There is a line in the sand when it comes to video editing programs in the video world: professional and consumer. And magazines that review editing software tend to only review pieces of software that apply to one of those fields, rarely both. Magazines like DV or Millimeter will look at pro software whereas websites who’s mascot is a bullfrog and who talk about their son’s little league baseball video will look at consumer software. (The last point is a slight exaggeration, but you get the idea.)
As microfilmmakers, we’ll use whatever tools we can afford. And, for many of us, when we first start down the path of filmmaking, we can’t afford to shell out $700-$1000 on editing software, no matter how good an investment it is. As such, we thought it would be really helpful if we looked at some of the consumer offerings of companies like Adobe, and reviewed them. Because we also review pro editing software, like Adobe’s Premiere Pro 2 and Sony Vegas 7, you can see how these packages stack up against the pro packages and how likely you are to be able to edit your film with them. That way, you’ll know what you lose and whether the loss of it is that big a deal in your first package.
The first package we’re looking at is the new Premiere Elements 3.0. Designed to fill the consumer niche for video programs that Photoshop Elements does for photo editing programs, I was pleasantly surprised to see how much of the functionality of Premiere Pro 2.0 that Elements 3.0 actually retains.
In fact, to my shock, it’ll even let you use all the plug-ins you can use from Premiere Pro. I personally loaded Knoll Light Factory, Bias Soundsoap VST, Magic Bullet Editors, Red Giant’s Instant 3D, and 2d3’s SteadyMove Pro and they all worked perfectly. While putting a $500 plug-in on a $100 editing program is sort of like fitting a handgun with a sniper scope, it’s nice to know that, if you start with the less expensive editing program, then any plugins you buy are forward compatible with Premiere Pro when you eventually upgrade!
With that said, let’s break it down.
Ease of Use
When it first came out, Premiere Elements actually got some grief for having too professional a look to it, which discouraged consumers from using it. Luckily, Elements 3.0 hasn’t watered down the more powerful features it’s had in the past, but it now has added a “Sceneline” option, which is a much easier way to piece together movies, especially for new filmmakers and consumers. The Sceneline looks like a storyboard and allows you to lay out each clip as a single still image with transitions between them. (It actually looks fairly similar to early versions of Premiere Standard.) You can double click on each clip to open them in the preview window and adjust the overall length, or you go into the more professional timeline view and adjust it there. The timeline is easy to use for both new users and for folks familiar with more expensive editing suites. Aside from getting a bit confused by a different location for the zoom tool for the timeline than the one on Premiere Pro 2, I found utilizing the timeline editor to be remarkably similar to PP2. Many of the keyboard commands were even the same.
