by: Zakk DiSabatino

One of the pillars of a good video is the editor sitting behind the computer. That editor relies on his or her knowledge in the art of editing, but equally on their knowledge and the performance of the software they use. Professional editors seek out editing software that is powerful, and efficient. In the past the majority of editors have opted to use either Avid or Final Cut Pro 7, however in the last decade Adobe has amped up their editing software, Premiere Pro, and for many reasons it’s becoming the software of choice for many editors; myself included.

So why the spike in popularity? As mentioned, the top software for years had been Avid and Final Cut Pro 7. Premiere was around, but not exactly a frontrunner. On June 21st 2011, Final Cut X was released to the public to extremely disappointing reviews. It was missing many features that professional editors rely on day-to-day. Many editors initially felt that the software was useless, with Hollywood film editor Walter Murch stating “I can’t use this”. Those issues have since been addressed, but the damage was done. Editors felt betrayed by a software that they had relied on for years, and many looked for other options. Premiere had a similar look, feel, and features to Final Cut Pro 7, as well as its own set of additional tools that were unique from any other software on the market. For many editors the choice was obvious, and the product has only grown making Premiere an obvious choice now for people just getting into the craft, and professionals looking for a different ecosystem to work in.

In 2013 Premiere Pro joined Adobe’s Creative Cloud, which is an affordable cloud-based subscription service that allows access to Adobe’s entire creative suite including popular software such as: Photoshop, After Effects, and Illustrator. Having access to all of these programs means that more can be done in-house (such as graphic design, animation and compositing). These programs also work extremely well together, and have the exclusivity of Adobe’s dynamic link between software. This means for example that you can make a change to a dynamic linked animation in After Effects, and it will immediately update in your Premiere timeline. This saves time and space from the usual method of re-exporting the animation after every change, and having to replace it in the timeline.Along with dynamic link and affordability, another benefit of Adobe’s move to a subscription service is that they release updates every few weeks rather than every 12-18 months like other softwares. Sometimes these updates are minor bug/performance fixes, but they can often be larger things like adding new features to keep them at the top.

Premiere Pro has grown a lot in the last decade. It has become one of the top choices for both video and film editors alike. The ability to work dynamically with the rest of the creative suite which includes industry standard software is a huge benefit to any editor who also has tasks outside of cutting. With the frequent addition of new features and tools, as well as constant updates to performance and bugs, it’s no question that Premiere Pro is here to stay and I couldn’t be happier with my choice.