DVD Training Review: What’s New in Adobe Premiere Pro 2

Total Training's DVD Shows How to Leverage New Features

By Peter Plantec

March 21, 2006    Source: Studio Daily

In this DVD from Total Training, Jacob Rosenberg, post supervisor on Dust to Glory, shows how to work in different file formats, examines new tools, interface revisions and workflows for Premiere Pro 2, and gives a mountain of tips and tuttorials along the way.

The Host

Rosenberg is a man of passion and you can feel it through out this disk. He is an award winning film maker who has directed a number of short films and music videos. He was the Post Supervisor on the film Dust to Glory, which took an HDV edit up to film entirely within the Adobe pipeline. Find out more about him at www.formikafilms.com/

Content

I expected this DVD to be a quick overview of the new features in Premiere Pro 2. It is that, and more. Rosenberg clearly knows his stuff, and dishes it out with tornado force in nine comprehensive lessons. At first he covers too many new goodies in way too little time. The resulting information density left me exhausted and confused, back-tracking constantly to see what he said. What he has to say is very important and you don’t want to miss any of it. You’re going to have to go over this deep training several times even if you are an expert. I’d suggest mastering it one bite at a time before moving on. That said; expect to find an array of sophisticated new features explained, with exercises demonstrating such things as the new MULTI-CAM work flow, new color correction tools, and very cool custom DVD authoring tools. He also spends a good amount of time exploring new HD formats and greatly expanded IO options as well, explaining all the new option switches and what they’re used for. There is a lot new in APP2.0 and Jacob covers it in detail.

General Comment

Rosenberg gears this presentation to the video professional (as the series name implies) with a well stocked vocabulary of video editing terms which he tosses at you like ping-pong balls. Yes this is a criticism, but on the other hand, I’m not a full time video editor. On the plus side, he doesn’t mumble at all, showing you mostly tools and adjustments that you’ll really need to know about, especially if you’re editing HDV. A lot of thought went into the content of this DVD. Jacob clearly is intense about his work; you feel it the whole time as he introduces you to new workflows that will most likely make you more efficient. Fortunately, as he gets into the new tool tutorials he slows down…a bit, and his presentation, though still a bit jackrabbit, demonstrates Total Training’s proclivity for well thought out, well organized content.

Premiere Pro 2.0 is the centerpiece of the CS2 Production Suite. It links directly with the the other applications for smooth and efficient inter-app workflow. Unfortunately when this very first DVD for the suite was produced, not all the individual components of the Suite were available for demonstration, but you’ll get the idea. For example Premiere Pro 2 can load After Effects projects even if AAE is closed. You can use Bridge’s great tools for embedding information into your video clips, without leaving PP2. If you have a fast processor and plenty of ram you can be editing effects in AAE and your sound in Audition 2.0 with all of your edits dynamically updated in your PP2timeline. Rosenberg explains this approach. He also comes prepared with a nice load of media clips including some HDV footage that you can use to follow along in PP2 as he does his magic with each new tool.

Rosenberg’s “on steroids” presentation is awesome to behold, but there are places, especially in the first few lessons where A little more explanation and a less frenetic pace would be most appreciated by semi-pros like me. I think in addition to being labeled “Professional Series” this DVD should include warnings like: “Advanced” or “Expert” because I think it’s one of the more advanced DVDs in Total Training’s Production Studio CS2 series.

Conclusion

This is absolutely a good investment for those who really know their video editing, and are thoroughly familiar with Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5, and who can follow Jacob’s rapid-fire presentation. He clearly knows his stuff and is willing to share, presenting some very interesting techniques along the way. This DVD is not for the casual user who bought APP2 to edit a few home movies into a DVD for the family.

What’s Next?

Next I’ll be reviewing two excellent production design DVD series from Gnomon Workshop. The first is an engaging 2 DVD set teaching how to use Photoshop digital painting and compositing for concept development and production design. The second series teaches you everything you ever wanted to know about designing and building digital sets, with a focus on urban backdrops for your production.

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Watch Video Tutorials from What’s New in Adobe Premiere Pro 2 at:

Studio Daily Premiere Pro Mini-Site

- VIDEO TUTORIAL: What Are Clip Notes?

- VIDEO TUTORIAL: Set Playback in Premiere 2

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Previous Plantec's Picks:

Advanced Adobe After Effects 7 from Total Training