Adobe Premiere Pro

EXPORTING DIGITAL VIDEO MOVIES &
DUBBING DV FILES TO MINI-DV CASSETTE

To begin the process of exporting a standard-resolution QuickTime movie to digital videotape, you should make a folder called "movies" in your project folder. This is where you will keep the movie files that you export from Premiere, whether they are DV compression or web movies.

When you are about to render a DV-QuickTime movie for Mini-DV, you must decide whether or not you should include “SMPTE colour bars and test tone” to the head of the file. (In the world of video, a person might have to refer to the colour bars when he or she calibrates the colour of a video monitor for playback, and he or she will adjust the volume according to the playback of the test tone). If you want to add a movie to its own discrete cassette, you must add bars and tone. However, if you only intend to add the movie to an ongoing compilation reel, you do not have to add the SMPTE material to each movie.

If it is necessary to add bars and tone to the output, you must render them as part of your overall QuickTime movie. If you are assembling a demo reel, you only need to add bars and tone to the head of the reel and not to each file that you add to the assemblage.

In order to dub a digital video file to Mini-DV cassette. First of all, you must "black" a cassette. You should at least black your tape while you prepare the output, as it will take up to an hour to complete the process. While the DV deck blacks the tape, you can proceed with preparing the digital files for output.

BLACKING A TAPE

At Emily Carr, you are required to use Sony Mini-DV cassettes in Mini-DV decks -- nothing else. Even though we use a Panasonic recorder in Animation's digital studios, the technical staff want us to use Sony DV tapes.

To black a tape, all that you need to do is insert a blank cassette in a recorder (at station 8 in room 261 for example). You should check to see that the FireWire cable is connected from the CPU to the DV In/Out on the recorder (it should be) and look to see that the switch located immediately to the right of the In/Out is set to "Deck Control." All that you have to do is press the Record Button and let the machine record a signal completely over the tape. Although it will take an hour or so or so to black, you will only have to do this once, for the life of the tape.

SMPTE BARS & TONE (AND BLACK VIDEO)

To add colour bars and test tone" to a project timeline, you should go to File > New > Bars and Tone. The file should then appear in the Project Window. You should also add "Black Video" by going back to File > New > Black Video. It is also possible select these items by going to the lower ribbon in the Project Window and using the New Item pull-down menu.

In the Project Window, change the duration of the bars and tone to 50 seconds (i.e., right-click on the file, go to Duration and then change the amount). After this, change Black Video to 10 seconds.

ORGANIZING THE RENDERING OF A DV-QUICKTIME MOVIE

After creating bars, tone and black video, you will have to add the 60 seconds of SMPT material to the head section of the Timeline. However, this might require you to shift the video and audio that already exists in the various tracks in the Timeline.

To move material over by 60 seconds, you should use the Multitrack Select Tool: click on a track, which should then select all tracks, and, while holding down the mouse, drag the selected clips down the Timeline to leave room for 60 seconds of SMPTE material. You can then revert to using the Selection Tool, go to the Project Window and select the bars & tone, and drag the clips into the Timeline, placing them in front of the video and audio clips that are already in the Timeline. You would subsequently do the same for Black Video. It would also be a good idea to place another copy of black video at the end of the video file (do so by going to the Project Window and dragging down black video to the tail end of the video/audio composition).

To prepare a final rendering of a Premiere project, you should use the Work Area Bar in the Timeline to select the section that you intend to export, including the bars, tone, and black video. You must then go to File > Export > Movie, to organize the rendering process. An Export Movie window will appear, and you should do the following:

  • Save in: Scratch Disk / your project / movies
  • File name: Give the movie a short name, without spaces in the name

Click the Settings Button to make adjustments to the Export Movie Settings. Referring to the Export Movie Settings window, you should look at the left-hand column, choose "General," and make the following entries:

  • File Type: Choose "QuickTime"
  • Range: Work Area Bar
  • Select "Export Video" and "Export Audio," (you don't have to "Add to Project When Finished")
  • Embedding Options: Select "None"

Press OK.

Referring to the left-hand column in the Movie Settings Window again, choose "Video" and make the next series of video compression selections:

  • Compressor: Choose "DV / DVC Pro - NTSC"
  • Colour depth: Millions of colours
  • Frame size: 720 x 480
  • Frame rate: 29.97 fps
  • Pixel aspect ratio: D1 / DV NTSC (0.9)
  • Quality: 100%, High
  • Press OK

Finally, referring to "Audio" in the left-hand column of the Export Movie Settings, make sure that you choose the following audio compression options:

  • Compressor: Uncompressed
  • Sample rate: 48000 Hz
  • Sample type: 16-bit
  • Channels: Stereo
  • Interleave: 1 frame
  • Press OK

Going back to the Export Movie window again, press Save. Premiere will then render a DV file for you and place it in your "movies" folder. It is important to note that you should archive the file (that is, burn it on a CD), as it is now a "stand-alone" movie file.

SETTING UP A NEW PREMIERE PROJECT FOR DV EXPORT

In order to transfer your work to Mini-DV, you should use Workstation 8 in room 261. This might require you to transfer the DV file from your network space to Workstation 8.

Once you have rendered a DV-QuickTime, you should then be ready to output your work to Mini-DV.

For the sole purpose of exporting your work to Mini-DV, you must create a completely new Premiere project. You might want to name the project "Export to tape." When you create the new project, it's very important that you use a particular default pre-set that Premiere offers when the software launches.

When the New Project window appears, under "Available Pre-sets," you must choose DV-NTSC > Standard 48 kHz. By selecting this option, Premiere will set up a project for you, for editing with FireWire DV equipment, with Standard NTSC video (4:3 interlaced -- that is "image and sound combined"), 48 kHz (16 bit) audio, with Drop-Frame time code numbering. In a nutshell, this is Mini-DV.

As a standard, Mini-DV uses the following:

  • Frame size: 720 (wide or horizontal) x 480 (high or vertical)
  • Frame rate: 29.97 frames per second
  • Pixel aspect ratio: D1/DV NTSC (0.9)
  • Colour depth: Millions of colours (24 bit, without an alpha channel)

Going back to the DV file that you originally rendered from Premiere (that is, the DV-QuickTime located in the "movies" folder), you should import the file into the new Premiere project. The file should then appear in the Projects Window.

EXPORTING TO MINI-DV TAPE

As stated in the section above, you should use Workstation 8 in room 261 to add your project to Mini-DV.

First of all, make sure that you have "blacked" a Sony Mini-DV cassette.

Secondly, look at the Panasonic Mini-DV deck and make sure that it is set to "Premiere Control." This will make the deck "slave" to Premiere. However, if you want to manually cue your tape, the machine should be set to "Deck Control.

From Premiere, you should then go to File > Export > Export to Tape. An Export to Tape dialogue box should open, when you should choose the following:

  • Device Control: Check "Activate recording device"
  • Options: Check "Report dropped frames"
  • Press Record. This action should then run the DV deck for you.

Finally, when Premiere has exported the DV file to tape, it would be a good idea to review the cassette, to make sure that the dubbing process was successful. To do so, you must look at the DV deck and switch to "Deck Control" (from "Premiere Control").

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