The Adobe Film Editing Suite is Sweet

Adobe has a remarkable suite of powerful video editing apps including Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe After Effects, Adobe Audition, Adobe Prelude and Adobe Character Animator as well as Adobe Photoshop. Adobe Premiere Pro is a non linear video editing program designed to work on both Macs and PCs. Back in the days of analog, editing was a linear process where video or film was edited in sequence from start to finish. With the advent of computers, non linear editing was created. This allowed editors to insert or delete scenes from the edit master without recopying. Previously, the editor either had to start from scratch or dub things down a generation when an insertion or deletion was required. Additionally, since all editing in a non linear system is essentially a series of commands, the originals are never altered during the editing process.

Adobe Premiere Pro is an industry standard (Apple’s Final Cut Pro and Avid’s Media Composer are other options used in the film industry) film editor and has a variety of features, one of which is being able to interface with other Adobe products. Editing is done using a timeline—which is a sequence of clips. Video and film are displayed on separate tracks, and there are as many tracks available as you need. You can add video and film transitions as well as titles. Once you have your final sequences edited to your desires, you can then output the final result in a number of different formats.

The beauty of working with Adobe Premiere Pro is its integration with Adobe After Effects for motion graphics, Adobe Audition for film and Adobe Photoshop for creating precise mattes and other graphics. Additional Adobe products than can be integrated with Adobe Premiere include Adobe Prelude (for logging and rough cuts), and Adobe Character Animator (for animations). In addition to traditional video, Adobe products can work with 360° and Virtual Reality video and can even work with 3D footage. Current versions of the Adobe film editing suite of software are cloud based, which makes collaboration with directors and other editors easy. Additionally, there are numerous plugins and templates available for all of the Adobe products to create even more elaborate special effects and transitions.

The power and versatility of the Adobe editing suite cannot be overstated. Simply put, they allow you to do virtually anything editing-wise that Industrial Light & Magic can do. However, it must be pointed out that there is a steep learning curve to unlocking all the features available to you. For those of you who use filters on social media apps to create visual effects, do not expect the same degree of user friendliness when it comes to using Adobe products. However, if you are looking to become a professional editor, Adobe Premiere Pro and Adobe After Effects expertise are a prerequisite.

There are numerous online tutorials, forums and FAQs that can help you get started and at least familiarize yourself with the basics. The best way to take the next step in the learning curve is to work with a professional editor who uses the Adobe editing suite. They will start with the basics: labeling and organizing your media sources, setting up sequences in your timeline, transitions, film sweetening, work flow and exporting your completed work. Then they will get you up to speed with visual effects basics: titling, green screen, basic animation, mattes, compositing, bullet time and simple CGI. Finally, they will teach you advanced visual effects, collaborating with other editors and directors, and final export formats and uses. In short, working and learning from a professional editor will end up with you being able to create just about any effect your mind can conceive.

We’ve devoted this article to the technical side of the Adobe editing suite software. To become an accomplished film editor you also need to learn how to tell a story with your editing. This means knowing which scenes to use, when to cut a scene, when to use a close up or a wide shot, how pacing plays an integral role in storytelling, etc. The Film Connection Editing Program is a great way to hook up with a professional editor and learn at their side while simultaneously learning the art of storytelling.