Today I threw random media into Premiere Pro and exported it in the Apple Pro Res 422 HQ format.
I got the sense as I did this that I had been prepared somewhat for this by previous experience – that awful day where my videos got exported in Virtual Reality for NO REASON did, admittedly, get me familiar with the nuance of the Media Encoder.
I made the sequence in 4k resolution. Once in the Encoder, I saw all the Apple file types. It exported – PROBLEM. It exported as a .mfx file, which my computer didn’t want to play.
Solution? I went onto the app store and found a “DVD Player” app that claimed to play all these files. Against all odds, I could then successfully open and view the video on that app. So I know how to export in the file type they want now! This is a big step!
Problem: I wasn’t sure how to export transparent video, but I was almost offered this solution by the brief: the BBC suggested saving anything with an alpha channel as a Pro Res 4444 (with Alpha). I ran a few quick tests saving a transparent video in this format, and lo and behold, I can reintegrate this into Pro and it WORKS. This is huge.
This now means I can work with multiple moving assets at once as layers, whereas up to this point I’ve only been able to import transparent images as frames.
If I keep jumping hurdles like this, soon my biggest problem to solve will be what I’m gonna wear to that Banquet.
Below is a little visual reference full of assets and angles I can use as backgrounds.
SEASIDE ILLUSTRATION 