Sharknado 2 and Vashi’s Premiere Pro Editorial Workflow

PVC by Scott Simmons

You can use Adobe Premiere Pro CC to edit feature films. Sharknado 2's editor tells us how.

Sharks and tornados go together so well that Syfy is on their second round of Sharknado movies withSharknado 2: The Second One. This second coming of sharks and tornados was edited on Adobe Premiere Pro CC by Vashi Nedomansky (IMDB) as he shoehorned PPro into what has traditionally been a Final Cut Pro Classic workflow. I was curious as to how the process went (and feature film editing in general on tools other than the standards) so I sent over a list of questions that Vashi was kind enough to answer. Watch the mayhem on July 30 at 9/8c on Syfy.

SHARKNADO 2: The Post Production Workflow, A Q and A with Editor Vashi Nedomansky

Describe to us your hardware setup for editing Sharknado 2. What external monitoring options were you using? What video hardware for client viewing?

I edited SHARKNADO 2 at my home studio in Santa Monica. My main edit bay has a 12-core Mac Pro Tower with 32GB RAM. My storage for this project was an OWC Mercury Elite Pro Qx2 12TB RAID 5 system. I connected via eSata to a PCIe dual slot eSata card in the Mac Pro. For monitors I have a pair of 24” Apple Cinema displays that are on their last legs. Time to upgrade to a couple 30” displays for my next film! Editors can always use the additional real estate to key the eyes fresh and to get a better overall view of any project.

For my external monitoring and client viewing, my BlackMagic Mini Monitor card sends an HDMI signal out to a 46” Vizio LED TV hung above my edit station. I use this only for playback and not color correction…but it is calibrated and is an accurate representation of my source footage. Audio is routed through a pair of Edirol MA–15D stereo monitors and a Sony SA-W2500 active subwoofer that gives me all the thump and rumble I need. Lastly, my stock Apple keyboard w/keypad and a Logitech M310 mouse round out my set up. I’ve tried to edit with the Apple Magic Mouse and Magic Trackpad but need finer, micro moves are easier with a simple mouse and physical scroll wheel. read more...