Batch Rename DSLR Footage for Premiere Pro with Adobe Bridge

Screenlight by Richard Keating

Premiere Pro's ability to work with native formats is a real time saver. Indeed, for any editor who has spent long hours Logging & Transferring footage into Final Cut Pro, it's almost miraculous. But there are some down sides to the Premiere Pro native workflow, particularly when it comes to working with DSLR footage. Despite the time factor, the FCP Log & Transfer process gave you the ability to do two essential things:

1. Add timecode
2. Rename files as they are Logged & Transfered

The first is important because DSLR footage is not stamped with sequential timecode across multiple clips. That is to say, each clip starts at 00:00:00:00. This can be a real pain if you have to make a timecoded screener for a producer or client. Unfortunately, Premiere Pro as of yet has no way of adding sequential timecode to a series of clips. This is a real drag and one of my only significant beefs with the application. I hope that Adobe adds this capability to a future version of the application.

Renaming DSLR raw files, however, is relatively easy with the help of Adobe Bridge. Why rename your DSLR files? DSLR file names are sequential and unique to a particular card, but not across multiple cards. If you have worked with DSLR footage over several projects, chances are you have a dozen files with the same name. For example, a quick search for the file named "MVI_1403.mov" yielded these results:

If you are searching for offline files for a particular project, things can easily become confusing. Enter Adobe Bridge. If you are like me, chances are you have not fully realized the usefulness of Adobe Bridge as a media management tool. I am slowly coming to realize its full potential and will report back in the future as I learn more. In the meantime, Adobe Bridge's Batch Rename function is perfect for quickly and easily renaming your DSLR files. read more...