mount and not the new rf mount at least. 

I don’t see any of that as a problem, this is a very impressive camera, and I want one.

In Apple Mail if I sort by new messages on the bottom (an old habit from using Eudora years ago) why does it scroll to the top every time it is opened?

 

In Apple Mail if I sort by Date, and Oldest Message On top, so newest messages are on the bottom (admittedly a habit I developed from years of using the mail program Eudora), when I open Mail the sorting should not scroll to the top, but the bottom.

I mean seriously Apple. I know you want me to have newest at the top, but if you are going to actively try to make me change why not just remove the ability to sort in a different order?

ProVideoCoalition Speed Editor Review Part 2 Multi-Cam Editing

Scott Simmons at ProVideo Coalition has posted his second part of his review of the DaVinci Resolve Speed Editor, this one focused on Multicam Editing, which seems to be mostly a mess.

While The Speed Editor seems great overall, it’s basis in the Cut Page and the buttons chosen on it seem to be the main problems of it., and the reason I will likely never get it, though maybe a version 2 more focused on Editing?