To say that most editors are loyal to their editing platform is an understatement. I have come to believe that your average editor is convinced that the platform he or she uses is the best on the market. I could go so far as to say that competition between different editing platforms is arguably the most intense in the film and video industry. And with the rising clout of Apple’s Final Cut Pro vs. Mac Avid systems as Adobe makes its editing return to Mac (at least Intel Macs), it can be easily argued that the Mac platform currently has the most brutal editing war.
There was a time, long ago, when both FCP and Premiere could be purchased and used on the Mac, which was appropriate considering the same creation team was responsible for both of them. (After leaving Adobe, Premiere’s creation team birthed FCP at Macromedia, who later sold it to Apple when they decided to focus exclusively on web development. This is a rather ironic turn of events considering the fact that Adobe now owns Macromedia.) However, as Apple began to focus on marketing FCP , there was a falling out between Adobe and Apple, with Final Cut Pro staying an exclusively Mac editing package and Adobe’s Premiere becoming an exclusively PC editing package.
While I am a Mac person who is quite comfortable with FCP and Avid, I’ve been something of a black sheep in the Mac editing community, as I have chosen cross the platform lines in order to edit on a PC system with Premiere Pro. In the past, this caused derision from my editing peers who labeled me a platform “sellout.” However, now that Premiere Pro CS3 is available for Mac, I no longer have to leave the safety of my beloved PowerBook to do all my editing with Premiere Pro.
With that said, the question of Premiere Pro’s pedigree isn’t really just a platform issue, because there was a time when even PC folks were skeptical of Premiere Pro. Before it was rebirthed with new programming and the name of Premiere Pro, Premiere was a pretty limited editing program that tended to be reserved for hobbyists and those creating video for CDs and other multimedia use. After the recreation of the editing package with more professional features and options, folks began to take notice of Premiere Pro. While Premiere Pro 1 and 1.5 showcased where the software was heading, it wasn’t until the improved customizability of 2.0 and the integration into 2005’s Adobe Production Studio Premium that Premiere Pro truly came into its own and started to impress itself on many additional editors as a truly viable editing option.
Now with the release of Premiere Pro CS3, not only has Adobe added a few new features and made it available for Mac, but they have also cleverly bundled it in two impressive packages. For folks, who wish to buy just Premiere Pro CS3, they get the new Encore CS3 and the PC version of OnLocation CS3 (Mac users can run this software with Bootcamp or Parallels). For folks who want a total editing and post solution, they can get Premiere Pro, Encore, Onlocation CS3, and virtually every other Adobe production software package in the stunning and very affordable CS3: Production Premium package. With all these options and features Adobe is clearly sending the message that there’s never been a better time to consider converting to Premiere Pro.
This review will focus exclusively on Premiere Pro CS3, along with the included components of Encore CS3 and OnLocation CS3. (If you would like to see all the programs included with Premiere Pro CS3 in Adobe’s CS3: Production Premium , check out the combined review that I and writer Ryan Graham assisted editor Jeremy Hanke with.)
