An anal-retentive FCP switcher’s notes on Premiere Pro

[Mark Palmos]

[Tim Kolb] “Yes…some of us did choose Premiere Pro back when FCP was still an actual option… We don’t wish the application to become FCP.”

Hi Tim,

IMO that’s a bit of a cheap shot. I have heard that comment many times, and almost always by people who were used to working on Avid… its a way to silence the comments by undermining them.

I sincerely hope that Premiere Pro gets it’s act together regarding these basic aspects of editing. We talk about “intuition” and of course what we mean is that something behaves as we would expect, which is generally based on past experience.

Long before NLEditing, ctrl-c was a command to copy. It seems bizarre to me that an editing programme does not have a command to copy a range marked by IO points. Similarly, to delete. There is no command in PP to delete an area between IO points… staggering, I know, but true.

I wonder if there ever was an evaluation of the cut commands in PP, that when selecting clips by mouse you choose ctrl-x and if selecting by IO range you use lift or extract. I would be very surprised if there is a solid explanation as to why it is the way it is at the moment. Surely if you are cutting pasting copying deleting, you do that to achieve the same purpose regardless of the way you select the clips. Ive never heard a rationalisation that even comes close to justifying the current way of having different commands for performing the same function. If you know one, I would love to hear it.

A lot of my editing is basic cut copy paste delete, and this is why these two issues, track targetting and editing commands really drive me nuts.

Thanks for the interesting chat, cheers, Mark.

[Tim Kolb]

[Mark Palmos] “IMO that’s a bit of a cheap shot. I have heard that comment many times, and almost always by people who were used to working on Avid… its a way to silence the comments by undermining them.”

Keep in mind what else I said in that post…it’s based on what I’ve seen happen to-date…and I bailed on Avid early on and came to Premiere from Media 100 in excess of a decade ago.

I happen to agree with the idea that the timeline functionality has too many different “select” and “target” metaphors all working over the top of each other. I’ve noted that myself.

My point was that Avid users have already had some influence…and that did not change functionality as much as simply tack more on…

Adobe is trying to give editors what they’re looking for in the professional world, but there are as many preferred ways of working as there are editors.

Personally, I’d like to see the timeline operational metaphors streamlined and optimized, which does not mean a -complete- mimic of Avid, Apple, or anyone else IMO, though I’m certainly in favor of using what works best, whoever invented the concept…

…but simple aggregation of features like this creates what we have currently…in/out for some functions, work area for others, multiple select for others…insert/copy/extract/cut/copy/duplicate/track focus/track target…lots of options I guess…

…no disrespect or “shot” intended in my post, cheap or otherwise.

TimK,
Director, Consultant
Kolb Productions,

Adobe Certified Instructor

[Mark Palmos]

[Tim Kolb] “…but simple aggregation of features like this creates what we have currently…in/out for some functions, work area for others, multiple select for others…insert/copy/extract/cut/copy/duplicate/track focus/track target…lots of options I guess…

…no disrespect or “shot” intended in my post, cheap or otherwise”

Hi Tim,
After discreet edit, I moved to CS2 and then CS3 before FCS2, so I am not simply an fcp user wanting things to be familiar…

What I would propose is PP cuts/copies/deletes what was selected last to be cut/copied/deleted – that OR as with FCP, the common command will work on IO points unless clips have been click selected, they would then take priority. For me the speed advantage of unifying these would far overweigh the uber-rare occasion I would want to have clips click-seleted while simultaneously wanting to delete/cut/copy an IO range.

no probs on the perceived shot,
cheers, Mark

[Tim Kolb]

[Mark Palmos] ” For me the speed advantage of unifying these would far overweigh the uber-rare occasion I would want to have clips click-seleted while simultaneously wanting to delete/cut/copy an IO range.”

I think many of us think similar things…but I suspect Adobe’s challenge is just ‘how’ to unify it all…somebody will feel at home, somebody will find it unnatural.

I can tell you Adobe is working with a focus on Premiere Pro that seems more intense than I’ve ever seen before.

…I guess we’ll see what arrives.

TimK,
Director, Consultant
Kolb Productions,

Adobe Certified Instructor

[Jon Barrie]

I gotta say as a fcp user for 10+ years and now part of the Adobe Team that I really feel this is a great feature to add. I will keep pushing that this be implemented but I can’t promise when. We classify something like this as JDI, Just Do It. It’s about workflow and I totally see the speed and creative options with this implementation.

Keep providing feedback! 🙂

We can only improve the functionality from these kinds of productive conversations. So long as emotions stay out of great ideas we can collaborate to make the best NLE. Period.

JB

Jon Barrie
Adobe Video Solutions Consultant ANZ
Jon’s YouTube Tutorial Page
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