Total Training for Adobe Premiere Pro Reviewed [Archive]

Philip Colmer

04-27-2004, 10:00 PM

<img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/colmer-totaltrainingpremierepro-0.jpg" /> Product Category: Video-based training Manufacturer: <a href="http://www.totaltraining.com/">Total Training</a> Where to Buy: <a href="http://www.totaltraining.com/store/2003/tt_products/AdobePremierePro.asp">Total Training</a> Price: $199 USD System Requirements: A means of playing the video DVDs, although to get the most benefit, you ought to have Premiere Pro available as well to work through the projects. Pros:<li>Very comprehensive coverage of Premiere Pro features; <li>Training presenter knows his stuff!; <li>Comes with projects to work through as part of the training.Cons:<li>A bit pricey if your funds are tight; <li>Video files are NTSC format only, making it tricky to perform camcorder-related lessons; <li>Video quality seemed to be slightly blurry.Summary: The training is provided on video DVDs that can be played on your computer or on a TV. It takes you right from the starting point of creating your first project & navigating around the window, through adding transitions & effects, mixing audio and finishing with multiple camera shots & writing to DVD. Excellent training if you can afford the price. Read on for the full review!<!> <PAGEBREAK> Why Train To Use Premiere? When I first started using Premiere 5, which came bundled with the Matrox RT2000, I wanted to find a way of learning to use the product beyond the manual, so I bought Adobe's Classroom in a Book. Adobe's manual is good as far as it goes, but you often need worked examples in order to fully appreciate and understand how to use a product. However, I never finished reading the Classroom book – it was too dry & boring, much like reading the manual. Also, if you get stuck, what do you do? You've got no frame of reference to compare your work against. So as I've grown through the subsequent versions of 6 and 6.5, I've tried to find out how to make the most of the product, but I've always felt that I'm never quite making the most of the tools that the product provides. With the release of Premiere Pro, I wanted to try again with learning about the product, hence this review of Total Training for Adobe Premiere Pro. So what do you get for your money? Over fourteen hours of video training divided into three sets, each containing two video DVDs. I'll look at each DVD in more detail later on in this review. Each video lesson is presented by Jacob Rosenberg, a Los Angeles-based filmmaker who has been involved with the evolution of Premiere since version 1. In addition to the video DVDs, the training also includes a CD-ROM of project files that are used throughout the training. The project files consist of the raw materials needed to work through the lessons along with Jacob. In addition, where a particular project may span multiple lessons, Jacob includes updated project files that you can use at the start of the next lesson in case you haven't been able to get your version of the project to look just like his :) The DVD Content The format and flow of each of the DVDs within the sets is the same. The discs have a clear menu structure that allows you to dip into each of the lessons on that disc, typically six or seven in number. An example of such a menu can be seen in Figure 1. Each of the lessons starts with Jacob explaining what that particular lesson is going to cover, followed by the lesson itself. <img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/colmer-totaltrainingpremierepro-1.gif" /> Figure 1: A menu from one of the video DVDs. I was fortunate enough to be able to play the training DVDs on my laptop whilst I used my main PC to go through the project material myself at the same time. If you haven't got two PCs, you will need to either play the DVDs on a television or find a way of fitting the DVD image onto the same screen as Premiere Pro. I found that some of the video of the computer screen was a bit fuzzy, but it wasn't bad enough to hurt to watch, nor was it so bad that I couldn't actually read the screen or see what Jacob was doing. More of an annoyance, really. Set 1, disc 1 is split into 6 lessons under the title of "A Tour of Adobe Premiere Pro". With this disc, you are taken through the process of getting started, followed by a detailed look at the Project Window, the Source Monitor, the Program Monitor and the Trim Window. The final lesson on the disc starts an examination of sequences and the timeline. Set 1, disc 2 contains 7 lessons under the title of "The Ins & Outs of Working with DV". Here, Jacob takes you through adjusting your settings for DV (e.g. the difference between 32 & 48KHz audio), striping your tape, exporting to tape, exploring the capture window, logging & batch capture, the changes in timeline editing from previous versions and an introduction to transitions and effects. Set 2, disc 1 also contains 7 lessons with the umbrella title of "Stills, Titles & the Effect Controls Window". The lessons cover still image basics, the Adobe Title Designer (introduction, working with object & text styles, using & modifying templates, creating a custom template and creating a credit roll) and opacity & the effect controls window. Set 2, disc 2 contains 7 lessons that cover "Creating a Still Photo Montage: Motion, Effects & Audio". The lessons go through the "automate to sequence" feature, working with Adobe Photoshop documents, the basics of motion, aspect fills & colour mattes, assembling the master sequence, adding effects to the montage and adjusting the soundtrack. Set 3, disc 1 deals with one subject - understanding the real-world workflow involved in creating an advertisement, in this case for Ocean Futures Society. The disc takes you through an introduction to the commercial, recording a voice-over to the timeline, creating & adjusting the cut, building the effect sequences, finalizing the audio and exporting for the web. Set 3, disc 2 focusses on two subjects. The first is working with multiple camera shots that have a single audio track and being able to cut between the shots. Jacob looks at three different ways of achieving this, starting with a simple 3-camera shoot (i.e. where all three cameras are running at the same time), the "eye match" technique (where you visually line up the video to a point in the audio on all shots & then sequence them) and using a smart slate (one which is tied into an SMTPE time code that is then captured on the video). The second subject is using some of the more advanced features in Premiere Pro (using the colour corrector, creating an audio mix, 5.1 mixing & exporting and exporting to DVD) on a sequence of film from one of Jacob's own creations - "Bleach". Content review I found the flow, pace and content of the various lessons, on average, to be just about right. There was one instance, in the multi-cam project, where I had to replay the same sequence of video about five times before I finally understood the point he was trying to demonstrate but, apart from that, I didn't have any difficulties. The first set starts off gently and slowly, but not so bad that experts are going to get annoyed. The second set, although it concentrates almost entirely on the use of still images, is a particularly useful set for a few reasons:<li> Montages of still images are very much a common use of video editing systems and it is important to know how to get the most out of them; <li> Premiere Pro includes a new way of supporting Photoshop files and this is covered very well in the still photo montage project; <li> It is easier to demonstrate some of the Premiere features, such as effects, on still images because it is easier to see the outcome of the effects. Once you've learned that process and the outcome, it becomes easier to apply that knowledge onto moving images.The third and final set is the richest in terms of utilising the knowledge you've learned in the previous two sets, combined with Jacob's contribution of his own video material to make the real-world project examples. A criticism I do have of the projects is that because they were all in NTSC format, I was unable to interact with my PAL camcorder in any way. This reduced the usefulness of Set 1, DVD 2 somewhat, particularly since it deals with striping your tape, exporting to tape and performing batch captures. All of the other projects could still be edited on my system, even in NTSC format. <PAGEBREAK> Who Is This For? Some of the changes from Premiere 6.5 to Premiere Pro are so significant that I think that everyone would find at least some of the training material useful. Of particular interest to me, as a self-taught just-above-novice user was the way that the trainer, Jacob Rosenberg, used his experience as a filmmaker to convey his thoughts on best practice for workflow. For example, when working through his real world example of putting together an advertisement for the Ocean Futures Society, he showed how to come up with the voiceover script first, then put the video clips into the right order (but without transitions or worrying about clip length), recording a rough voiceover track, adjusting the clip lengths & transitions to pull the video into a better shape and then adding the professional voiceover track and making final adjustments. By approaching the workflow in that manner, you can make sure that you've got the right video material to go with the script before you start worrying too much about the end result. Another real world example that I was particularly interested in was the three multi-cam projects. This did not involve any special multi-cam software – it was all about having multiple camera shots and synchronising them together with a soundtrack. I'm working on a wedding video at the moment that involves multiple cameras and the tips I've picked up from Jacob's training will certainly help me to get the editing done faster and more neatly. Pricing If you just want to buy this training product on its own, it will cost you $199 … which may be a bit steep if you've just spent a whole load of money on upgrading all of your Adobe software. :( If you are a previous owner of Total Training for Premiere 6.5, you can upgrade for $119. Alternatively, if you think you might want to buy more than one TT product, you might want to look at some of their value bundles as they do offer considerable savings. For example, the DV Creators Pack (Professional) costs $599 and consists of training for After Effects 6 Pro ($499 value), Premiere Pro ($199 value), Audition ($99 value) and Encore DVD ($99 value). Conclusions I really enjoyed watching this training material and going through the projects myself at the same time. The use of DVD as a delivery medium means that you can watch the material on computer or TV, and easily rewind and re-watch bits if you need to. The lessons are well laid out and divide up the material into sensible segments. Potentially the biggest stumbling block to buying this is the cost.