Editing Manual

Video editing is the process of post-production (for shows) or pre-production (for VTs) that pulls together raw camera footage, audio tracks and other bits and pieces into a finished product. YSTV's edit machines are currently running Adobe Premiere Pro CS4, which is what this guide is based upon. VT PC currently runs the older Premiere Pro 2.0, so if you're using this to edit instead, you may find things in different places to where you'd normally look.

This guide is not intended to be a replacement for training on the edit suites, instead consider it more of a reference guide for various common tasks. Often in Premiere there is more than one way of doing things, when this happens this guide will tend to describe the most straightforward method, though it is not necessarily the correct one in all situations.

Before you do anything

When you use Premiere for the first time on a user account, you must set the media cache to the correct folder on the machine. Failing to do this will fill up your profile and you will be unable to logout!

Once you have loaded a project, follow these steps to set up the media cache:

• Go to Edit -> Preferences -> Media...
• On Media Cache Database, choose Browse... and set the folder to be D:\Adobe Scratch
• Set Media Cache Files to the same folder. When prompted if you want to move or delete, choose Move.
• Congratulations, Premiere is now ready to use!

It is worth checking that the media cache is set to the correct folder whenever starting a new project, even if you think it hasn't changed. Assuming the cache is set up correctly when it isn't will inevitably mean you'll run out of profile space and have to re-import everything from scratch (no pun intended). This is especially problematic with HD video, so don't let it catch you out!

Setting up a project

1. Use the correct drive

Each edit PC has a D: drive named TMPVIDEO. In addition there is a networked storage drive H: labelled UserData (which is accessible on both machines). As a rule, all footage you want to edit should be copied into, or captured straight into, an appropriate folder on the TMPVIDEO drive (e.g. D:\Shows\<your show name here>). Editing directly over the network is generally inadvisable, especially for large projects, or HD video, as it will cause massive slowdown, and clutter the UserData drive.

Short video tracks, beds, images, Premiere project files and other "low-impact" files can be stored on UserData for editing. Captured video should be saved to TMPVIDEO. Finished video clips should be copied to your UserData folder, and footage on TMPVIDEO should be deleted once editing on it has been finished.

2. Organise yourself

Plan ahead. Using placeholder names may seem easy enough to begin with, but it is an extremely bad habit to get into and can lead to footage being lost, or simply never being deleted since nobody knows exactly what it is. Some general tips:

• Name your project after the episode, scene or VT it is for, not the show it's in. Example: "RAG parade report" not "Roundup report".
• Avoid adjectives, use dates or revision numbers instead. Example: "Nouse Reports Spring Week 6" not "Nouse Reports latest". If you have multiple versions of the same project, use revision numbers to keep track (avoid "York Come Dancing FINAL EDIT", use "York Come Dancing rev3"), and consider deleting older versions you no longer need.
• If you expect to be managing multiple projects (different VTs, separate episodes) for a single show, move them (and their captured footage) into sub-folders to keep track. Avoid having several projects in the same folder unless they relate to each other.
• Export videos to a different folder to your captured footage, and name them appropriately.

3. Capture footage

DV footage

Open the Premiere Pro project you'll be wanting to edit your captured footage on. Go to File > Capture... or press F5. Then plug the camera in and use the controls on the computer screen to play through and capture the video.

If the video doesn't appear in the capture window, or the message "Capture device offline" appears above the video window, you might need to change some settings:

1. Click the Settings tab at the top right. The capture format should be DV. (The Edit button just below lets you change this.)
2. Click the Options... button under the Device Control header. The video format should be PAL and not NTSC.

Sometimes Premiere won't recognise the camera until you press Play on it.

HDV footage

Do NOT capture HD footage in Premiere! If there are any slight errors on the tape, Premiere loses the ability to keep the subsequent audio and video together. You should instead capture your footage using Adobe OnLocation; if such an error appears, OnLocation just starts a new file.

4. Import footage

The easiest way to import items into Premiere is to click and drag from Explorer straight into the bin on the Premiere window. You can also right click the bin and choose "Import..."

What can be imported:

• Video files: Duh.
• Audio files: MP3s, voiceovers, etc.
• Images: See Graphics and lower thirds.
• Entire folders: This will create a new bin in Premiere, and all importable items inside the folder will be added to this bin. This does not preserve subfolders.
• Other Premiere projects: This will import all sequences, videos and other files into your project, and essentially allows you to nest one project inside another. Note that changes made to the imported project will not be reflected in your project unless you re-import it.
• Text files: Oddly enough. Not much use unless you want easy access to Notepad.

Saving and exporting

When exporting, your first concern should be where the footage will be sent to/played on. Premiere CS4 has a number of different export settings depending on what you need to do. Below are the most sensible options to use (most useful at the top, most specialised at the end).

H.264

• Use for: Finished shows ready to be uploaded to the website, videos for external use
• Format: H.264
• Preset: PAL DV High Quality or PAL DV Widescreen High Quality

Microsoft DV AVI

• Use for: Playout on VT Laptop

MPEG2 DVD

• Use for: Videos to be exported to DVD

YouTube

• Use for: Videos that are being uploaded to YouTube
• Format: H.264
• Preset: YouTube

Further reading

• Voiceovers
• Multi-camera editing
• Advanced sound processing
• DVD authoring