Like many video editors, I cut my editing teeth on Apple’s Final Cut Pro. The interface was easy to use, it was a breeze to grasp the concept of nonlinear editing, and it was the only affordable alternative to Avid. I loved it. Really, I did.
Even after the release of Final Cut X, I continued my love for Final Cut Pro 7. “Save, Render, Save” became my ingrained OCD maxim; “Log and Capture,” an accepted praxis.
It became a well-established routine to work with Adobe Photoshop, After Effects, or a hired designer for graphic or text creation. Either that or use, gulp, Apple’s built in text editors. (Live Type, anyone?) Yeah, no thanks. Needless to say, I’m very content using Final Cut Pro.
So why make the switch to Adobe Premiere Pro*?
Here are 4 reasons:
No Up-Front Transcoding
Adobe Premiere Pro Creative Cloud (or CSSs 5 & 6) supports a multi-format timeline. Simply put, any format you shoot is immediately editable on the timeline. No need to transcode the footage up front. Note, though, the footage will be transcoded/encoded upon export. (Final Cut X, by the way, transcodes in the background while you work.)
Dynamic Link
Most of us in the industry have to use Adobe After Effects to complete our projects. Some of us render and export a cut, scene, or sequence to a motion graphics editor. Either way, going back and forth can be a pain. But thanks to Dynamic Link, we can link a Premiere Pro timeline with an After Effects composition. Changes made in either place are instantly updated. Check out this video for more information.
Warp Stabilizer
Got shaky footage? Well, you may need to stabilize it. It used to be that this was a painstaking, keyframing process in Adobe After Effects. Maybe you had to purchase a 3rd party plugin. Now in Premiere Pro CC, CS5, or CS6, you can take advantage of Adobe’ native warp stabilizer right from the Effects tab; and it does a really great job. No plug-in needed
Affordable
One of the great advantages of Final Cut Pro is that it’s affordable. But you do have to come up with the money up front. Further, if you’re in Final Cut X, you’ll have to purchase additional, necessary tools, like Compressor or Motion, separately. Still need Photoshop or After Effects? Those are a separate purchase as well. But In the case of Premiere Pro, you can download any Adobe creative software you’d like when you use Creative Cloud. It includes all the necessary software that I need, as well as those on my team. With shared cloud storage and fonts, our software is never outdated and always updated. Creative Cloud begins at a very low, monthly price. Interested? Check it out.
There are other great reasons to switch to Adobe Premiere Pro (native 64-bit support! Ingest and rough cut with Prelude!). But there may be some reasons to stay where you’re at. (I still keep Final Cut Pro 7 and Final Cut X on my computer.)
Editors: what do you use?
*goBRANDgo! or the author are not compensated in any way by Adobe.