The Editblog on PVC by Scott Simmons

This probably isn’t the usual article on a piece of non-linear editing software. There will be no discussion of professional workflows and how it’s used to create broadcast television or feature films. But rather it’s a discussion of how a modest beginning, dabbling with a new piece of software and one of its signature features has grown into more than just a passing curiosity. It’s also about how that single feature drew me in to Premiere Pro CS5 and how that feature is helping keep the peace at home.

If you’re a working editor / post-production professional then you probably have a basic toolset that you use to make money. It may consist of just a single NLE or that single NLE and a composting / motion graphics application. There’s probably some plug-ins involved that help get the job done as well as an audio editor, color grading and compression or DVD authoring tool. That’s a basic suite of post tools that can get an entire edit done if you’re staying in the same box.

As editors we often get comfortable with our tools and don’t see a reason to change. Often upgrades aren’t installed or an entirely different, new and promising software package isn’t tried because it means learning something new and moving out of a comfort zone. There’s something to be said for the muscle memory that can only come from years working on the same tool and that muscle memory is often totally gone when working on a new NLE. Often upgrades and new versions might be a buggy mess causing the editor to have to revert to an earlier install to get things done. Some editors won’t upgrade until they are forced to.

I’m not one of those people. I love new tools and updates. I especially love major upgrades to my editing tools as more often than not, those upgrades add improved functionality, speed, bug fixes and workflow improvements that (hopefully) makes life easier and editing faster. I have no deep loyalty to a single company or software package as I want to use the best tool for me and for the job. My only loyalty comes in the form of a platform as I’m a Macintosh user. I’ll take the elegance and simplicity of the Mac os over a Windows offering any day. The higher cost is a price I’m willing to pay. read more...