Editing a feature on Prem. cs4 do i really need to edit it in sections?

mastermind

mastermind

Well-known member
Hi there. Never edited a feature before on CS4 but i've been using premiere for the past couple years and decided to cut it there.

Now i've done some reading and found out that it would be necessary to do the first half of the film in one project then the other half in another.

that sounds fine and dandy however raises a couple questions for me.

-1 how do I later integrate these two projects? i dont want to send them to aftereffects cus i'll have to redo transitions etc...

-2 My film involves alot of flashbacks and a disjointed timeline, so footage from the end of the film is in the first half and vice versa. how do i do this?

I quite frankly just want to edit the whole peice in one project as it will REALLY simplify my life. Is this going to be possible? If it helps i've shot on the 7d and my footage is avi's from neoscene and my system is a quad core, 8gb ram and good video card (cant remember the specs but i know its an nvidia 216core and 1 or 2 gb ram...something like that..sorry i'm no computer guy.)

Any help and advice would be much appreciated.
 
Premiere enables you to create multiple sequences within a single project. The workflow would be to split up each individual scene into a sequence and then assemble all the sequences together in a master sequence. This is preferable to just having one big timeline because if you make small edits, the odds of doing something wrong (i.e ripple deleting) and screwing up all of your edits are vastly reduced, plus it's easier to work within shorter timeline. Editing within multiple projects would be for computer resources reason, because as the number of footage and edit within a project increases, Premiere will become increasingly unstable and load time will be extremely long, so editing within multiple projects are recommended. Simply create a third project and import the two project files into it, then reassemble the master timeline.
 
My issue was not really how about how to edit with the different sequences. Its more so about the system slowing down by having everythign in one PROJECT.

so my questions really are:

-if i edit in multiple projects how can i use files from the different projects in other projects...for example the project for the firlst half of the movie needs a shot from the project for the second half..how do i get that shot (this will happen alot so its not a one time thing where i just import that individual shot..i would need entire edited sequences from the second half in the first half at times.

-is there any work around for me to edit in a single project and minimize the system slowing down? i'm already working of a single hard drive that way pp doesnt have to look on multiple drives simultaneously. if i decide to go the "single project" route..how bad will it get? i'd rather find out now before its too late.

thanks
 
mastermind said:
-if i edit in multiple projects how can i use files from the different projects in other projects...for example the project for the firlst half of the movie needs a shot from the project for the second half..how do i get that shot (this will happen alot so its not a one time thing where i just import that individual shot..i would need entire edited sequences from the second half in the first half at times.
Click to expand...

In that case split the film into multiple projects, not just two, let's say every 20 minutes chunk. That would make it much more manageable. I can see you swapping scenes around but my guess is a scene that went in the first 20 minutes probably isn't going to be showing up in the last 20 and so on.

mastermind said:
-is there any work around for me to edit in a single project and minimize the system slowing down? i'm already working of a single hard drive that way pp doesnt have to look on multiple drives simultaneously. if i decide to go the "single project" route..how bad will it get? i'd rather find out now before its too late.
Click to expand...

Very, very bad. I have a fairly decent system and anymore than a few hours of HD footage increases the load time exponentially and the program becomes increasingly prone to crashing. You really don't want to go into this only to find out that your project takes half an hour to load each time, if at all.
 
If it's going onto DVD, then in effect it will be split into a number of projects anyway - so if it's a feature style production, then why not just produce it in scenes. I cannot think of any reason to want to work with a whole feature. Imagine the huge renders that suddenly need doing when you realise 30 edits back you just shifted something a tiny amount. Editing in scenes is simpler, and easier to work with. Multiple tracks of over one hours worth of material each is just too complex.

When I'm doing theatre shows, I'm working with two acts, and 50-60 minutes per act. I always work a song at a time, or maybe two if they segue into each other. When each is complete, as a separate sequence, I'll just complile them, as detailed above. You're still really working with the entire thing - files wise, but each chunk becomes a separate mini-project. Works for me.
 
paulears said:
If it's going onto DVD, then in effect it will be split into a number of projects anyway - so if it's a feature style production, then why not just produce it in scenes. I cannot think of any reason to want to work with a whole feature. Imagine the huge renders that suddenly need doing when you realise 30 edits back you just shifted something a tiny amount. Editing in scenes is simpler, and easier to work with. Multiple tracks of over one hours worth of material each is just too complex.

When I'm doing theatre shows, I'm working with two acts, and 50-60 minutes per act. I always work a song at a time, or maybe two if they segue into each other. When each is complete, as a separate sequence, I'll just complile them, as detailed above. You're still really working with the entire thing - files wise, but each chunk becomes a separate mini-project. Works for me.
Click to expand...

I dont think you guys quite understand my problem. I WILL be editing each scene as a standalone independant sequence. thats not my issue.

My issue is "multiple projects" not "multiple sequences" because thats granted. The reason i would LIKE to do it in one PROJECT, is because yes i do have alot alot alot alot of back and forth in my film..meaning flashback, flashforward etc etc etc...literally CONSTANTLY..so if portions of my film are in different PROJECTS..not sequences...i dont know how to draw them from the individual PROJECT.

heres to make it simpler...

1st half of the film scenes 1-75 in PROJECT 1 (individual sequences)
2nd half of the film scenes 76-150 in PROJECT 2 (individual sequences)

now in project 1 i need scenes 80, 93, 97, 134, 145, and 149 for flashbacks, reveals, flashforwards etc.. it would actually be more than that even. how do i pull these scene from the sequences in PROJECT 2 and bring them into PROJECT 1. thats my problem. which is why i would like to do it all in one project because that would be simpler creatively however I understand my system would bog down due to that so how can i get around that??
 
I know someone who has cut a few low budget features with PPro, and he hasn't had too much trouble. He's done them all as one project, but with 20 minute sequnces that he then builds into one final timeline at the end.

How to get around the system bog down - well, make sure you have a LOT of RAM, are running a 64 bit OS, and have good, fast hard drives. Having all that is no guarntee that you won't have some system slow down, but it will definitely help against it.

CS5 is rumored to be coming out sometime this year, and that's supposed to be now a 64 bit program so that should make life easier for those working on large projects, but again - not sure when that's coming out.
 
I've edited several feature films inside of Premiere Pro versions 1-4 and never had an issue. Yes, it takes a bit of load time, but after that it's fine.

The more RAM you have, the better this will work faster.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top