In addition to making Premiere Pro available for Mac (introduced with CS3) and allowing editors to use FCP keyboard shortcuts (a feature that has been available since the first release of Premiere Pro), CS4 (or rather, CS4.1, as this is actually a post-ship update) unveils a new way to usher FCP users into the complete Adobe workflow: FCP timeline import.
While it’s not quite as user friendly as one might hope, you can now export an XML of your FCP timeline and Premiere Pro will open up that timeline, converting similar effects and transitions between the two programs in the process. While some filters are too different to transition well, this ability is a big step forward toward making it easy for FCP users to take advantage of the integration that’s found in the Premiere Pro package (and even more so in the Production Premium package).
Another new feature that Premiere Pro CS4 unveils is a very refined Media Browser that is very handy, making it very easy to search your hard drive for footage created from a tapeless work flow, such as: P2, XDCAM EX, and even AVCHD. The Media Browser has the ability to recognize the information from these files and show you only the video files you are looking for. This means you don't have to sift through all the metadata files, which is a real lifesaver for microfilmmakers working in an HVX200 workflow.
As I mentioned in my opening comments, Premiere Pro CS4 will now allow you to send Premiere Pro timelines directly to Encore without exporting or rendering them ahead of time. For folks with the Production Premium package, the new bi-directional Dynamic Link, which works between Premiere Pro and After Effects, allows you to edit first and then provide post-processing effects, while still retaining your editable timeline. This is a major time saver.
The new and much vaunted speech transcription feature had me very excited when I first heard about it. In practice, it’s implemented when you launch the new Media Encoder from within Premiere Pro by choosing "transcribe," select one or multiple clips, select the language, select the option to have it identify different speakers, and hit start queue. Once the Media Encoder is done, it will display the transcription. If you playback the video clip, it will highlight each word as it's spoken in your clip. At any time during playback, you can click on a word and it will take you to that exact point in the clip.
All of this is great, in theory. So, how did it fare when I tested the feature? As editor Jeremy Hanke commented in our Production Premium review, “this is an area that needs quite a bit of work.”
Here’s what I got back on a few new clips. The first clip was from the "Director's Diary" special feature from the last Bald Brother's Studio Productions short film.
Actual Audio:
"Previously Viewed is a sequel to the original short called 'Drop Box' which we are renaming to 'Previously Viewed'..."
CS4 Transcription:
"Previously Viewed this is a sequel to the original torch and call for Abbas' the remaining increasing need..."
On another area, the differential was even stranger.
Actual Audio:
"I saw it in the theaters."
CS4 Transcription:
"It there the head of foreign leaders."
As we mentioned in Production Premium review, well-recorded production audio accuracy was running about 22%-30%, while production audio that had much background noise or music confused the program completely.
Now in CS4’s defense, the creators of Premiere Pro are quick to bring up that the transcription feature works the best in slow, narration type situations, as seen in a documentary or a training video. It’s cool that they are working on this, but, for most filmmakers, it’s only going to be a truly useful tool when this technology has matured some.
Another time saving feature that has been added is the Media Encoder I mentioned earlier. This is a program that allows you to place multiple timelines into it at once and, then, because the Media Encoder is its own entity, you can return to Premiere Pro and continue to work. (Very much like what Grid Iron’s Nucleo Pro plugin for After Effects does.) It's becoming clear that time management was a huge priority for the people at Adobe in the CS4 release. And, as we all know, time is a resource that we never seem to have enough of, so every little bit helps.
OnLocation CS4
For many Mac users, the fact that not all of CS3’s programs had been converted for the Mac caused them to pass on the Production Premium’s freshman Mac release. (Plus, many users were leery of a first release of any package on a completely different architecture.) Well, CS4 marks the first time that all of the Production Premium software packages are available for both PC and Mac. This is most notable in the newly redesigned and re-implemented OnLocation, which is great news.
Even though I’m a Mac user in post, the usefulness of OnLocation can’t be overlooked and, as I mentioned at the beginning of this review, I was quite willing to use PC laptops in my film that had OnLocation CS3 for footage acquisition. It may have been clunky and extremely rooted in the analog past, but it was a very practical and useful tool. Now that OnLocation’s been redesigned to be easier to use and made able to be used directly on the Mac, it’s amazing. Now you can take your MacBookPro (or any modern Mac laptop that has a firewire jack), install OnLocation CS4, and capture all your footage to a hard drive easily.
Not only can you capture your footage with OnLocation, but it allows you to monitor your framing, color balance (vectorscope), exposure (historgram/waveform), your audio levels, and take notes for each of your takes.
