Mixing EPIC-M and RED ONE footage in Premiere 5.5 timeline

[Meryem Ersoz]

I have footage shot on EPIC-M at 5K 2:1 and footage shot on RED ONE at 4.5k 2:1

The output goal is 2:4:0.

I have the EPIC plug-in installed. It seems to work beautifully.

My question is: what is Premiere doing when we mix footage? It seems like it must be scaling the footage to fit it in the timeline, but it doesn't *look* (to my eye, anyway) as if it is scaling the footage. Can I just use these footages, with their seemingly different aspect ratios seamlessly in a single timeline without distortion?

I tried a quick output to a Quicktime file and had the same results - they seemed to output cleanly together from a single timeline, without distortion.

How is this happening, given that the aspect ratios do not match perfectly? What is Premiere doing?

Who else is using this workflow to achieve a similar outcome? Anyone? Is everyone simply transcoding footage.

I don't want to bite off a raft of trouble down the road, by doing an online edit in an EPIC timeline with these different aspect ratios. On the other hand, if I can actually skip transcoding, why not right?

Any advice and input from anyone dealing with mixed footage is greatly appreciated...trying to find the right workflow that won't bite me later.

 

[Kristin Stewart]

When you say your output goal is 2:4:0, you mean scope 2.4, right ?

Premiere adjusts the original footage to fit the Sequence's width (or height).

If you have 5K 2:1 and RED ONE 4,5K 2:1, the aspect ratio is the same, Meryem ;-)

Usually, when dealing with this footage, people set a 4,5K 2:1 sequence, and the 5K will be downscaled a bit. Put a layer with a 2.40 mask to see the scope bars, and when you finally export the result, crop the sequence while disabling the scope mask (which is just here as a preview).

 

[Lauri Kettunen]

Meryem, when you have the footage on the timeline, right click the footage there and check that "Scale to framesize" is on. Otherwise PPro reads the files pixel-to-pixel into the monitor window. Say if you have a 4K file and your project is 1080p, PPro will pick the center 1920x1080 pixels of the footage. So, if you want the footages to be scaled to your project size, you need to set "Scale to framesize" on.

If the ratio of the footage does not match with that of the project, PPro will show black in some part of the monitor window. For example, if you put a 4:3 footage to a 16:9 project, then on the left and right of the monitor you'll have black bars.

 

[Kristin Stewart]

Yes, Lauri's right, and don't forget to set the "Maximum Render Quality" On. See :

http://provideocoalition.com/index.php/adobe/story/scaling_in_adobe_premiere_pro_cs5/P0/

Kristin, with a lot of help from JC ;-)

 

[Meryem Ersoz]

ok, I think that answers my questions - I *wasn't* getting black bars and figured that I should be, since they are different widths, but it didn't look distorted and the frames seemed to match. I'm not too familiar with the program just yet - "scale to framesize" is probably what I was looking for...I'd like to be able to view footage as it is both scaled and not scaled, so that I can compare. The footage was shot with the 16:9 safety guides, so it should be ok if Premier is applying an automatic center cut, such as I think you are describing, Lauri...If I'm understanding you properly.

and thanks for the link, JC/K! good stuff!

thanks to you both for the quick and helpful answers - this is a little bit of new territory.