Tuesday 12 September 2017

The production workflow - how to use equipment

Step one: formatting your device

Before you do anything, you must delete the files which are already on the memory card. This process is called formatting. 

Formatting the Canon cameras


  • Make sure your camera has a battery and an SD card inserted in the battery/SD card compartment
  • Go to menu ---> scroll right to the first yellow spanner ---> select format ---> OK
OR
  • Go to menu --->. show others ---> scroll down to manage media ---> media format ---> OK

Formatting the ZOOM mics

  • Make sure the mic is OFF
  • Hold down the 'BIN' button
  • While still holding the 'BIN' button, switch on the mic by holding the 'POWER/HOLD' slider to 'POWER'
  • Push the middle red 'RECORD' button at the 'FORMAT?' prompt

Step two: dumping (AKA backing up) your files

Dumping or back up is where you move files from the device onto the computer. Never skip this step, as if you try to import directly from your memory card, you will loose your project the second you move the device!

Dumping and importing audio-visual files from the Canon cameras


  • Open the battery and SD card compartment and remove the SD card by gently pushing it
  • Place the SD card in to the back of the computer
  • If your terminal does not have an SD card slot, then use and SD to USB adaptor
  • DO NOT CLICK AUTOPLAY OR IMPORT THE FILES. CLICK 'NO' TO ANY PROMPT THAT APPEARS
  • Find the SD card, either on the desktop or in file manager
  • Find your block folder on the computer
  • Create a folder within this folder, and copy the entire contents of your SD card to this folder.
  • Remove the SD card and put back into the camera case
  • NEVER MOVE FILES AFTER THIS STEP. DOING SO WILL STOP PREMIER FROM BEING ABLE TO ACCESS THEM

Dumping and importing sound files from the ZOOM mics

  • Turn off the mic
  • Connect the mic to the USB port
  • Push REC when the device says card
  • DO NOT CLICK AUTOPLAY OR IMPORT THE FILES. CLICK 'NO' TO ANY PROMPT THAT APPEARS
  • Find H1_SD (on the desktop) (or in file manager)
  • Copy folder 1 to media/AS/induction/x block

Step three: importing video or audio footage to Premier Pro

Remember, importing files doesn't actually move anything, it just allows Premiere to 'work with' the raw footage. ONLY import files that are on the computer, in your own block, and are in a specially made folder that you will be able to access later on.

  • From Premiere, hit CMD+I (CTRL+I if you're using Windows) 
OR
  • Drag and drop the file into the timeline directly