In This Chapter
As you work on more movie projects, you may find that you have a really hard time finishing a movie project. Some clip always lasts a few frames too long, or an effect keyframe isn't in exactly the right spot, or a title font doesn't look exactly right. There's always something — no matter how miniscule — that could be improved upon. Moviemaking is like that. But at some point, you have to give up tweaking your masterpiece and decide that it is "good enough."
Before you can actually stick a fork in your movie and call it done, you have a few tasks to perform to finalize the movie and get it ready for output. You should sit back and preview the whole thing, of course. You need to make sure that the project is rendered and ready for output. This chapter helps you put the finishing touches on your project and shows you how to export audio or still images from Premiere Elements. I also show you how to export movies for certain video devices like iPods, PSPs (PlayStation Portables), and tape-based camcorders.
I could start and end this section by simply telling you to click Play in the Monitor window to preview the current project. As an "oh-by-the-way," I could also mention that the effects and edits should be rendered before you export them. Rendering is the process of building preview files that incorporate your edits.
Thanks to the powerful real-time capabilities of Adobe Premiere Elements, rendering usually isn't necessary for simply previewing your edits. But rendering should be done before you export your movie to tape, DVD, or the Internet.
Any portion of a movie that needs to be rendered — but isn't yet — shows a red line under the Work Area bar, as shown in Figure 14-1. A green line means that you have already rendered a section that needed it. To render the unrendered portions of the Timeline, choose Timeline
Of course, there's more to previewing your project than simply rendering the Timeline and clicking Play. Consider carefully what you are actually previewing when you play a movie. Here are some ways to get the most out of previewing your project:
Watch the whole program from start to finish. You may be tempted to periodically stop playback, make a few tweaks, and then click Play again. This is fine, but to get a really good sense of the flow of the project, watch the whole thing from start to finish — just as your audience will. Keep a notepad handy and jot down notes if you must.
Watch the program on an external television monitor. If you plan to export your movie to tape or DVD, previewing on an external monitor helps you ensure the best color and image reproduction.
Tip
Whatever export format you use for your movie — whether it's a high-quality Blu-Ray disc or a highly compressed file for the Internet — make sure you preview the exported movie before you share it with others. Export settings can be tricky, and you may find that the audio output or other aspects of the final file are unacceptable. And of course, always preview the file on the target hardware. Video files for iPods, for example, often don't play correctly on PCs even though they look great when played on an iPod.
Have trusted third parties review the project. Moviemakers and writers are often too close to their creations to be totally objective; an outside point of view is helpful. I worked hard to write this book (for example), but my work was reviewed by various editors who provided invaluable feedback. Movie projects benefit from similar reviews.
Many people think of Adobe Premiere Elements as a video-editing program, but you can also edit and export a plain old audio file with Premiere Elements, too. Formats you can export to include AAC, MP3, QuickTime, Windows Media Audio (WMA), Windows waveform (WAV), and others.
Tip
Exporting audio files from Premiere Elements is one way to create custom ringtones for your mobile phone. Check the documentation for your phone to find out if custom ringtones are supported, and if so, what format is used. Then use Premiere Elements to export an audio file in the necessary format.
If you want to export audio in QuickTime or WMA format, see the sections in Chapter 15 on exporting movies in those formats. When you export the movie, you can choose to export only audio if you want. If you just want to quickly export audio in AAC, MP3, or WAV format, follow these steps:
Click the Share tab on the Task pane, and then click Personal Computer.
The Export Audio dialog box appears.
Scroll down the list of formats and click Audio.
Choose a format in the Presets menu.
The Presets menu contains options for four basic formats:
AAC: This format is supported on iPods and a few other media players. The High Quality preset delivers better audio quality, while the Medium Preset reduces quality but cuts the file size in half. AAC offers a good balance of compression and quality, but it isn't as widely supported as MP3.
AIFF: This is a lossless audio format used to store CD-quality audio on Macintosh computers and many professional audio-editing applications. Unless you know that you need AIFF files, consider exporting Windows Waveform audio instead. AIFF files are large and not supported by most portable media players.
MP3: This ubiquitous format is supported by all modern computers and digital media players. There are three quality presets so you can choose between better quality or smaller file size.
Windows Waveform: This lossless format stores CD-quality audio on Windows computers. WAV files are compatible with most Windows applications, but the files are big and not supported by most portable media players.
Enter a name in the File Name field.
Click Browse and choose a location in which to save the file.
Place a check mark next to Share Work Area Bar Only if you want to share only part of the Timeline.
You can export the entire Timeline or just the range covered by the Work Area bar. See Chapter 7 for more on using the Work Area bar.
Click Advanced to open the Export Settings dialog box.
Options in the Export Settings dialog box vary, depending on the format you chose in Step 3. Figure 14-2 shows options for MP3 files.
Choose Stereo or Mono next to Channels.
Choose an Audio Bitrate.
Higher bitrates mean better audio quality and (surprise!) bigger file sizes. For MP3 and AAC files, even the most casual listener will notice the reduced audio quality found in bitrates below 128 Kbps.
Click OK to close the Export Settings dialog box.
Back in the Task pane, click Save to export the audio file.
Premiere Elements lets you export still images from your movies, which comes in handy for a variety of reasons. For example, you may want to display stills from the movie on a Web page, or use stills as background images in DVD menus. Just keep in mind that stills extracted from video are usually of lower quality than stills shot with a conventional still-photo camera. Even frames extracted from high-def video have less than two megapixels of resolution. To export a still image from Premiere Elements, follow these steps:
Move the CTI in the Timeline to the exact frame that you want to export.
In the Task pane, click the Share tab and then click Personal Computer.
In the list of sharing options that appears, click Image.
Choose an export format from the Presets menu.
The available export formats for still frames are GIF, JPEG, Targa, and TIFF. TIFF provides the highest quality, but JPEG and GIF are more Web-friendly. If you have an image-editing program like Photoshop or Photoshop Elements, I recommend that you export in TIFF format. Otherwise, export to JPEG if you plan to use the image directly on the Web. Targa is an older image format still in some video-editing applications, but it has inferior color bit depth compared to TIFF or JPEG.
Enter a filename in the File Name field, and click Browse next to Save In to choose a location in which to save the file.
Click Save.
Choose a location and name the file, and then click Save.
The still image is saved. The still image also shows up in your media lists on the Organize tab of the Task pane.
You may need to edit still images exported from video, especially if the image comes from interlaced video. Fast-moving objects in the image may show combing. This is a term that describes the horrid horizontal distortions that occur in an image that has been interlaced. Also, if the video comes from a rectangular-pixel video image, it may appear stretched or squeezed on computer screens. Adobe Photoshop Elements and other photo-editing programs usually have de-interlacing filters to help you remove combing.
Tip
If you want poster-quality promotional shots of your movie, bring a high-quality still camera along with you during a video shoot and use it to take pictures of the scenes or subjects in the movie.
Besides making movie editing easy, Premiere Elements also makes it easy to record your movies to DVD, YouTube, or various other viewing modes. You can also export your movies directly to an AVI format file.
Note
AVI is short for Audio-Video Interleave and is also sometimes called Video for Windows. It has been a common Windows multimedia format for many years. When you capture standard-def video from a tape-based camcorder, the captured video footage is stored on your hard drive in AVI format. High-def video and video captured from flash, disc, or hard-drive–based camcorders is captured in the camera's native MPEG format.
AVI files are usually too big to share online. (See Chapter 15 for Web-friendly sharing formats.) But AVIs are useful as full-quality archive copies, and they can be used by other video programs. To export your movie in AVI format, follow these steps:
Click the Share tab, and then click AVI.
Choose a preset in the Presets menu.
The Presets menu contains four DV presets offering choices of NTSC or PAL, and standard (4:3) or widescreen (16:9) aspect ratios (see Chapter 3 for more on aspect ratios). In addition to DV, there are presets called Microsoft AVI and Uncompressed AVI. Which one you choose depends on a couple of factors:
DV presets: Choose NTSC or PAL depending on your local broadcast standard, and choose standard or widescreen depending on the aspect ratio of your movie. All the DV presets output video in standard definition, and widescreen presets letterbox the video image to fit in a 4:3 video image. The DV presets are best if you ultimately plan to view the movie on a TV.
Microsoft AVI: This is a good preset to use for general archiving purposes. The output is similar to the DV presets, but you can customize the pixel aspect ratio and other settings.
Uncompressed Microsoft AVI: This preset is also intended for archiving. By default, it uses square pixels and progressive scanning. Use this preset if you feel that you have unlimited storage space; otherwise, the Microsoft AVI preset is adequate.
If small file size is a priority, I recommend that you use the QuickTime, Flash, or Windows Media formats described in Chapter 15.
Enter a filename, and click Browse to choose a location in which to save the file.
Click Advanced.
The Export Settings dialog box appears. Depending on which preset you use, you may be able to change the frame size, frame rate, color depth, and other settings to yield a smaller file size.
Keyframe Options (under Advanced Settings) are available only if you are exporting in Microsoft AVI format. Rendering keyframes control how Premiere Elements compresses video. The default setting of 15 frames is usually adequate, but if your video images don't contain a lot of movement, you may want to increase it to 30 frames. If your video contains many fast-moving images, setting keyframes every 10 frames offers better video quality — and larger file sizes.
Click OK to close the Export Settings dialog box.
Click Save.
The movie is rendered and exported. Depending on the size of the movie, rendering and output may take awhile.
Decades ago, visions of the future predicted hover cars, vacations in space, and wristwatch TVs. Well here we are in the 21st century and we're still waiting for our hover cars, and outer space tourism is reserved for those who can afford to pay more than $20 million for a rare flight on a Russian Soyuz rocket. Although I don't see a lot of wristwatch televisions, modern media players and mobile phones are making handheld portable video a reality.
Whether you're bored at work or stranded at the spaceport, if you have a portable phone or device that can play video, Premiere Elements can probably export video for your device. Supported formats include
Apple iPods and iPhones: Video-capable devices from Apple use a unique video format based on the H.264 codec (a video compression scheme). Options include a 640 × 480 high-quality format (best for larger devices like the iPhone or iPod Touch) or a 320 × 240 medium-quality format (best for smaller iPod devices). Premiere Elements can also output audio-only Podcast files.
Creative Zen: This format option exports a good-quality 320 × 240 Windows Media file. Even if you don't have a Zen, this format is a good choice for many different brands of digital media players that can handle Windows Media Video.
Microsoft Zune: Microsoft's Zune players play Windows Media Audio and Video. This format option in Premiere Elements is similar to the Creative Zen option, except for slightly better audio quality and superior compression for smaller file sizes.
Pocket PC: The term "Pocket PC" is rather ambiguous, because this option simply outputs a small (240 × 176) video image in a highly compressed format. It can be played on Pocket PCs, yes, but these videos can also be played on many WMV-capable media players. For that matter, most Pocket PCs running a modern version of the Windows Mobile operating system can play videos output for the Creative Zen, too.
✓ Smartphone: Smartphones are like Pocket PCs that also happen to be phones. The Smartphone output option in Premiere Elements produces a tiny 224 × 128 video image in Windows Media format.
Sony PSP: PlayStation Portable (PSP) devices from Sony use a special H.264-based video format that is similar to (but not exactly like) the formats used by Apple iPods and iPhones. PSP video files have a good-quality 320 × 240 image size, and the files even have the same .MP4 filename extension as iPod files. But iPod and PSP files are not compatible, so make sure you output the correct format for your target audience.
Mobile Phone: Smartphones aren't the only mobile phones that can play video. Many non-smartphones (dumb phones?) can play video. Mobile phone video uses the .3GP filename extension and provides a teensy little 176 × 144 video image. Be sure to send your audience magnifying glasses so they can actually see the movie.
The next couple of sections show you how to export movies for iPods, iPhones, and personal media players such as the Creative Zen. I don't need to show you how to export videos for each format, because the process is almost the same for each format. The process for making iPod and iPhone movies is similar to the process for Sony PSP and mobile phone videos, while the steps for personal media player files work equally well for Creative Zens, Microsoft Zunes, Pocket PCs, and smartphones.
If you want to have the coolest portable media player, you need to get an iPod or iPhone. The only problem is that everyone else has an iPod, too. So how do you outcool the cool people? When everyone else is just listening to iMusic, you can be watching your own personal iVideos!
Note
Apple iPods and iPhones use a special H.264 video codec that provides excellent playback quality and small file sizes. The file extension is MP4. In theory, videos that you export from Premiere Elements using the iPod output format should play on any device that can play MP4 videos; however, I have found that iPod videos often will only play properly on an iPod or iPhone.
The steps for exporting smartphone and PSP videos are very similar to the process for producing iPod videos. iPhones and iPods use exactly the same format, of course. To export an iPod video, follow these steps:
Click the Share tab, and then click Mobile Phones and Players.
Choose Apple iPod and iPhone in the list of devices that appears.
If you're outputting a movie for PSPs or mobile phones, choose one of those options instead.
Choose an iPod/iPhone preset in the Presets menu.
The high-quality preset creates a movie with a 640 × 480 image size. This preset is best for devices with larger screens, such as the iPhone and iPod Touch. The medium-quality preset gives an image size of 320 × 240, which is better for smaller-screened iPod devices.
The high-quality preset produces file sizes that are about 30 percent to 40 percent larger than medium-quality movies. In the example shown in Figure 14-3, my 18-minute movie will be about 146MB at high quality or 111MB at medium quality. Both presets offer CD-quality audio.
Give your movie a name in the File Name field.
In Figure 14-3, I have named my movie "McDowellCreekFalls."
Click Browse and choose a location in which to save the movie.
Strictly speaking, choosing a location for your movie is optional. But I recommend that you manually choose a location so that you'll easily be able to find the movie later.
If you want to fine-tune output settings, click Advanced.
The Export Settings dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 14-4. It's usually best to just accept the default settings with the high- or medium-quality presets. However, if you're trying to reduce file sizes, there are a couple of settings you can adjust:
Frame Rate: On the Video tab, reduce the frame rate to 15 frames per second (fps). This will drastically reduce the playback quality, but if you need a smaller file size and the video doesn't contain a lot of fast action, you may find that a reduced frame rate is a reasonable sacrifice.
Video Bitrate Settings: Scroll down on the Video tab to reveal bitrate settings. Choose VBR, 2 Pass in the Bitrate Encoding menu to make the compression more efficient (this will also cause the export to take a longer amount of time). Slide the Target and Maximum Bitrate sliders left to reduce the overall video bitrate (and thus image quality).
Basic Audio Settings: If your movie's audio quality is less critical, click the Audio tab. Change the Output Channels menu to Mono, reduce the Frequency to 32 kHz, and choose Low or Medium in the Audio Quality menu.
Audio Bitrate Settings: Scroll down the Audio tab and click-and-drag the Bitrate slider left to reduce the audio bitrate.
Don't change anything on the Multiplexer tab. If you change settings on that tab, the video format will be incorrect and your movie won't play properly on iPods. Click OK to close the Export Settings dialog box.
Review the output settings and estimated file size shown on the Share tab, and then click Save to begin exporting your movie.
Premiere Elements renders and exports the movie. This may take awhile depending on the length of your movie and the complexity of your edits.
When the movie is done exporting, open iTunes, choose File
Use iTunes to copy the movie to your iPod or iPhone. Visit Chapter 15 if you want to share your iPod-format movies on the Internet.
A lot of portable media players and devices can play video. Every device is different, and I can't cover every brand and variation here. But many smartphones and media players support video playback using some variation of the Windows Media Video (WMV) codec. The Creative Zen, Microsoft Zune, Pocket PC, and Smartphone output options in Premiere Elements all output Windows Media in a variety of quality and size settings. To output video in one of these formats, follow these steps:
Click the Share tab, and then click Mobile Phones and Players.
Choose a format that most closely matches the target device.
In the example here, I am exporting a movie for Pocket PCs.
Choose an output preset in the Presets menu.
Some formats — such as the Zen and Zune players — let you choose your local broadcast standard (NTSC or PAL; see Chapter 3 for more on broadcast standards). The Smartphone format lets you choose between portrait or landscape picture orientations. Videos are usually landscape, but many smartphones have portrait-shaped video screens.
Give your movie a name in the File Name field.
Click Browse and choose a location in which to save the movie.
You can just accept the default location, but I recommend that you manually choose a location so you can easily find the movie later.
If you want to fine-tune output settings, click Advanced.
The Export Settings dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 14-5. Here you can adjust settings to balance between movie quality and file size:
Video Bitrate Settings: To improve compression efficiency, on the Video tab, choose two encoding passes and then select Variable Constrained in the Bitrate Mode menu, as shown in Figure 14-5.
Frame Rate: On the Video tab, reduce the frame rate to 10 fps to reduce file size, or increase it to 25 or 30 to improve quality.
Audio Bitrate Settings: To improve compression efficiency, choose two encoding passes, and then select Variable Constrained in the Bitrate Mode menu.
Basic Audio Settings: Choose a lower-quality option in the Audio Format menu, and slide the Peak Audio Bitrate slider left to reduce quality and file size.
Click OK to close the Export Settings dialog box.
Review the output settings and estimated file size shown on the Share tab, and then click Save to begin exporting your movie.
Premiere Elements renders and exports the movie. This may take awhile depending on the length of your movie and the complexity of your edits.
When the movie is exported, use Windows Media Player or another program to sync the movie to your Pocket PC or media player.
Before you think that videotapes are old fashioned, consider that most pro-quality camcorders — including high-definition cams — still use tapes. Digital videotapes are cheap, reliable, and can be archived for many years. If you have a tape-based digital camcorder, you can output finished movies from Premiere Elements directly to tape. After the movie has been recorded to a tape in your camcorder, you can then archive the tape, use the camcorder to transfer the movie to a VHS tape, or connect the camcorder to a TV for playback. The following sections show you how to export finished movies to a tape-based camcorder.
Note
If you want to export a movie directly to an analog VHS tape (remember those?), your options are somewhat limited. One option is to connect a VHS VCR to your computer with an analog video converter (see Chapter 19 for more on video converters). Follow the steps described in this chapter to export a movie to tape, and manually set the VCR to record the output from your computer.
Before you export your movie to tape, you should make sure that your movie is actually ready. Naturally, you should review the project and all of your edits. Because any movie you export to tape will be viewed primarily on broadcast-style TVs, you should also check the following:
Is the movie compatible with the appropriate broadcast standard? See Chapter 3 for more on video standards. Review settings in the General Project Settings (Project
Has the movie been rendered? Effects, transitions, and other edits should be rendered before you record to tape. If you see any red lines at the top of the Timeline, click the Timeline to make it active and press Enter. Premiere Elements renders all your edits.
Is your computer optimized for export to tape? Your computer must be able to play the movie flawlessly in real time. To make sure that your computer is ready, do the following:
Turn off extra programs. Make sure all unnecessary programs are closed, including your e-mail program, MP3 jukebox, and Web browser. Every open program uses up memory and processor resources that should be devoted to video export.
Disable programs that run in the background. Disable memory-resident programs such as antivirus programs and any programs that have icons in the Windows system tray (the area in the lower-right corner of the screen, next to the clock). You should be able to close or disable most of these items by right-clicking them and choosing Close, Disable, or Exit from their respective menus. (Just don't forget to turn that antivirus program back on when you're done exporting!)
Disable screen savers and power-management settings to ensure that they don't kick on in the middle of a long export operation. If you're working on a laptop, make sure that it's plugged in to wall power so that it doesn't hibernate or run out of battery power in the middle of export.
Defragment your hard drive. A recently defragmented drive ensures efficient operation during video capture and export.
Is your hardware connected? Connect the camcorder to the computer's FireWire or USB 2.0 port, and turn the camera on to player mode.
Do you have a new, blank tape? It's best to use a brand-new, blank tape for export. This prevents timecode breaks and other problems that may cause your movie to play poorly or not at all.
Have you previewed your project on a TV monitor yet? Previewing your movie on a real TV monitor can help you identify problems such as weird colors or titles that get cut off at the edge of the screen.
After you have prepared your movie, computer, and camcorder for export to tape, you're ready to begin the actual export process. If you are exporting to a device that has device control (such as a digital camcorder; see Chapter 2 for more on device control), follow these steps:
Connect your recording device (your camcorder or DV deck) to your computer and turn it on.
Make sure that the camcorder is turned on to VTR (Player) mode, and not to Camera mode.
Click the Share tab, and then click Tape.
The Export to Tape dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 14-6.
Make sure that a check mark is placed next to the Activate Recording Device option.
The only time you would disable this option is if you're exporting video through a video converter connected to your computer's FireWire port. (I describe video converters in Chapter 19.)
If the tape already has a timecode on it, select the Assemble at Timecode option and specify a timecode where you want recording to begin.
Start the recording at about the ten-second mark on your tape.
Enter the number of frames, if any, that you want to delay before the movie starts playing.
Some devices need a delay between receiving the record command and the actual movie.
Enter the number of frames that you want to preroll the tape in the Preroll field.
Preroll allows the reels in the tape deck to spin up to the correct speed before recording begins. I recommend at least five seconds (150 frames for NTSC video, 125 frames for PAL video) of preroll.
Place a check mark next to Abort After.
Of course, you can tell Premiere Elements to stop export after only 2 or 3 or 50 frames have been dropped, but even one dropped frame is an unacceptable quality problem. If you have trouble with dropped frames during capture, review the earlier sections of this chapter and Chapter 4 to make sure your computer is ready and that it meets the specs for running Premiere Elements.
Click Record.
Your movie is recorded on the tape. The camcorder will automatically stop when the recording process is complete.
