This is the first in a series of guides on Premiere Pro. Up until now I had been an avid Final Cut Pro user and always considered Adobe Premiere Pro to not quite be a professional standard editing platform. Perhaps my judgement was unfounded as I had only limited experience using the editing software but my new job meant that this would my new primary edit suite. Armed with a Mac Pro Dual Quadcore I got stuck in and once I got started I found many pros and cons with the platform, this is what I noted down as I made the change.
First let me touch on what I consider to be the main pros and cons of the software’s. For me premiere pro biggest asset is it’s seamless integration with the other adobe products. I have cs4 and in this most of the niggles associated with bringing unrendered files such as psd’s and aep’s has been ironed out. A hefty after effects file will slow down the display of an image in the preview pane but if you can live with this the time saving benefits are worth it. The other major time saver is the ability to drag and drop differing video formats to your project, place them in the timeline and not have to convert the video to the projects native video format or even render it out before previewing. Adobe has not seemed to complete the cross program synergy though at a crucial point. As you come to export your final piece premiere passes the project adobe media (the program we used to use merely to encode our flv’s. Unfortunately exporting a video file to full quality pal DV produces poor results especially for projects with text titling and linear shapes and effects created within premiere pro (more on this in a later post). Final cut on the other hand outputs perfect quality video.
Windows and Mac – There are some differences between the windows and mac versions of Premiere Pro that you should be aware of. Firstly when capturing video the files are saved as the operating systems preferred video. Mac saves as .mov and Windows saves as .avi. If you are hoping to export your files to be used directly in a Powerpoint Presentation on a Mac then you will struggle, there is no export to WMV option as there is in the windows version and the Mpeg formats are not supported in powerpoint. I shall write a separate detailed blog on my workarounds in this area.
Quicktime – I believe it is a necessity to have Quicktime Pro installed on your computer to save frustration with Adobes video Exports. I tend to export to the highest quality possible in Premiere and then re export them for purpose using quicktime. A bit long winded but I don’t have to do this for every export, as I mentioned it often depends on the graphical content of the video.
Making the change – There are a couple of pointers that will save you some time. With regards to making cuts in the timeline, unlike FCP there is no button for toggling the linkage between video and audio off and on, instead hold down the alt key as you make the cut or drag the clip around the timeline independently from the sound. Also another major difference is the ability to edit sound in the timeline by simply adding pushpins. For those familiar with After effects they will have no issues, simply click on the effects tab next to the source tab 
and drop down the volume control menu followed by the level dropdown, place your scrubber in the timeline where you wish to begin the effects on the sound and click the stopwatch icon
this adds a keyframe and indicates the beginning of your change. Scrub along to where you wish the loudest or quietest point to be and add another keyframe. While the small triangle is black adjust your volume you should see the volume level in the effects pane reflect your changes. This is a skill you can also apply to motion and scale changes over time, and can also be useful in getting your head around the motion graphics program After effects. Any static graphical elements to your projects I would fully recommend building in Photoshop to the exact dimensions as your project and not resizing in premiere pro. These are the main things that I had to go looking for as most other differences were pretty intuitive or even the same as in Final Cut Pro. I’m sure there’s more I haven’t discussed so just ask in the comments box below.
As I write, I have decided to break this subject down into separate blog posts and go into greater detail.
- Setting up a Project, Device and Folder system in Premiere Pro.
- Exporting Video and preparing it for Powerpoint Presentations. (Workaround)
- Issues, Observations and Top Tips for using Adobe Media Encoder.
OSX does not have the regular start menu you see in Windows. We navigate the file system and programs using the Finder. Finder is the equivalent of Windows Explorer, by double clicking on the Macintosh HD on the top right corner of the desktop you open a finder window. Here you will find all files and folders including all programs. By clicking on the apple in the top left corner you will see your recent documents and files. Programs are opened using the Dock across the bottom of the screen or in the application (Finder) folder.
To quickly launch your programs the Dock can be set up to include “shortcuts” or using Mac’s naming convention “aliases”. It is possible to drag and drop your applications from the application folder to the dock in order to create these aliases.
Close (Red) – Closing the window only closes the window and not the program. The program will still be running in the background. Programs that are running are shown with a highlighted with dot under the application icon on the dock.
The camera end of the firewire 400 lead. Although most cameras have USB connections the firewire lead allows for faster data transfers capable of real time playback on the computer as you view and capture footage.
