7 Enabling Scene Detection During Capture

#7 Enabling Scene Detection During Capture

As you may know, DV camcorders and some other devices store time codes on the tape that record the starting and stopping point of each shot taken while shooting. During capture, Premiere Pro can scan the tape and identify "scenes" using these time codes. If you enable scene detection, Premiere Pro will produce a separate captured file for each scene.

Remember to Name Your File Before Capture

I'm not trying to be a nag, but if you don't name your file and capture with scene detection enabled, you could end up with dozens of clips named "untitled clip 1 0avi" that you might have to rename to make useful. If you name your captured clips, Premiere Pro will increment the selected file name, providing some clue as to what's in the file. You can name your file in the Capture panel in the Clip Data section of the Logging tab.

If you're shooting a concert, ballet, or other linear real-time event, where you shoot continuously from start to finish, this feature has little value. For most other productions, where you start and stop the camera frequently, scene detection can save a lot of time during editing.

Note that Premiere Pro can't detect scenes after capture, or from footage that you've imported from other sources. So you get one shot, during capture, and that's it.

Set the Time and Date in Your Camcorder

You've probably already set the time and date in your camcorder, but if not, note that you may not be able to detect scenes unless you set it.

To enable scene detection during capture, do one of the following:

• Select the Scene Detect checkbox in the Capture panel (Figure 7).
  
  

  Figure 7. Enable scene detection by selecting the Scene Detect checkbox or clicking the Scene Detect button.

  

  
  
• Click the Scene Detect button in the Device controls beneath the capture preview window.