Here’s some handy step by step suggestions on how to process raw untimed film footage and export it to compliant YUV 4:2:2 HD video from the NLE’s timeline for great results

How to create HD Film Masters with Adobe Premiere

Assumptions: You know how to motor around in Premiere. Know the terms and basic processes.  If not, go to the Adobe site.  It has a lot of great tutorials.

The last couple of versions of Adobe Premiere which support High Definition video, also has the built-in functionality that is needed to create what I call HD Film Master files.  These files are the basis for furthering any HD post production activities, any HD transcoding processes or direct to Blu ray disk publishing.

Though the following description focuses on the way HomeDVD does its film to HD video conversions, it can just as well be used on any raw untimed (non-pulled down, uncorrected) HD video streams whose ultimate goal is some form of High Definition video distribution; Blu ray, AVCHD, DVD, web streaming etc.

The first thing to do after launch of Premiere is to choose the project properties via the Pre-set window.  It’s the first window that pops up. There are a number of pre-canned choices available but only a few that will work well.

If you have a Black Magic Intensity card then choose one of the several pre-set entries specifically for it.  The HDMI output port on the Intensity card can be connected to an LCD VGA type screen provided it has an HDMI input port. The LCD monitor should have the feature of adjusting it’s color temperature between 5000 and 6000 degrees.  Ideally a video monitor with a BLUE screen overlay option would be great, to allow for proper color and tint calibration.

Enable the integrated Waveform Monitor (WFM) or Vectorscope (VScope) within Premiere.  There are several combinations in which to choose.  These instruments are used to help in the adjustments of proper IRE luminance levels and the correct color, density/gamma, setup and gain settings for effective color cast removal.  This particular tutorial will not go into any color correction techniques or methods as it is an involved topic unto itself.  Look for a future article that will deal with this particular film to HD video activity. The assumption here is that you have some understanding of basic color correction techniques, that may be as simple as adjusting saturation, hue, brightness and contrast within Premiere.  Certainly using the more sophisticated color correction filters will yield much better results coupled with the use of a WFM and VScope.

If you don’t have an Intensity card, there are two options left.  Choose an HDV or a Desktop pre-set.  The HDV project will allow the use of the IEEE-1394 or Firewire facility within Premiere, thus providing the means for connecting to an external video monitor and Waveform\Vectorscope instruments.  You will need a Firewire to composite or S-video converter for this to work.  Canopus has a number of products that will do the job very well.

Unfortunately, Premiere will not allow the simultaneous use of its built-in video monitor and the WFM on its desktop. This is a shortcoming that I hope will be addressed in future revisions of Premiere.

When choosing the 1080p HDV pre-set for example, be aware that the image resolution would be fixed at 1440×1080 with an 1.33 anamorphic pixel setting which is exactly meets the pixel dimensions of the video that will be imported.  This is good. Settings of 30fps and progressive scan complete the import properties (same deal for 720p projects). To take advantage of the 1394 connection it must be enabled within Premiere. On the same pre-set dialog go to the “Custom Settings” tab at the top of the user interface. Click on the “Playback Settings” and in the External Device block choose “DV 29.97i (720×480)” option in the drop down box.

The Desktop option must be set for 1920×1080, square pixels, 30fps, progressive scan.  The Desktop setting has no support for 1394 and the resulting file sizes are unnecessarily large due to carrying the no information black bars on its image sides, representing about 25% of dead file space.  Whether choosing HDV or Desktop, fill in the rest of the information; project location and filename at the bottom of the pre-set dialog.   So.  Hmmmm, which one to choose.  Ok, I’ll go with the HDV setting.

Next, import your raw uncorrected YUV video file created by AE (images sequence to video file conversion –1440×1080 YUV 4:2:2 8bpp, square pixel) into Premiere and drop it into one of the available timelines.

If Premiere will not take the HD video file, it means the codec that recognizes it is not available on your computer system. If we supplied the uncorrected YUV video as part of a bundle, it would be a good idea to download the free Drastic Tech codec pack.  It is in our Resources section under Software…YUV codec Download.  Then follow these steps:

• Turn on the frames view option if you want to see the video file content on the timeline
• Turn off “Blending”  (causes image ghosting and smudging)  Clip..Video Options..Blending.   Click off
• Enable the “Interpret Footage” feature (corrects for the image stretch)   Right click the file icon in the ‘Project’ box, choose “Interpret Footage”. Then choose square pixels option. The image will unsquash properly.  The image space that was created at pre-set time is still 1440×1080 in size, but with corrected video frame aspect ratio and re-allocated black bars; -ignore this for now.  This is an important step, as it not only corrects for frame aspect ratio while in edit, it ensures when exporting the edited and corrected video, the anamorphic property is maintained. A necessary requirement when transcoding for Blu ray.
• Drop the color correction, curves, brightness and contrast filters on to the video clip to correct
• Do a direct pulldown of the video file by choosing the correct timing percentage from the Speed\Duration menu item on the Clip menu heading.  Clip..Speed\Duration.  Make sure time and speed inputs are locked. The appropriate ‘frame stuffing’ will occur.  Premiere will handle this and insert the correct frame ratios.  There are other methods for doing a ‘pull down’ using the classical interlace method, but its just too messy.  We will keep full frames intact in this method.

See the chart below for the appropriate pulldown settings to ensure proper film speed is maintained in a 30fps playback environment.

Re-check “Blending” again.  Sometimes it re-enables itself. Go figure.

There are some tips here to help ease your edit and colour correction efforts, just due to the sluggishnes aspect of the responses of Premiere to user interactions on the timeline if you don’t have a high performance computer.  It can be frustratingly slow for some.

Tip One, disable all of the filters prior to doing any cuts or movement to the video clip in the timeline.  Leaving the filters ON will force Premiere to re-render the clip sections for nothing, as you move from one area of the video clip to the next. Cutting and re-arranging all of the video sections that are necessary with the filters off will result in a very fast and smooth response. Review your edits using your video monitor – within Premiere or your external monitor via the 1394 connection. Then…

Tip Two, now enable the color correction filters and do the corrections as needed on each pre-cut clip.  Be very patient here.  Develop an efficient method to make the number of iterations to your corrections as low as possible, or you will pay the price for waiting for a re-render.  It can’t be helped.  Use the WFM and vectorscope for proper adjustments.

When your corrections are done, the edited and corrected file needs to be exported as a Film Master.  Whether in CS3 or CS4, choose File..Export..Movie (CS3), or File..Export..Media (CS4) —  An export dialog box will appear (CS3 example–).

• Enter the exported filename
• Click “Settings” button
• GENERAL — Uncompressed Microsoft AVI, enable audio checkbox, Embedded Options – none
• VIDEO — Compressor – 8bit YUV, Frame size -1440×1080, Frame rate – 30fps, Pixel aspect ratio -1.33
• KEYFRAME and RENDERING – Bit Depth – Use Program Settings, Field – Progressive
• AUDIO – defaults (it’s important to enable audio, even though there is none to encode)
• click OK – go render

A strong recommendation – do not use any of the Black Magic export codecs.  They don’t work very well.  Stay with ‘uncompressed‘ definitions

Adobe CS4 has an output “Render Queue” for its media exporter, so it can be used as a batch tool if you need one.  For CS3, just export the files one at a time manually, or use HomeDVD’s Batch Export tool located on our Resource page under Software. It’s free. The export properties will be the same, regardless of your work in CS3 or CS4.  Expect to wait about 90 minutes to about 2 hours to render and export on an above average performance computer (3.0GHz Core 2 Duo, a little faster on a similar speed Quad core).

Once exported the resulting YUV High Definition video files can be considered as 8mm or Super 8 HD Film Masters, ready for further HD video processing or post production work if needed.

Usually, to minimize render times, the export settings should match the initial pre-sets.  As there are many differences between the import and export properties, the render times will be made longer than expected.  An important note, the output HD video will look tall in the saddle so to speak – a required anamorphic result. This is normal. Re-stretch will take place at transcode to Blu ray time as square pixels where the images will look nornal again.

If you do not want an AVI based Film Master at this point and just want a Blu ray encoded file, then use Premiere’s H.264 or MPEG-2 software encoder, also within the Media Exporter dialog. Follow the appropriate setup properties for each video type and crunch it.  You will have to wait a very long time for this action to complete.  Expect 16 or more hours for a 30 minute AVI file to be transcoded.