Tutorial: Interpreting Footage in Premiere Pro

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Tutorial: Interpreting Footage in Premiere Pro
by Andrew Devis on Jan 14, 2011 at 7:19:48 pm

Adobe Premiere Pro

Interpreting Footage in Premiere Pro

Sometimes you bring in footage to your project panel to add to a sequence and it just looks wrong! This is because Premiere Pro has interpreted the footage - or made assumptions about the footage - which aren't correct. So how do you tell PP to interpret the footage properly? In this tutorial Andrew Devis shows how to use the 'Interpret Footage' function in PP and then how to use the correctly interpreted footage in a sequence that matches that footage. NOTE: The Interpret Footage function works in previous versions but the the new comp function demonstrated is for CS5 and above.

Tutorial, Video Tutorial 01/14/2011
Author: Andrew Devis

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Re: Tutorial: Interpreting Footage in Premiere Pro
by Tom Durham on Jan 15, 2011 at 7:23:39 am

Great tutorial Andrew.

I'm very seriously pondering moving my workflow entirely over to Premiere and leaving FCP behind... I'm loving all things CS5 and Adobe just keep innovating.

My big project I want to move over is going to need a lot of "interpreting." I've got lots of DVCPRO HD footage, which is technically 59.94. (This is when Panasonic recorded everything 59.94 and somehow flagged the 23.98 frames.) I can't seem to get Premiere to do the pulldown properly so it doesn't play stuttery. In FCP, if it doesn't guess right, you just re-edit the footage onto your timeline, but move the in-point up one frame. This doesn't seem to work in Premiere. Any thoughts?

THANKS!

-Tom

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Re: Tutorial: Interpreting Footage in Premiere Pro
by Andrew Devis on Jan 15, 2011 at 2:14:42 pm

Hi Tom

I'm pleased you found the tutorial helpful and I've been thinking about your question a little.

Firstly, my advice would probably be to finish off the project you have started with FCP and move to CS5 from the start of your next project as it can be a complex thing to shift a whole project across. That is not to say it can't be done, only that you may find it easier to finish on one platform and start afresh on a new one.

When it come to the frame rate issue, I have a couple of tutorials uploaded that may be of some help. Firstly,

Creating a Custom Sequence 1: Using the Numbers

This shows how to set up sequences and select 59.94 or 23.976 as the default frame rate for the sequence.

And secondly (CS5 only) which is a one hit fast solution.

Creating a Custom Sequence 2: The Magic Bullet

This shows how to use the new to CS5 function that allows you to drag footage on to an icon and have PP make a new sequence for you based on that footage. (Like the new comp icon in AE).

Both these tutorials deal with setting up non-standard sequences and should make sure that the footage plays just fine in PP.

Sorry if I haven't quite understood the issue properly and I hope this is some help for you. All the best with your project.

Andrew

... because it's all about stories ...

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Re: Tutorial: Interpreting Footage in Premiere Pro
by Tom Durham on Jan 15, 2011 at 3:40:23 pm

Thanks Andrew!

DVCPRO HD when recording at it's native 59.94 lays down to tape like this:

AABBCDDEEFGGHHIJJKKL... (Meaning frame 1 is on the tape twice, etc.)

When you capture properly, it records digitizes like this, dropping the duplicate frames:

ABCDEFGHIJKL... (And plays smoothly.)

However, my DVCPRO HD was not captured correctly. :( I have the whole thing from the tape, including the duplicate frames. So when you edit it onto a 23.98 timeline, PP gets confused as to which frames it's supposed to play. It plays both the A's, then a C, then both the D's, etc. It skips frames because it's trying to force the 59.94 into 23.98. So you get stuttery playback.

On a 59.94 timeline, it plays every single frame, but you don't notice because since it's playing at that rate, you don't realize it's actually playing duplicate frames.

So in FCP, if it stutters, you just trim a frame and then it starts skipping the correct duplicate frames. But I can't Adobe to do the same. Basically, it doesn't know which frames to drop! :(

I agree there are lots of reasons to finish the project in FCP... except that my project file is going corrupt and I want 64-bit power and I want to edit-on my AE projects and and and! :)

-Tom

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Re: Tutorial: Interpreting Footage in Premiere Pro
by Andrew Devis on Jan 15, 2011 at 5:10:16 pm

What happens if you use and edit in a 59.94 sequence and then export out the result? Is the export stuttering?
Andrew

... because it's all about stories ...

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Re: Interpreting Footage in Premiere Pro
by Tom Durham on Jan 19, 2011 at 8:27:31 pm

It just exports at 59.94 with the same properties. Going through it frame-by-frame you see the duplicates like with the original.

The tricky thing is removing those pesky duplicate frames.

After Effects can do it on a clip-by-clip basis, but that would be unrealistic with this much footage.

Since I was able to get FCP to drop the duplicates when you edit the footage onto a 23.98 timeline, I was hoping I could do the same with Premiere. In "interpret" window or something with some of the pulldown feature of AE.

But no worries. I guess I'll have to stay in FCP for this project. Though soon I'll start doing test projects in Premiere in preparation for the switch. Thanks again!

-Tom

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Re: Interpreting Footage in Premiere Pro
by Alex Rinquest on Apr 28, 2012 at 7:55:32 am

Wonder if you could do a tutorial with mixed footage (PAL)

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@Alex Rinquest
by Alex Rinquest on Apr 28, 2012 at 12:07:45 pm

Just watched your tutorial again on the numbers again - and also made a discovery in that i.e. Gopro 1 folder which I assumed would be consistent in size and format varies in frame rate, frame size and System (PAL and NTSC) - all shot the same day same subject. This seems to have been done with all previous shoots as well. Dealing with 3 Gopros each with their own folder, I uncovered a nest of confusion - suspect this is my problem:(

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@Alex Rinquest
by Andrew Devis on Apr 30, 2012 at 9:49:35 am

Hi Alex

Sorry I've not got back before now, I've been away training in London.

I'm not sure what's going on for you, but one thing did come to mind. Whichever footage item you want to use, import it to your project panel and then drag it to the 'new comp' icon and this will create a new comp which exactly matches the footage type you're using. You can then always add different footage items to the same timeline as PP will support this. But, if you do it firstly with the footage that causes you a problem and then add the other footage it may help.

Also, remember that you could always add the troublesome footage to its own timeline in the manner mentioned above and then 'next' that sequence in your master sequence and it may help to minimise your problems.

Sorry again for not getting back to you earlier and I hope you manage to get to the bottom of all the problems you're having.

All the best
Andrew

... because it's all about stories ...

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Re: Interpreting Footage in Premiere Pro
by Alex Rinquest on Apr 28, 2012 at 8:08:40 am

Eish (as we say in RSA) I have posted this on the forum before but with no luck on my side.
I am editing in DV lower field PAL CS5. The footage is HDV .mpeg,.m2t and mp4 (from a gopro) - I have imported the HDV footage directly into the DV timeline and the mp4 footage I deinterlace in the timeline. After export as Dv lower field this file is imported into the station system via Avid. However we seem to constantly suffer from jitter on air and it does not seem to be consistent to one camera. It's all based on the type of movement. If I export to AE and import back (lower field) I have a 50% chance that the footage will jitter. Can you advise what I am doing wrong? Many thanks

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