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Filed under: *VIDEO* •Apple •GentryMedia Sister Sites •Mac Coalition •ProVideo Coalition •Post Production •Software •

Can a professional really use Premiere Elements 10?

I first wrote about Premiere Elements back when version 9 was first released for the Mac. At that point, I received an NFR (Not For Resale) copy from Adobe but was so concerned about its lack of direct support for PsF in AVCHD that I delayed writing about it again while I exchanged e-mails with the Premiere Elements team. In the meantime, I kept myself quite busy covering other topics, and earlier this week, I published chapter 9 in the PsF’s missing workflow about how to get around Premiere Elements’ current lack of direct support for PsF in AVCHD, and even direct support for native 23.976p (“24p”) in AVCHD. In this article, I answer a logical question: Can a professional really use Premiere Elements? This sub-US$100 program is available for Mac or Windows. Here are the answers.

Tests and observations made for this article

The observations and tests made for this article were done using the Mac version of Adobe Premiere Elements 10. To my knowledge, all observations would be identical with the Windows version, except when noted.

Features that are surprisingly present in Premiere Elements 10

Adobe Premiere Elements 10 costs under US$100. Depending upon where and how you purchase it, it can cost substantially less than US$100. Obviously, it is a much lower priced version of Premiere than Premiere Pro CS5.5, at a fraction of the cost. I was happily surprised to see that Premiere Elements 10 includes:

• 32-bit processing (Selectable in Edit>Project Settings>Video Render>Maximum Bit Depth)
• Conform capability (i.e. to conform a 59.94p clip to 29.97p for 2x “natural” slow motion, or to 23.976p for 2.5x “natural” slow motion. In the project bin, select the clip, right click, Interpret Footage>Assume this frame rate).
• Slow motion (“artificial”) with optional audio pitch correction
• Character generator with animation
• Title Safe Area indication and Action Safe Area indication
• Easy chroma key
• Easy Ken Burns’ effect with face detection, together with manual programability
• AutoTone & Vibrations color correction which uses face detection and an algorithm that automatically emphasizes chroma in faces without affecting skin tone
• Optional Three Way Color Corrector for manual use
• Automatic stabilizer (which in Premiere Pro CS5.5 requires the presence of After Effects)
• Optional automatic audio ducking, similar to the one in GarageBand
• Auto edit on the beat
• Standard and exotic transitions and special effects
• Motion tracking capabilities to add graphics, text, and effects that automatically follow the subjects in scenes (or manually keyframable)
• Authoring with motion menus for Blu-ray disk, video DVD disk, and web DVD (see the caveats I pointed out in PsF’s missing workflow, part 9: Premiere Elements)
• Royalty music from SmartSound (not included in the version of Premiere Elements 10 sold by the Mac App Store)
• The Elements Organizer, which is a cataloging feature which reminds me of the one in Final Cut Pro X (not included in the version of Premiere Elements 10 sold by the Mac App Store)

On page 2 of this article…

• Features that are missing from Premiere Elements 10 that a pro might want or need
• What’s a professional anyway?
• The role of scopes (waveform and vectorscope)
• How the AB linear editing systems of the past influence our views on “professional” video editing today
• The role of a professional i/o from AJA, Blackmagic, Matrox, or MOTU
• Conclusions

Click here for page 2 of this article…

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