HOW TO EXPORT A 4K FEATURE FILM and 4K CONTENT in General
This tutorial is for premiere pro CC (specifically 2018) and it is an aide to help computers like mine which are a bit older now process 4K feature film exports efficiently.
My Mac Specification:
iMac 21.5 inch Late 2013
2.7GHz Intel Core i5
8GB Ram 1600 MHz DDR3
Intel Iris Pro 1536 MB
When exporting 4K from Premiere Pro CC it is easy to find 10 answers on the best way to go. The problem of exporting a feature film that was shot and edited in 4K or bigger is the length and the density of the files. I was attempting to export our 4k feature film SUNSET and get it down to under 5GB for a Vimeo upload, this appears to be where the problem lies (in the small delivery file size required) and here is the different ways I learned you can go. One option gets you nicely compressed 4K, another option is less compressed 4K for a slow export and more details and the other gets you 4K files but compressed well in to an HD file making upload easier to Vimeo and Youtube.
1) FAST 4K EXPORT
TO EXPORT an 80 minute feature film in 4K at about a 6GB File Size:
*Used to export feature film project "HOW DARK THEY PREY." This took about 24 hours to export only which is very fast for 4K! Excellent Quality
H.264 High Profile
VBR 2 pass
10 mb/s with 20mb max
*Did not check RENDER AT MAXIMUM LEVEL
*Did not check RENDER AT MAXIMUM QUALITY
This was my source:
2) SLOWER 4K EXPORT FOR MORE DETAILS/LARGER FILE
TO SLOWLY EXPORT an 80 minute feature film in 4K at about a 23GB File Size:
So this will not get us under our 5GB limit but this is the best 4K compressed options
H.264
4K or 4,096 w by 2,160 h
2 Pass VBR
Target Bit Rate 40
Maximum Bit Rate 60
Check the box for Maximum Render Quality and Maximum Depth
3) FAST HD EXPORT!
To Export an 80 minute feature film in HD at about a 4.7 GB File Size:
Not 4K but a quick and dirty way to get the heavy 4K data, which will still look fantastic, onto youtube/vimeo in HD quality.
H.264
HD or 1920 w by 1080 h
1 Pass VBR
Target Bit Rate 8
Check the box for Maximum Render Quality and Maximum Depth
Here is some other links from the sources that were researched and helpful on this topic:
you can probably skip the part on the sequence settings as your sequence is more then likely set to the ranges you need, or to MATCH THE SOURCE