- Getting started
- Twenty tips for shooting great video
- Capturing video
- Capturing an entire tape
- Using batch capture and scene detection
- Tackling manual analog movie capture
From the book
From the book
From the book
Using batch capture and scene detection
When you perform a batch capture, you log the In and Out points of a number of clips and then have Adobe Premiere Pro automatically transfer them to your computer.
Use the logging process to critically view your raw footage. You want to look for “keeper” video, the best interview sound bites, and any natural sound that will enhance your production.
The purpose of using a batch capture is threefold: to better manage your media assets, to speed up the video capture process, and to save hard disk space (one hour of DV consumes 13GB).
Use a clip naming convention
Think through how you’re going to name your clips. You might end up with dozens of clips, and if you don’t give them descriptive names, it’ll slow down editing.
You might use a naming convention for sound bites such as “Bite-1,” “Bite-2,” and so forth. Adding a brief descriptive comment, such as “Bite-1 Laugh,” will help.
Here are the steps to follow:
- In the Capture panel, click the Logging tab.
- Change the Handles setting (at the bottom of the Logging tab) to 30 Frames.
- In the Clip Data area of the Logging tab, give your tape a unique name.
- Log your tape by rewinding and then playing it.
- When you get to the end of that segment (you can use Fast Forward or simply Play to get there), click Set Out. The in/out times and the clip length will be displayed.
- Click Log Clip to open the Log Clip dialog box.
- Change the clip name, if needed, add appropriate notes if you want, and then click OK.
- Log clips for the rest of your tape using the same method.
- When you’ve finished logging your clips, close the Capture panel.
- Add the Media Type column by choosing Edit Columns from the Project panel menu. Select the Media Type column, and then click OK. Notice the Media Type column displays “Offline” for the logged clips. You can use this column to sort all offline clips together.
- In the Project panel, select all the clips that you want to capture (see the following tip for three methods to do that).
- Choose File > Batch Capture.
- Leave the Batch Capture options unselected, and click OK.
- Insert the tape, and click OK.
- When the process is complete, take a look at your Project panel to see the results. Offline files have become movies.
This adds one second to the start and finish of each captured clip, which will give you enough head and tail frames to add transitions without covering up important elements of the clip.
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When you see the start of a segment you want to transfer to your computer, stop the tape, rewind to that spot, and click the Set In button in the Timecode area of the Logging tab.
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That adds this clip’s name with its in/out times and tape name info to the Project panel (with the word “Offline” next to it). You’ll go there later to do the actual capture.
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Each time you click Log Clip, Adobe Premiere Pro automatically adds a number to the end of your previous clip’s name. You can accept or override this automated naming feature.
All your logged clips will be in the Project panel, with the Offline icon next to each.
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That opens a very simple Batch Capture dialog box that allows you to override the camcorder settings or add more handle frames.
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The Capture panel opens, as does another little dialog box telling you to insert the proper tape (in this case, it’s probably still in the camcorder).
Adobe Premiere Pro now takes control of your camcorder, cues up the tape to the first clip, and transfers that clip and all other clips to your hard drive.
Using scene detection
Instead of manually logging In and Out points, you might want to use the Scene Detect feature. Scene Detect analyzes your tape’s Time/Date stamp, looking for breaks such as those caused when you press the camcorder’s pause button while recording.
When Scene Detect is on and you perform a capture, Adobe Premiere Pro automatically captures a separate file at each scene break it detects. Scene Detect works whether you are capturing an entire tape or just a section between specific In and Out points.
To turn on Scene Detect, do either of the following:
- Click the Scene Detect button (below the Record button in the Capture panel).
- Select the Scene Detect option in the Capture area of the Logging tab.
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Then you can either set In and Out points and click Record, or cue your tape to wherever you want to start capturing and click Record. In the latter case, click Stop when done.
Your clips will show up in the Project panel. No need to batch-capture them—Adobe Premiere Pro captures each clip on the fly. Adobe Premiere Pro will then name the first captured clip by putting a 01 after the name you put in the Clip Name box, and then increment the number in each new clip name by one.