PRODUCT: Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0
WEB SITE: www.adobe.com
PRICING: Premiere Pro is $849. Existing Premiere users can upgrade for $199. Production Suite Premium is $1,699 and Production Suite Standard is $1,199.
- Burn menu-based DVDs from timeline
- Clip Notes for review & approval
- Native hardware support for Xena HS I/O
The latest release of Adobe Premiere Pro is knocking on studio doors. With significant enhancements in productivity and film support, it delivers deeper creative control and grants access to the latest digital formats, including HDV, HD and Flash Video.
Premiere Pro 2.0 software is available as a stand-alone product or as a component in Adobe Production Studio, what they are calling “a complete post production environment”... which in my opinion, is really the only way to go. With the Studio package, you take advantage of the unparalleled integration with Adobe’s After Effects, Photoshop and even Acrobat... yes, I said Acrobat, but I’ll get to that later. Now we can all leverage layered files between these widely used applications. But there is a downside... did I mention the Premiere horse is gone? Yeah, sad but true...the Black beauty has galloped off into the sunset of drop frame timecode. Ahh, she had a good run though.
DVD OUTPUT FROM THE TIMELINE
New built-in DVD output capabilities make it easy and efficient to take advantage of DVD quality and convenience — not only for final delivery, but also for quick client reviews, test discs and even digital dailies. Without leaving the application, you can burn menu-based or auto play full-resolution DVDs directly from a sequence in the timeline, with markers recognized as chapter points. I found the video encoding to be super-clean, and with just enough options for me to get the quality and file sizes I needed. Flexible menu-design tools help ensure that your DVD output looks its best.
ADOBE CLIP NOTES
And here’s a bonus feature that might just change your entire workflow: The Client-Approval process can be a time-consuming pain in the aspersorium, right? Well, Adobe Clip Notes streamlines this process with an elegant solution based on two easy, accessible technologies: email and the Adobe PDF file format. A sequence can be exported as a PDF file with embedded or streamed video in either Windows Media or QuickTime. The file is then sent to the reviewer, who plays it back with Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Reader software — no matter if they’re on a Mac or PC. Whenever the reviewer pauses the video, the current timecode is automatically entered into the comment box. Remarks can be entered at the exact point at which the video is paused. Then, when the file containing these remarks is sent back and imported into the sequence, the comments appear as clip markers at the appropriate timecode locations in the timeline.
Cool, eh? Straightforward and efficient, Clip Notes facilitates collaboration, expedites the review and approval process, and takes the pain out of keeping everyone on the same page. The customized commenting interface provides an easy way to add precise, timecode-accurate comments to content, directly in Reader or Acrobat.
THE AJA CONNECTION
With native hardware support from industry leader AJA in its new Xena HS I/O card (available for $990), Premiere 2.0 is taking no prisoners. AJA Video is in development with Adobe to deliver HD-certified, turnkey solutions as part of the Adobe OpenHD alliance. The Xena HS card provides Premiere Pro 2.0 users with native full-resolution capture, editing and playback in HD and SD. Photoshop and After Effects users can also get WYSIWYG output from the AJA card. It’s good to see Adobe flirting with top-level hardware companies. Especially, as more and more people take a serious look at using Premiere Pro 2 for high end post production and film-out. Selfishly, as I just purchased a Panasonic HVX200 HD camcorder, I really wish there was support for DVCPRO 50 and 100 (DVCPROHD)... but apparently, that’s easier said then done, at least on the PC side of things.
Clearly, this upgrade addresses a whole new market and brings several film friendly features into the mix. Film and video may be in different formats, but they needn’t exist in different dimensions. Built-in conversion capabilities help bridge the two worlds by providing optional Feet + Frames timecode display (in addition to video SMPTE) for captured footage. If you originate on or deliver to 16mm or 35mm film, Premiere Pro 2.0 lets you choose whichever time reference system makes editing and conforming easiest for you. Now you have the flexibility to view your footage in Feet + Frames, making it easier to work with film-originated sources. Simply select Feet + Frames from the Project Settings dialogue box, and your timeline will automatically be updated to display this reference.
CONCLUSION
When it’s all said and done — for Windows users, the Adobe/AJA combo is by far the least expensive, most feature rich HD post production turnkey out there. Nobody can offer so much for so little. The new enhancements in 2.0 really are addressing the needs of today’s editors — it is easy to see that Adobe is not only keeping up, in a lot of cases they are leading the way.