Adobe Prelude: A Symphony of Pre-Event Options

Logging

Once content is ingested, the interface layout moves to logging, with a timeline of sorts at the bottom of the screen (Figure 6, below). The timeline is more for adding markers than for rough-cut editing, as there are a number of included options such as putting web-link markers or sub-clip and comment markers.

Prelude's Logging timeline

One of these markers, speech transcription, can be leveraged by an updated version of Adobe Audition CS6 and its automated dialogue replacement. The Audition feature was shown off at Adobe MAX in late 2011 under the working title "Rub-A-Dub" but has since been renamed to a more generic-sounding feature within Audition.

Adding markers to a logging session timeline can also be accomplished by single numeric keystrokes (Figure 7, below) adding to Prelude's ease of use.

Adding markers to a logging session

Rough-Cut Editing

Once clips are ingested and logged, the clips (or sub-clips) can be placed on to a rough-cut timeline similar to Premiere's timeline. Think of the Prelude rough-cut editor as more of a storyboarding feature, however, as it is designed to lay video clips side-by-side and then export the rough-cut timeline as a local pointer file (Figure 8, below) that points back to the location of the original or transferred clips ingested during the first step of the process.

Exporting the rough-cut timeline

Metadata Export

Finally, since I'm a metadata geek at heart, I wanted to see what options were available for metadata extraction. After all, most logging tools can capture dozens of fields of information-some automated indexing tools can go up to 32,000 fields-but only a few of these fields are ever exported, stranding hundreds of data fields per frame on the island of the logging tool.

In Prelude, at present, there is only one option, the Adobe XMP format (Figure 9, below). This means logging of structured metadata works well between Premiere Pro and Prelude but it would be helpful to allow exporting of both structured and unstructured metadata to a variety of streaming or other asset management tools.

Metadata option: Adobe XMP

Bottom Line

The Adobe Prelude CS6 ingest, logging, and rough-cut editing features won't rid you of the task of logging, but for those who are staying within an Adobe-only environment, the features of Prelude will make your editing, compositing, or even live-production clip-creation workflows quite a bit easier.