Chris Fenwick is a colleague of mine and has been for quite a while in the San Francisco Bay Area. Chris has been involved in the post-production community since the 80?s so he’s been around the block a few times. He’s also well known in the Final Cut Pro community and has given impassioned lectures about non-linear editing workflow at FCP users groups.
To my surprise, Chris has recently become a “switcher“. That is, someone who formerly used another editing tool and has made the decision to switch to Premiere Pro CS5. Lately, he’s been working with a ton of DSLR footage and the workflow for editing it in Final Cut Pro is too painful. Chris simply doesn’t have the time to transcode his footage just to start working on a project. Chris’ reasoning is that Premiere Pro CS5 provides tools to get his job done more quickly and smoothly than Final Cut Pro can.
Chris has recently released a series of videos about the switching process on his website. Although he can be a bit brash in talking about its quirks, I think that Chris gives a very honest assessment of the tools and features found in Premiere Pro CS5. Check out Chris’ website and look at the left hand column for links to all the videos and commentary. If you’re a switcher too, I think you’ll find the videos valuable. By the way, you can also follow Chris on Twitter.
Are you thinking about switching too? We’ve posted a web page for switchers on Adobe.com. There are a bunch of resources to help you with the transition.
Got a switcher story to share? Let us know!