In a recent blog, we told you about Adobe After Effects and its various uses—mainly with regards to motion graphics. Today we will be exploring the more straightforward editing software known as Premiere. While it can also do motion graphics, it really excels in editing. Premiere is a monster editing workhorse disguised in a fairly user friendly interface. Users familiar with other programs such as iMovie or Final Cut Pro will discover a similar “timeline” feature for editing, and many of the same intuitive controls. Here, we’re going to do a deep dive on this program and its main features, as well as some pros and cons.
Adobe Premiere features a standard basic assembly view of all your tools in the program. You can easily navigate between editing, coloring, effects, and audio panels, all with a few clicks. The non-linear format of the timeline is part of what gives Premiere its charm—making it a breeze to edit clips, even as you’re watching them. One of my personal favorite features is the multi-cam rolling edit, which allows you to watch multiple sources at once, and seamlessly edit between each of the angles on the fly. This makes editing interviews, or concert footage very simple and ergonomic, and once you memorize certain keyboard shortcuts, you’ll find yourself working faster than ever. Another good feature is Lumetri Color, which offers in-depth coloring options that previously were only available by using After Effects or other programs. The beauty of Premiere these days is that it can be a one stop shop, especially for mid-level to professional videos. And with recent updates you can edit VR and 360 video, which is becoming increasingly common for lifestyle bloggers, advertisers, and video game makers alike.
As with any product in the Adobe Suite, it can be quite pricey, but once you buy a license for the Suite, it’s well worth the money. Students and enterprises can even consider buying Creative Cloud, which in addition to a powerful cloud sharing service, offers a subscription based model per user, which is usually more affordable for students or novices. However, it’s crucial that you stay up to date with new versions and updates to the programs, because Adobe is always improving their products and in order for them to run well you need to have the most recent software versions.
One thing that some users may find when they crack open Premiere on their laptop for the first time, is that it may run fairly slowly and take quite a bit of time to import and render files. One of the pitfalls of pretty all of Adobe’s programs is that due to their heft, the computers requited to run these programs often need to be quite robust in terms of processors and graphic cards. For professionals and veterans, this is something that is a constant problem, so they’ve likely got powerful enough computers to handle the program(s). Especially for us here at the studio, shooting in 4K RAW means we need workhorse computers that can efficiently handle the immense file sizes. For more newbie editors and filmmakers, you may want to invest in a nicer computer with more processing power and a better graphics card—it will save you time and streamline your workflow.
If you’re an avid iMovie user and are considering switching to a sturdier program, Adobe Premiere should be your first choice. If you’re unfamiliar with the program, make sure and watch some YouTube tutorials to help familiarize yourself with the basic layout and tools. If you want to take the extra step, you can even hire an Adobe specialist to come to your work or class and give a course on the entire suite, with a certification test at the end.
Overall, Premiere is an industry standard for a reason. Check out Adobe’s website if you wish to download the software or learn more about it: https://www.adobe.com/products/premiere.html?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIr56tosSD3QIVA7jACh12QQSsEAAYASAAEgL3K_D_BwE&sdid=KKQOM&mv=search&s_kwcid=AL!3085!3!277670925519!e!!g!!adobe%20premiere%20download&ef_id=WvHMEQAACIv0hMND:20180823155359:s
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