CS5 sequences
 

Having made the move from Premiere Elements 8 to Premiere Pro CS5 I have a question about sequences in CS5.

I am working on a 25 minute nature documentary at present. All of the footage is shot in the same format. Is there any advantage to splitting the edit up into sequences, other than avoiding having a 25 minute long timeline ? Is it possible to make audio and video transitions between sequences (e.g. by nesting sequences within a 'master' sequence )?

Basic questions but I want to start on the right footing.

Thanks,


Neil

Is there any advantage to splitting up a 25 minute video? Probably not, but it depends on what equipment you are trying to do edit with , whether you are using HDV or AVCHD or an intermediate like Cineform, and how heavily loaded your computer is.

Are you getting a lot of pauses, delays or timeline hestitations when editing? When you go to make an edit, does the computer just seem to hand with the spinning beachball or spinning ring thingie being displayed? If so, maybe you want to try splitting the project into smaller sequences.

Can you make transitions between nested sequences? Yes.

Make sure the nested sequences are trimmed or it will use duplicated frames in the transitions.

To avoid this problem, I always have a couple of seconds of black video at the beginning and end of sequences that are to be nested.

Apart from organisational/speed benefits, my favorite feature of nesting is the ability to grade/apply effects to entire scenes at once.

So, say you have a flashback/dream sequence, you can nest it into the master timleine then place the effects on that nested sequence, without having to copy and paste the effects onto each individual clip. Same thing if you want to create a mood - you can tint an entire sunset scene orange, or a winter scene blue to give it more effect. This is the way I prefer to work - in each sequence I do CC to get all the clips looking the same then I use nesting and grade the scene with my final intented look.