As I have mentioned on here before, I started editing video in high school using Adobe Premiere 6.0. After graduating, I switched to Vegas Pro, which I have used since since version 4. For nine years, I’ve been a Vegas cutter, but recently, with the amount of effects work my projects have been involving, it made sense to start using Premiere again for editing. The reason is that getting your cut into After Effects from Premiere is as simple as copy and paste.
Also recently, I’ve taken on the producer role for Twinkle Adams’ first feature, “Run”. Since she hasn’t directed before, I went back to Spokane this last weekend to shoot a trailer for the film. Aside from giving her experience and me the fun of filming (I live for this), I thought it would also be a good opportunity to get better acquainted with Premiere CS6. The goal I have set for myself is to only use Adobe products to complete the trailer (with the exception of ADR, for which I used Vegas Pro 11). I just finished locking picture, the grade and effects. So far, the transition to CS6 has been relatively simple. Editing is editing, you just have to learn the nuances of each software.
Coming from Vegas, the first thing I did was customize my workspace and shortcuts, the most important switching “CRTL K” to “S”. After nine years of S to split a clip, that’s a habit I won’t break.

Another thing I tried, but probably won’t be doing again, is editing in 2.40, rather than 16:9. Shooting with Magic Lantern, I had cropmarks that showed me what my final frame would be. Unfortunately, the way Premiere works, when you stick 1920×1080 footage into a 1920×800 sequence, it wants to render it before it’ll play. So while I was able to edit in it’s final aspect ratio, the rendering wasn’t worth it. At first, the shots were playing back just fine without rendering, but once I had over 30 seconds of footage on the timeline, things got slow. On the plus side, once they were rendered, they played just fine.
At the moment, After Effects is rendering the effects and grade, so I can’t do too much on the laptop right now, but when it’s done I’ll be starting on the audio. This will probably be the most painful part for me coming from Vegas. Vegas was created as an audio editor, and it’s tool set and ease of use for audio editing is so far unmatched in my book. You can bet that I’ll be adding to this post once I finish that phase.
**EDIT**
I finished the final sound mix last night. What I found is that you really need a dual monitor setup to do any sort of serious mixing in Premiere. Fortunately I had another monitor to hook up to my laptop so the film was on my large screen and my laptop screen became my mixing console. I really liked the automation controls where I could move the faders to control levels and they were “recorded”. I’ve seen videos where if you’re using a physical mixing board with motorized faders, they’ll respond according to the automation. Pretty cool. When I initially installed the CS6 suite on this laptop, I didn’t install Audition, thinking I’d never use it. However, after watching some videos today on what it offers (Spectral Analyzing, for one) I’ve decided to learn Audition. To practice, I’m planning on undoing all my mix work from Premiere and redo in Audition and see how that feels.
I never thought I’d say this, but Adobe, you got me. The ease in which AE, Photoshop and Audition play with Premiere has finally convinced me. Your tools have reached the point where I’m willing to take them seriously. I’ve even removed Vegas from my taskbar. I’m not ready just yet to fly without Vegas on the system, but I have a feeling I’m getting close. My transition from the Vegas/AE combo to the CS6 suite is a great example of my progressive filmmaking philosophy. If the tools work for me the way I need to use them, then I don’t care who makes it. I think to be a good independent today, you need to be progressive, always analyzing your workflow, always asking yourself, “What can I be doing better?”. For me, making a complete switch to CS6 seems like the right choice.