Jason Levine – Healing People Daily with the Power of Digital Video & Audio

Before we begin, it's important to note that Adobe Clip Notes can be exported and imported from either Premiere Pro CS4 *or* After Effects CS4. This also means that even if you simply wanted to do a stills/image review of a portfolio, or even a series of images to be used in a video, you can simply drop them down into the timeline and export. Simple, easy, it's all contained in one document, and you don't have to worry, will they be able to open this file successfully?

Because my friends, *that's* the beauty of Adobe Clip Notes. It uses a technology that is accessible to everyone, on either production platform (Mac or Windows), and that's PDF. Now, your client *will* need the Adobe Reader to be able to use Adobe Clip Notes. Mac OS Preview will not work, as it was built upon an older version of Acrobat, and therefore does not support embedded video and audio. But even still...the Adobe Reader is cross-platform, it's downloadable, and it's FREE. FREE. So even if they don't have it (and it must also be version 7 or above; but we're on version 9 now, so...) they can get it quickly, and once again, be involved in the process straight away.

So here's how it works. I'll start in Premiere, and having just cut together this short sequence, I want to send this off to my client for review. In my case, I'm only going to send the first 10 seconds of this 'trailer rough cut'. When I choose File>Export>Adobe Clip Notes, it takes me to a familiar dialogue, where I can now choose my export options.

Making some important decisions; Using Presets, Embed, Stream, Password Protect, Notes

Once you're in the export dialogue, it's fairly straightforward. For starters, you'll notice a series of presets that you can choose, designed around standard NTSC/PAL frame sizes/rates/aspect ratios. However, because we're working from P2 footage, it doesn't conform to a standard NTSC or PAL frame size. For this purpose, I'll generally *always* set my video frame size manually. This is carried out in the Video Tab, and even if you want to shrink it down (ie, in half, by a third, etc) you can have the exporter automatically figure out the appropriate match for a given width or height using the Constrain Proportions checkbox.

Setting the appropriate frame size

Now, after you've done that, it's time to decide how you want your clients to view the content. One of the beautiful things about Clip Notes is that you are simply not limited by duration. In other words, if you're sending a short piece for review (ie, ten seconds of a rough cut) you have the option to EMBED the content directly into the PDF (because after all, that's what we're creating here..PDF documents).

Now, for 10 seconds of 960x720p @ 23.976, my exported PDF with embedded video/audio was around 4MB. That's not going to break anyone's in-box. But for longer durations, you have the option to stream the content, rather than embed it. This allows you to keep the files-in-transit extremely tiny; and if you or your client has an FTP, it can all be set-up and uploaded *directly* from Premiere Pro or AE---directly. Brilliant.

FTP information goes here; test the connection; upload begins after export

From here, it's a matter of setting a password if you like (leveraging Adobe Acrobat's 128-bit encryption), as well as the ability to add some 'instructions' for your reviewers. I can't tell you how incredibly USEFUL this feature is. Effectively, it's a little dialogue box that will pop-up when they launch the PDF, just before the review begins. This gives you an opportunity to point out certain things to look for, listen for, etc...but most importantly, it also allows you to personalize the document. This is good for collaboration, and your clients will thank you for it. ;)

There's also the ability to add your email address. Effectively, upon completion of the review, when your client chooses to Export their comments, it will automatically launch their default mail client (if it's not already running) and place the 'attached' XFDF (ie, we're not regenerating a PDF file post-review, it's a very small, XML text file known as XFDF) into a new outgoing mail, already addressed to YOU, the sender. Pretty awesome, and yet another way to insure that the comments get back to you, and one less thing for the client to have to worry about.

Upon clicking 'OK', this Clip Notes doc will be sent to the new, background Adobe Media Encoder CS4. If you're doing the export from After Effects, it's automatically sent to the Render Queue. Keep in mind, of course, that you'll still need to set a 'destination' before beginning the render. But this is a good practice anyway (in lieu of placing the export in some random place or last-used folder on a drive that's no longer connected! Always check the output destination...in both apps!)

Sorting through various comments

Now, once the person on the other end is commenting, what's incredible about Clip Notes is that they're actually able to make comments on the exact frame where they want a change to be made. They can also grab the 'play head' inside the video window, scrub to a position, and when they release the mouse button, it will stamp the timecode (frame-accurately) into the commenting box, and he/she can proceed to type.** Amazing. Just amazing. The client can sort through (as you see above) all the comments, make additional ones, delete ones they don't want, etc. When they're done, click Export, and they're ready to begin the last step...getting the comments back to the creator/editor/animator, etc.

**note: scrubbing of the playhead refers to using the Quicktime export option for Clip Notes. If you export as WMV, you cannot scrub. This is a limitation of WMV (and even Windows Media Player), not Clip Notes itself

So, at this point you're probably sitting by your machine, waiting for the client's comments, when the email arrives, along with the attached XFDF. This is where Adobe Clip Notes is totally unique, totally time-saving, and will totally change the way you think about collaboration forever...

Import the Clip Notes comments from the File Menu, and upon doing so, you'll notice some markers in the timeline...markers at the EXACT timecode locations where comments were given. This gives you (the editor/animator) not just a general idea of 'where to make said change', but a frame-accurate location of where to make a change. And you can view the comments, skip through them, and make the changes as you go. Incredible.

Clip Notes Markers in the Timeline, Premiere Pro CS4

Double-click on a marker and the full marker dialog appears with the time-coded comments

In After Effects CS4, you don't even have to click on the markers to see the comments, as they appear directly inside the timeline ruler

And from this point on, it's all a matter of making the requested changes and moving onto the next review, the next level of approval, and finally...the next job. ;) With Adobe Clip Notes, you can be anywhere in the world and effectively send your clients review copies of your hi-def work, allowing them to comment freely (and accurately) right inside a document that they can (1) open successfully; and (2) view on just about any machine, Mac or Windows. It makes the client feel like a true part of the collaborative process, and it saves an incredible amount of time, because they can simply 'write' what they feel needs to be done---fewer phone calls, fewer thoughts lost in the ether...it's all there, appearing now, in your timeline. Truly time-saving; truly revolutionary. Truly, with Adobe Clip Notes.

Until next time, my friends....

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