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3 things that Adobe needs to copy from Avid
(disclaimer – this is just a personal opinion piece, so feel free to disagree or share your take on it):
With the recent purchases and partnerships with automatic duck, it seems obvious that Adobe is hell bent on capitalizing on Apple’s FCPX blunder.
In my circles of television, however, Avid is eating up the gap that FCP7 has left. Don’t get me wrong – I like Avid. But I’m not too happy about a future where Avid once again enjoys a huge lead in the professional market. I want healthy competition. It’s ironic because I feel that Premiere Pro is finally entering an era where it truly has some edge.
I’m going to present some of the features (which are strictly opinion) that keep producers and editors running back to Avid, no matter what new bling Adobe throws into the next build of Premiere. There’s a few baseline features that somehow got left behind and it’s time they got some attention:
1) A Native Codec
Adobe prides itself on being “native everything” and probably spends a lot of time fine tuning this aspect of their software. However, what about graphic files? Animation? Stuff that’s rendered on a computer and not shot on a camera? What if studios want all of their finished edits in 1 codec, ensuring future compatibility and consistency? Apple has ProRes. Avid has DNxHD. Hell, even Grassvalley Edius has HQX. Adobe has? Maybe they should have also bought cineform before it was bought by GoPro.
2) A Better Timecode Generator
Television and Film productions need something much better than Adobe’s current timecode generator. What if you’re editing in 23.98p (non-drop timecode), but need to see the 29.97 drop-frame timecode equivalent? Premiere can’t do it, and it’s annoying as hell. Avid’s timecode generator not only allows you to see the equivalent timecode of multiple formats at the same time, it can also display things such as the filename of what’s on screen (or the audio filename of what’s being heard), and even the source timecode of that file too.
3) A “Secure Mode” of media management
Avid is trusted for large projects because everything, and that means everything, is always copied into the AvidMediaFiles/MXF folder (AMA exempted). Files are even automatically renamed to avoid collisions. Large productions don’t care so much for complex folder structures of their media. They just want know it’s there. Avid does that. Premiere’s flexibility with media is actually a disadvantage here, allowing too much diversion which stagnates a complex post-production workflow. Premiere should come with a such an option and, when turned on, every imported file is actually duplicated and placed into a designated folder, ensuring that every piece of media is always contained in that folder. No straggler files needed here!
In conclusion, Avid isn’t resting much either. They are undergoing aggressive beta testing of Media Composer 6 (their first 64bit rewrite) which is bound to once again make Premiere a less favorable option. If Adobe wants to truly capitalize on FCPX it needs to address these above issues before adding the next “gee wiz” feature.
Well.. at least that’s my opinion anyway…
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8 Replies
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I hope you’re posting this to the Adobe features request page:
https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/mmform/index.cfm?name=wishform
They do listen…
Joe Bourke
Owner/Creative Director
Bourke Media
http://www.bourkemedia.com -
I like this list! I have a huge list of hotkeys and other minor features that I’d like to see implemented, but this is some meaty stuff that could make a real difference! Please submit these to Adobe. Maybe they’ll hire you while you’re at it….
Ben Unguren
Motion Graphics & Editing
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Well, we know high-quality color correction is on the way, so there’s one gaping hole filled.
The way I see it, if Adobe adds THESE THREE features along with better multi-cam, something along the lines of PluralEyes, and the color-coded markers and sequences from FCP7, they’ll have a winner…
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“THAT’S our fail-safe point. Up until here, we still have enough track to stop the locomotive before it plunges into the ravine… But after this windmill it’s the future or bust.” -
In regards to #3, Premiere does have a rarely used feature called “Project Manager” under the Project menu. It consolidates by coping footage, preview, and conform files into one project location.
There are three inherent weaknesses:
1) It’s not automatic, it has to be manually run to consolidate everything. This isn’t bad on small projects that only need consolidation for archiving at the end.
2) Other than separating the preview and conform files, the Project Manager lumps all normal audio and video into one folder with the project file. It’s kind of a mess; I would at least like to see Premiere respect any folder structure in the Media Bin if you work in an organized manner.
3) After Effects and Audition need this feature as well for it to be truly useful.
It is, however, better than nothing.
– Angelo Lorenzo
– https://FilmsFor.Us Sell your film and connect with your audience -
Angelo –
I don’t know about Audition, but After Effects has had this feature for years, called “Collect Files”. I don’t know whether you get the Creative Cow Magazine, but in the July/August 2011 issue I wrote an article titled Managing Broadcast Assets with Adobe Bridge, which talks not only about Bridge, but also about setting up a naming system so that multiple users can access it, and find files quickly, as well as using the Project Manager and the Collect Files features.
I used the Collect Files feature in AE on every project, and it enabled our graphics department to quickly move projects around to work on in different shifts. While there aren’t quite as many options to Collect Files as there are in PPro’s Project Manager, it does the job quite well.
Joe Bourke
Owner/Creative Director
Bourke Media
http://www.bourkemedia.com -
Joe –
Thanks for the answer, I wasn’t aware that After Effects uses a similar consolidation function.
It does raise the issue though, since Premiere, AE, and Audition all dynamically link it would be a good feature suggestion to have some dedicated consolidation feature that moved all three programs at once (maybe built into Bridge) so there would be no re-linking needed if all three shifted around.
I tend not to have this issue as myself and my editing partner use a good DAM file/folder system, but it would be nice to make it more brainless.
– Angelo Lorenzo
– https://FilmsFor.Us Sell your film and connect with your audience -
Great list Daniel. Hope Adobe implements all of these (and more!) for CS6.
My spidey-sense is tingling in how good of a release Premiere CS6 might turn into.
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