Macromedia Prelude - CC User Guide

Adobe® PreludeTM CC

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Last updated 11/30/2015

Contents

Chapter 1: What's new

New features summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Chapter 2: Workspace and workflow

Linking Adobe Story scripts with movie clips in Prelude . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3

The Prelude workspace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4

Tag Panel and Tag Te mpl ate s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9

Chapter 3: Importing media

Ingesting media clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Chapter 4: Logging movie clips

Logging movie clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Chapter 5: Rough cuts

Rough cuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Rough cut and Edit Anywhere (EA) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

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Chapter 6: Setting preferences

Setting Prelude preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Chapter 7: Keyboard shortcuts

Keyboard shortcuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Chapter 8: System Requirements

System requirements for Prelude . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Last updated 11/30/2015

Chapter 1: What's new

New features summary

Read on for detailed information about the new features and enhancements in Prelude CC 2015 release.

The N

ovember 2015 release of Adobe Prelude CC 2015 includes capabilities to export markers in text files and

support for the HEVC file format.

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Adobe Prelude CC 2015 | November

Exporting markers to text file

New in Adobe Prelude CC 2015 | November 2015

You c an now e xp ort mar kers of a sele cted c lip in te xt f il es ( .txt ) in a ddit ion to CS V fil es (. csv) and w ell -for mat ted HTML
p

ages (.html) through the Export Markers dialog box (File > Export > Markers).

For more information, see Exporting markers.

Support for HEVC format

New in Adobe Prelude CC 2015 | November 2015

Prelude now supports the HEVC (High Efficiency Video Coding) file format.

For more information on file formats supported in Prelude, see Supported file formats for ingest.

Adobe Prelude CC 2015 | June

Voice-over in Rough Cuts

New in Adobe Prelude CC 2015 | June 2015

Adobe Prelude CC now lets you add voice-overs to Rough Cuts. Although Prelude lets you add Audio clips separately,

ou can use the voice-over feature to record audio clips on the fly, without the need for a separate recording software.

y

You can record and overlay voice-overs over video footages during the basic editing process, before the final sequence
is co

mplete. Adobe Prelude lets you add multiple voice-overs to a Rough Cut, as well.

For more information, see Add Voice-over to Rough Cuts .

Last updated 11/30/2015

What's new

New API to ingest media

New in Adobe Prelude CC 2015 | June 2015

You can now use the new API to ingest media in to a Project directly. Previously, on using the Ingest API, the Ingest
dialog was displayed as an additional step before you could select and eventually ingest media (video and audio clips).

Now, you can simply use the new Ingest Media API to select media files you want to ingest, and the selected files are
added to the Project at the click of a button. The new API, not only ingests the media, but all related data files (.xmp)
that contain markers and other meta-data.

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Chapter 2: Workspace and workflow

Linking Adobe Story scripts with movie clips in Prelude

You can link movie clips in Prelude with Adobe Story scripts and then analyze the clips for greater speech-to-text
conversion accuracy. Guided by the embedded script, Prelude performs the analysis using Adobe Media Encoder.

During the analysis, when enough matches with the embedded script are found, the analyzed speech text is replaced
with the embedded script text. Correct spelling, proper names, and punctuation are carried over from the reference
script during the replacement — benefits that standard speech analysis cannot provide.

After analysis, speech transcription markers appear on the clip. You can search for individual words in the Project panel
to filter clips containing that metadata. You can also s earch an open clip using t he se arch box in the Timeline or Marker
List panels.

After you export to Adobe Premiere Pro, the speech to text markers are displayed in the Analysis text section of the
Metadata panel in Premiere Pro.

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Note: This workflow is available only for TV and film scripts in Story. Other types of scripts are not visible in Prelude.

1 Select Window > Adobe Story.

2 Log in to Adobe Story using your Adobe ID credentials.

3 Open the script containing scenes to be associated with the movie clips in Prelude.

4 Select a scene from the script and drag it to the movie clip in Prelude. After the script is linked, the badge for attached

script appears on the clip.

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Workspace and workflow

5 Right-click the movie clip and select Analyze Content. The movie clip is sent to Adobe Media Encoder for analysis.

Wait until the analysis is complete.

6 After analysis, speech to text markers appear on the timeline.

Open the Metadata panel using Window > Metadata. The metadata from the imported scene is displayed in the
Script section of the panel.

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If necessary, you can associate multiple clips in Prelude with a scene in an Adobe Story script.

Clear script metadata from clips

• Right click the movie clip and select Clear Script Data.

The Prelude workspace

Video tutorial

To view the video in full screen mode, click .

Welcome screen

The Welcome Screen appears when you open Prelude. Use the Welcome Screen to create a project, open an existing
project, or access Help for Prelude.

To disable the Welcome Screen at launch, disable the option Show Welcome Screen at Startup on the Welcome Screen.

If you disable the Welcome Screen, the last opened project launches when you relaunch Prelude. To re-enable the
Welcome Screen, open the Preferences dialog, and select Show Welcome Screen in the At Startup menu.

Ingest, Logging, List, and Rough Cut workspaces

The default workspaces available in Prelude are designed to show panel arrangements optimized for tasks like logging
or working with rough cuts.

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Workspace and workflow

The Ingest dialog

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Use the Ingest dialog box to select and ingest movie clips. You can also select folders and rough cuts. When you choose
a folder, all the associated movie clips in it are ingested.

You can ingest clips from your computer, other software, or attached devices such as an external hard disk, video
camera, or camera card. You can ingest a portion of a clip (partial ingest) by setting In and Out points on the clip
thumbnail and enabling transcoding in the Transfer Clips To Destination section.. You can also choose a transcode
option that best suits your editing requirements.

Prelude allows you to add metadata and rename files before ingesting them.

To view the location of the clips on your computer, right-click the clip in the list or thumbnail view. Select Reveal in
Explorer (Windows), or Reveal in Finder (Mac OS).

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Workspace and workflow

The Logging workspace

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The Logging workspace is optimized for quickly adding metadata and creating subclips. Add markers and other
metadata to quickly organize and search clips. You can leverage the metadata when you export to Adobe Premiere Pro
or other applications.

The List workspace

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Workspace and workflow

In the Project panel, you organize project contents much as you use folders to organize files. Bins can contain clips,
subclips, and rough cuts. Use the Project panel to create a rough cut, and then add subclips to the rough cut.

Reorder content in the Project panel by dragging it to a new location.

The Rough Cut workspace

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Open the rough cut that you created and add clips and subclips to the timeline. When you export the rough cuts to
Adobe Premiere Pro or other applications, all the organizational and metadata information of the clips is retained.

Use the options in the Show menu to selectively display markers in the timeline.

Creating custom workspaces

Use the Window menu to access panels in Prelude. As in other Adobe applications, you can float and dock panels and
frames. You can also create custom workspaces. To access custom Workspaces, select Window > Workspace, and
choose from the options.

If you have a customized workspace that you use frequently, you can create a custom workspace using Window >
Workspace > New Workspace. The custom workspace is added to the Window > Workspace menu. To go back to the
default workspace, select Window > Workspace > Reset Current Workspace.

Note: A frame is a set of grouped panels.

Reorder contents in a panel and across panels by dragging them to their new location.

Panels in Prelude

Here is a partial list of panels in Prelude:

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Workspace and workflow

Panel Description

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Extensions Contains extensions or plug-ins for extending the functionality of

Displays the audio level for the movie being played in the timeline.

Events Lists warnings, error messages, and other information for identifying

History Use the History panel to jump to any state of the project created

Marker List Displays all the markers in the movie that is currently open. This panel

Prelude. If no Extensions or plug-ins are available, this option is
disabled.

and troubleshooting problems.

during the current working session. Every time you apply a change to
some part of the project, the new state of that project is added to the
panel. You can modify the project from the state you select.

Right-click a state in the History panel to view the available options.

The History panel is cleared when you switch between an open clip
and a rough cut. It is also cleared when you save the open clip or rough
cut.

also allows you to change the timecode of the In and Out points, or
edit the marker description.

The Monitor panel

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Workspace and workflow

Double-click a movie clip in the Project panel to open it for playback in the Monitor panel. The monitor gives you
access to the standard play and navigation options. You can use the timecode, playback buttons, or the playhead to
navigate the movie.

The Play In-Out option allows play back of a movie for the duration of a selected marker.

Use the keyboard shortcuts J, K, and L to preview the movie clip. For greater control, use a combination of J and K keys
to move backward slowly, and K and L keys to move forward slowly.

Set display quality

Some formats are difficult to display in full-motion playback because of their high compression or high data rate. A
lower resolution permits faster motion playback but at the expense of image quality. This tradeoff is most noticeable
when you view AVCHD and other H.264 -codec based media. Below full resolution these formats have error correction
turned off, and artifacts are common during playback. These artifacts, however, do not show up in exported media.

Use separate playback and pause resolutions to gain more control over the monitoring experience. With high­resolution footage, set playback resolution to a lower value (for example, 1/4) for smooth playback, and set the Pause
resolution to Full. These settings allow you to check the quality of focus or edge details when you pause playback.
Scrubbing puts the monitor in playback resolution, not pause resolution.

1 Click the Output button.

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2 Select an option for Playback Resolution and Paused Resolution.

Tag Panel and Tag Templates

About Tag templates

A tag template is a shareable collection of buttons and associated metadata. When reviewing media, the tag template is
loaded and supplies the tags that are used to log the assets. The buttons are created and arranged using the tag template
editor in Prelude.

Creating and using a Tag template

Follow the steps below to create, save, and apply a Tag template.

1 Choose Window > Tag from the main menu.

Last updated 11/30/2015